• “Vince thought it was hilarious!” – The Undertaker On His Shortest WrestleMania Match
During a recent appearance on Victory Over Injury podcast, The Undertaker recalled being out of shape heading into 2017 due to his major hip issues.
Taker said he knew it was important to pass the torch to Roman Reigns in the main event of WrestleMania 33, and that’s why he went ahead with the match despite not being anywhere near 100% physically.
Here’s what The Phenom said:
“It was disappointing to me, and I knew in January when I was in the Rumble. You could tell I was overweight, I was out of shape, but I knew what they wanted to do.
It was important for me to pass the baton on or do what I could for Roman, who’s the next generation. It was just a bad, bad deal.
That was probably as honest a moment as you’ll ever see in wrestling. Me taking that hat and coat and putting it in the ring, because I knew at that point I was done.
I was so disappointed. Anything else I’d ever accomplished, I couldn’t think of that. I couldn’t think of WrestleMania 25, Houston with Shawn Michaels, all those thoughts were gone.
It was, ‘You just stunk the joint out and you let a lot of people down.’”
Then the next year, at WrestleMania 34, The Undertaker was ready to redeem himself with a great performance against John Cena, but Vince McMahon apparently ribbed him by booking him in a very short match.
Here’s what Taker said:
“The next year [at WrestleMania 34], I was probably in the best shape and best condition I had been in in a long time. And it was a kill match. I was working with Cena, over in like 4 or 5 minutes.
I was like, ‘You gotta be kidding me?!’ Because I trained harder than I had ever. I train hard as it is, to get ready for Mania. But I had an extra, I had to be redeeming myself.
If I’m gonna do this I’m gonna redeem myself to the point where [WrestleMania 33] was just a flash and a bad memory. And then we go out in 4 minutes.
Vince thought it was hilarious! Cause he’s keeping up with me my whole camp, right? ‘How you doing?’ ‘I’m doing good, I’m feeling good, I’m ready to go.’
I show up thinking I’m gonna do 30 minutes and have this war with John Cena and it’s 4 minutes long! I was over-prepared for that one, that’s for sure.”
This was The Undertaker’s shortest match at WrestleMania. He defeated John Cena in 2 minutes & 45 seconds.
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• ON THIS DAY IN WWF HISTORY (April 18, 2002) – WWF SmackDown!
On this day in 2002, the World Wrestling Federation aired another episode of their weekly TV show ‘WWF SmackDown!’.
This episode was pre-taped at the Compaq Center in Houston, Texas and featured matches, interviews & storyline segments on the road to the ‘WWF Backlash 2002’ PPV.
Here’s the match-card:
1. Al Snow, Maven & Rikishi vs. Albert, Billy Gunn & Chuck Palumbo
2. Tajiri & Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Billy Kidman & Hurricane
3. Ron Simmons vs. Test
4. Hardcore Holly vs. Diamond Dallas Page
5. Chris Jericho & Kurt Angle vs. Triple H & Hulk Hogan