Wrestling Legend Recalls Almost Leaving WWE For WCW

WWE

Throughout the battle between WWE and WCW throughout the nineties there were a select few who would be stalwarts of their respective companies.

On the WCW side there was of course Sting, while in WWE there were not many as loyal as The Undertaker.

But was ‘The Deadman’ ever close to jumping ship to Ted Turner’s company, as so many did in the mid to late nineties?

Well, according to Taker himself, who recently sat down with BT Sport’s Ariel Helwani, not only was there an offer from WCW but it was an offer that Taker was strongly considering.

When asked about an offer coming through from WCW Taker replied:

“Yeah, kind of through Kevin Nash. We were in this period of time where we had, and this kind of funny for me to say, but we had all these ridiculous characters.

“WCW was doing all this cutting-edge stuff, but I think, to answer in the short, no. But did I think about it? Yeah. Did I have an opportunity to? Yeah.”

Taker also revealed that the offer came through around when his WWE contract was set to expire in the mid-nineties a time when WCW were dominating by appealing their product to an older demographic.

Taker would reveal his frustrations surrounding the WWE’s creative direction in the mid nineties and why the decision as to whether to stay or leave was a difficult one.

“My deal would have been coming up, but it was more frustration with what we were currently doing, and just feeling like we were stale and behind the times, and we were so kid-driven.

“Our demographic was nine-to-twelve year olds, and their demographic down in WCW was 18-34, 18-36 demographic, doing so much more cutting edge stuff.”

Despite being tempted, Taker would ultimately recall his initial run in WCW in the eighties and how that experience would make his mind up for him to stay in WWE.

“That was appealing, but there was never… even though it was completely different people, it was WCW that told me that I’d never draw a dime in this business. As much as I used that for fuel, as open-minded as I think I am and as I’ve matured, you would think like, ‘Okay, don’t be stupid. Take the money.’

“But that always hung out there. ‘You’re a great athlete. No one will ever pay money to see you wrestle.’ Thank goodness (they were wrong). That was fuel, man.”

While you can never say never in pro-wrestling Undertaker also revealed that he would not be bringing ‘The Deadman’ back to the ring under any circumstance.

Transcription courtesy of Fightful.

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• Ariel Helwani
• WCW
• The Undertaker
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