The Undertaker has been making news recently, with ‘The Dead Man’ taking bookings outside of WWE as well as his involvement with the upcoming Starrcast II event.
During a recent episode of Something To Wrestle With Bruce Prichard — who has recently returned to WWE — Prichard talked about The Undertaker. He spoke about ‘The American Badass’ gimmick change that ‘Taker went through prior to returning to ‘The Dead Man’ gimmick at WrestleMania XX back in 2004.
According to Prichard, Undertaker “hated” the idea of going back to his previous gimmick as he felt that he had more opportunities to wrestle different styles as the “American Badass.”
“Mark Calaway [The Undertaker] hated the idea,” Prichard said. “Absolutely hated the idea of coming back as the ‘Dead Man’ because he thought with the ‘American Badass’ character, it was multi-dimensional and he wasn’t doing the head snaps and everything. He could work and go out and have a different style of match.”
Prichard continued, “And he felt that if he came back as the Dead Man, that he would have to go back into the ‘Dead Man’ persona in the ring and we all felt, look, let’s give them [WWE fans] that at WrestleMania — the old ‘Dead Man’ — but then you can evolve it the ring, in your work. You can work like the ‘American Badass,’ but you’re The Undertaker. It was a battle.”
As we all know, The Undertaker eventually return as the Dead Man character. He went on to continue his WrestleMania streak for another decade. During this time, he had some of the greatest matches of his career and in WrestleMania history.
The Undertaker’s status for WrestleMania 35 is unclear. He was rumored for a WWE Hall of Fame induction, but the news of DX entering the Hall this year might delay Taker’s induction one more year.
You can listen to the Something To Wrestle podcast on Youtube and all major podcast platforms.
