Undertaker Reveals Origins Of American Badass Character

Speaking with the True Geordie Podcast, Undertaker reflected on his time in the professional wrestling business in advance of being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Discussing his longevity over the years, notably, Undertaker returned from a 2000 injury as a departure from his previous Lord of Darkness version.

About the transition in character, he said:

“So the American Badass, several things were going on there. One, yeah I got hurt. I injured my groin then right close to coming back from my groin injury, I tore a pec. So I was out most of that whole year leading into the American Badass. But what was going on was the Attitude Era. You’ve got Stone Cold, who’s cutting these incredible promos, that people can really identify with. It’s like real life with a little bit of gas behind it. You’ve got the Rock cutting these unbelievable promos. All these promos are just, they are so good. I think, I would have survived but I wouldn’t have thrived if I had not taken a break. As good as the character is, you’re kinda boxed in too, with what you can do and what you can’t do. You know, it’s hard for the Undertaker to be in the ring while The Rock is talking about poontang pie, and to have some kind of retort that the Undertaker could give. So, it was a period for me to, just to take a deep breath and do something different for a minute”

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Elsewhere in the podcast, Undertaker spoke more about the switch to the American Badass version of his character including his new entrance theme, being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and he doubles down on previous comments about the state of today’s wrestling locker rooms.

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