The Undertaker has finally explained the one point about him that has always puzzled the fans.
The Dead Man is the epitome of the old-school wrestler. He is one who likes to live by a code and maintain order. His loyalty and ethics are the reason why he served as a locker room leader for a long time in WWE. Taker is a man who has the respect of almost anyone who knows anything about the wrestling business. The one thing that doesn’t seem to match all of these qualities, however, is his fear of cucumbers.
The WWE Hall of Famer was asked about the origin of this hate during his most recent Patreon Q&A. The wrestling legend finally explained that it comes from a childhood experience with a bowl of pickled cucumbers:
“Why do you give me some bullshit question like that? I don’t even like talking about the cucumbers man. Alright, here it is. When I was just a weeee little Undertaker, like a kindergarten, first grade Undertaker, I come home from school one day. My mother had taken a bunch of fresh cucumbers and cut them up into slices and had them soaking in a big bowl of vinegar. It was that day. [At that time] it was the greatest thing ever.
So I proceeded to eat the whole bowl of cucumbers soaked in vinegar. Well, something about that didn’t settle well with my stomach. Shortly after I ate all of the cucumbers, I expelled all of the contents of my stomach. From that moment on, the smell, for a long time even to see a cucumber I would get somewhat, I wouldn’t say nauseous but queasy. Smell a cucumber? Forget about it. My stomach is just like [nope]…it’s like my mouth starts watering.
So that’s why I hate cucumbers because I ate too many once as a child, left a horrible, horrible scar in my memory of how bad I threw up. How sick that I got. Then just the very smell of a cucumber [made me sick], heaven forbid I taste one. Let me get one in a bit of sushi or something like that [if] you want to see some drama. Because anytime I go to order sushi, like I’ll ask. If there’s cucumbers that are supposed to be in a roll or [something] I ask specifically ‘Can I get this without the cucumber?’ Usually [it’s] ‘Yeah, that’s no problem.’
Heaven forbid they forget or they screw up and I get cucumber in my mouth. It is not a good day at the sushi restaurant. I will show my ass real quick and I try really hard not to do that. I know people are working hard trying to do things. I am level-headed as I can be, do not put cucumber in my sushi, especially when I make it very clear that I do not want cucumber in my sushi.”
Paul Bearer Was An Evil, Evil Man: The Undertaker
The Undertaker also talked about how Paul Bearer always took advantage of his weakness. He told a story of Bearer sabotaging his food during a meal:
“The other part of that question, Did Paul Bearer [put cucumber in my boots]. Paul Bearer put cucumber in everything that I owned. Paul Bearer was evil, an evil evil man. Now I love him to death. I love him to death. I miss him every day. But the man was evil and was so much like, okay, you put them in my boots, ha ha ha. But he got to the point where that didn’t satisfy him enough.
So he would have to push the envelope to the point where I remember once getting up. I had to go to the restroom or whatnot. I come back and he’s sitting there and I could just tell by the look on his face that he had done something. Didn’t know what it was. [I] didn’t know that anything had been ordered that had cucumber in it. Anyway, I guess he went to the salad bar and got a slice of cucumber and somehow got it at the bottom of the glass of my iced tea.
So I think I had, I was eating a hamburger or something. So I take a bite of this burger. I’m chewing it up. I take the tea, gonna wash it down. I’m drinking and then I see it. It’s like that moment of [realization] like ‘Oh my god. That’s a cucumber and it’s in my drink.’
I slam the drink down and get the big spit pop from him. He spits what it is in his mouth out. I’m cussing him right in the middle of the restaurant and he’s like, ‘What, What I didn’t do that.’ I’m like ‘You’re a damn liar. You know you did that.’ That’s why I don’t like cucumbers. I ate too many as a child, got sick and travelled the world with a evil manager who would sabotage my food with cucumbers. So there it is.”
Taker later revealed that he has the same problem with tomatoes as well. According to the former world champion, he can eat tomato sauce or ketchup but raw tomatoes are ‘right under the cucumber’ for him.
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