During the latest edition of WWE’s “The Bump”, The Undertaker commented on being able to keep his character fresh for so long, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On the Undertaker character taking off so fast: “It took off fairly fast and then, within less than a year, people just really were drawn to it. I’ll never forget, it was Survivor Series in Detroit, I was wrestling Hogan for the title, and I came out and it was about 60-40, and I was a little bit taken back. I was like, ‘Oh, wow, this is going to be awkward.’ But it was just kind of the start because people were just so drawn because the character was so different.”
On how he would go and talk to Vince when he felt like the Undertaker character was getting stale: “Fortunately for me, I’ve been able to keep my finger on the pulse of the character. When I felt like it was starting to get stale, I’d go and talk to Vince and say, ‘Look, I think we need to tweak this here,’ ya know, you can’t continue to do the same thing. Even back then, there was way too much content and if you don’t have your finger on the pulse of what your audience, like if I’m feeling stale, then I know my audience is probably starting to feel it too.”
On how the American Badass character wouldn’t have worked prior to the Attitude Era: “If I had to change from the old school Undertaker into the American Badass during the Undertaker era, I don’t think it would have made it. Because I was too shackled inside the gimmick for everything else that was going on. Obviously if you studied the Attitude Era, you know it was a free for all. Everything was out there and I would have really struggled, I think, trying to keep that character wholesome within that time period. So I kept elements of the Undertaker in the American Badass, and then it helped me to come back to it after the fact, but I don’t think if I hadn’t of changed it, it would have been, I don’t think, we probably wouldn’t be sitting here now talking about it.”
On how he felt more nervous right before the debut of the American Badass character than he did before the Undertaker debut in 1990: “As I’m sitting back there at that PPV, behind the curtain, sitting on that motorcycle, to say I was a little nervous would be an understatement. I was probably more nervous here then I did when I made my debut in 1990, because I had already been there 10 years, and completely changing the character the way I did, you just don’t know how they’re gonna take it.”
On how mixing elements from the Undertaker and American Badass has allowed him to stay fresh: “Fortunately it worked out and that character change kind of, obviously it made me relevant all the way through the Attitude Era, and then it gave me something to go back to when we switched back to the character and from that point, I retained some of the stuff that I did as American Badass, so I had all these different elements and was able to keep the character fresh.”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
