“Wrestling is not about the moves”- Undertaker

The Undertaker does not often break kayfabe, so on the rare occasions he does it is worth listening to what he has to say.

The Dead Man recently spoke at length with pastor Ed Young for his documentary series “Wrastlin”, discussing what he has done to keep his gimmick fresh over the years.

“Trying to keep the character relevant for this long, you really have to keep your finger on the pulse of things. If you don’t what usually happens is that once you realise that you’re stale your audience is already moved on.

Once I got to WWE I started to realise we had something special with that character, I was never satisfied. I was like okay we’re here and getting a great reaction, but what’s next?

I was fortunate that my character didn’t have that over the top high energy. It was high energy, but in a different way. That’s what separated me. I had to take things that other guys were doing and figuring out what is the antithesis to it and what will work for me.”

‘You can only see that so many times’

Undertaker says that the athletes we see in modern wrestling are better than they have ever been, but says that the moves that they are doing aren’t as important as the story they should be telling:

“Wrestling and sports entertainment is not about the moves, it really isn’t. It’s about being able to evoke emotion in one facet or another. You either have to make people love you or you have to make them hate you, it doesn’t really matter either way. If you can’t bring that emotion out of your audience then you’re not going to have them for long.

What happens with these young guys is they’re so athletic and so gifted, they’ll do some crazy double backflip off the top rope and land on somebody on the floor and then that’s what the audience takes away from it, that this guy does crazy stuff.

But you can only see that so many times before you need something new, and then the person has to up that. They have to keep upping the ante and by doing that you increase your potential for injuries.”

Undertaker also spoke highly of John Cena, praising his ability to draw emotions from fans. As for the ‘Dead Man’ he returns to the ring at WWE Super Showdown against Triple H this Saturday.

Do you agree with the Undertaker’s comments? Let us know below.

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• Triple H
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