Below are some top WWE news stories of the day, involving The Undertaker.
• On his Six Feet Under podcast, WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker talked about WrestleMania 18. He revealed that Vince McMahon gave him two opponent choices – Ric Flair or Rob Van Dam.
Taker picked The Nature Boy, which shocked McMahon. During the build-up to this match, Taker beat up Ric’s son David Flair. This was one of Undertaker’s favorite vignettes from his career.
Here’s what The American Badass said:
“That was a lot of fun. I remember Vince coming to me that year, I didn’t have an opponent. And he comes up to me, he’s like apologizing to me. He goes, ‘Mark, we booked all this out and I don’t have anybody for you.’ He says, ‘You can either have RVD or Flair.’ And nothing against RVD. Because I had really good matches with RVD.
I was like, ‘Flair’. He looked at me like, ‘What?’ I’m like, ‘I want Flair’. And he just… he couldn’t grasp it. I mean Flair had a run in the WWE. But he wasn’t a WWE guy. For me, it’s Ric Flair.
I said, ‘At WrestleMania? Are you kidding me? I want Flair’. Flair was on the backside of his career. But still… that whole thing was a lot of fun. That’s where I went and beat up his kid at the training center. That was one of my favorite vignettes that I ever did.”
WATCH: Sara (Undertaker’s Ex-Wife) In A Bikini – Part 2:
• The Undertaker was initially reluctant to make a surprise appearance at WrestleMania 40, as revealed by Triple H on The Roommates Show. Despite multiple attempts to persuade him, Undertaker was firm about staying true to his 2020 retirement after his Boneyard Match with AJ Styles.
Triple H explained that even The Rock had to intervene to convince The American Badass.
Ultimately, Undertaker agreed to appear, but on the condition he wouldn’t wear his iconic hat and jacket, signaling that “The Undertaker” character was retired.
Here’s what Triple H said:
“It took us forever to get him to do that thing. When I first called him for it, he’s like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t think I want to do it.’ I’m like, ‘80,000 people are going to go absolutely insane.’
Rock had to call him. Everybody had to call him to get him to finally acquiesce to do it.
When he retired, he wanted to be done. He didn’t come out with the hat and jacket. The hat and jacket are retired. ‘I’ll come out as me, but I’m not coming out as Undertaker.’ He just wanted it to be over.”
His shocking return, featuring a Chokeslam to The Rock, became a pivotal moment, helping Cody Rhodes secure a victory over Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.
