Undertaker Backstage Story As WWE ‘Rushed’ & ‘Panicked’ During Raw

Published: Mar 5, 2026 by Liam | Last Updated: Mar 5, 2026 by Liam

Liam has been reporting & analyzing wrestling news for over eight years, and is currently the Managing Editor at WrestleTalk.com. Immersed in wrestling for 18 years, he has over 11,000 published articles in addition to leading and overseeing WrestleTalk.com's coverage.

Undertaker Backstage Story As WWE ‘Rushed’ & ‘Panicked’ During Raw

A former WWE star has told a fascinating backstage story about The Undertaker and a particular episode of Raw that saw some “panic.”

In January 2018, WWE held its 25th anniversary edition of Raw, which took place in two separate venues – Manhattan Center, the site of the first ever Raw – and Barclays Center.

On the latest episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet, former WWE and current TNA star Mustafa Ali, who worked a match at Manhattan Center for that show, has recalled how the entire situation played out.

He said:

“It was when Raw was doing the Barclays Center and the Manhattan Center at the same time. There’s a bunch of people that have paid a lot of money to attend this event.

“But here’s the problem that they didn’t plan, there was no actual matches there. It was just legends coming out and cutting a promo. So about almost an hour into it, the fans start realizing, ‘Hey, we got jibbed.’

“There’s no matches, and they start booing recklessly. So Triple H is at the Manhattan Center. He gets on the phone, and he calls over Barclays, and he goes, ‘I need matches, and I need them now.’ So Mark Carrano goes, ‘I know, the cruiserweights!’ So he stuffs a bunch of cruiserweights into a van, and just sends us blindly to Manhattan Center. Hideo Itami is driving, I don’t know.

“So we’re running upstairs and everyone’s panicking, go, go, go, upstairs. Go upstairs. We’re running with our gear, because we’re all coming from Barclays. And Triple H goes, ‘Situation – there’s no matches during the commercial break. I just need you guys to go out there and do the craziest s**t for two or three minutes.’

“All right, cool. So I was wrestling Lince Dorado, and we run upstairs, we have our bags, so we just open this door and we throw our bags down, we close the door, we start talking. The referee comes up and goes, ‘Hey guys, where are you changing?’ ‘Right here.’

“And then we look up – private locker room for The Undertaker. Open the door sheepishly, me and Lince, ‘Hello, sir. I’m Ali, This is Lince. Huge mistake. We’re just gonna grab our bags and leave.’ We go to reach for our bags, and he goes, ‘Hey, you guys don’t want to hang out with the motherf**king Undertaker?’ Before I could say anything Lince goes ‘Hell yeah!’

“We’re changing. He’s asking us about, you know, I told him I was a former police officer. He was like, ‘Oh s**t,’ we’re talking about this and that. Lince was a former teacher. So he’s like, ‘Isn’t that crazy?’

“We’re talking to The Undertaker about life, and then we kind of forgot that we had to go. We just ran out and did our match up. And then, yeah, it was just one of those wild experiences.”