The Undertaker has a rather bizarre phobia.
Presented as one of the darkest characters in professional wrestling history and one that shows no mercy, few would have predicted that a salad staple would be the item that The Deadman fears the most. While some fear heights, confined spaces or public speaking, the WWE Hall of Famer has a fear of cucumbers.
The Undertaker’s phobia became something of a folklore among fans as they found it hard to believe that this was the thing that struck fear into The Phenom. The topic has been a point of discussion in wrestling interviews when talking about the former World Champion, including fellow WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley addressing the point at an Inside The Ropes live show:
Although the fear has been discussed in multiple interviews by others, The Undertaker has not elaborated on the origin of his fear. However, on a Q and A episode of his Six Feet Under podcast, The Deadman finally revealed the answer:
“Why do you give me some bullshit question like that? I don’t even like talking about the cucumbers man. Alright, here it is. When I was just a weeee little Undertaker, like a kindergarten, first grade Undertaker, I come home from school one day. My mother had taken a bunch of fresh cucumbers and cut them up into slices and had them soaking in a big bowl of vinegar. It was that day. [At that time] it was the greatest thing ever.
So I proceeded to eat the whole bowl of cucumbers soaked in vinegar. Well, something about that didn’t settle well with my stomach. Shortly after I ate all of the cucumbers, I expelled all of the contents of my stomach. From that moment on, the smell, for a long time even to see a cucumber I would get somewhat, I wouldn’t say nauseous but queasy. Smell a cucumber? Forget about it. My stomach is just like [nope]…it’s like my mouth starts watering.
So that’s why I hate cucumbers because I ate too many once as a child, left a horrible, horrible scar in my memory of how bad I threw up. How sick that I got. Then just the very smell of a cucumber [made me sick], heaven forbid I taste one. Let me get one in a bit of sushi or something like that [if] you want to see some drama. Because anytime I go to order sushi, like I’ll ask. If there’s cucumbers that are supposed to be in a roll or [something] I ask specifically ‘Can I get this without the cucumber?’ Usually [it’s] ‘Yeah, that’s no problem.’
Heaven forbid they forget or they screw up and I get cucumber in my mouth. It is not a good day at the sushi restaurant. I will show my ass real quick and I try really hard not to do that. I know people are working hard trying to do things. I am level-headed as I can be, do not put cucumber in my sushi, especially when I make it very clear that I do not want cucumber in my sushi.”
Continuing, Undertaker was also asked whether or not long-time manager Paul Bearer ever pranked him with cucumbers. Aware of how much it bothered him, Undertaker responded that he was pranked by Bearer on numerous occasions:
“The other part of that question, Did Paul Bearer [put cucumber in my boots]. Paul Bearer put cucumber in everything that I owned. Paul Bearer was evil, an evil evil man. Now I love him to death. I love him to death. I miss him every day. But the man was evil and was so much like, okay, you put them in my boots, ha ha ha. But he got to the point where that didn’t satisfy him enough.
So he would have to push the envelope to the point where I remember once getting up. I had to go to the restroom or whatnot. I come back and he’s sitting there and I could just tell by the look on his face that he had done something. Didn’t know what it was. [I] didn’t know that anything had been ordered that had cucumber in it. Anyway, I guess he went to the salad bar and got a slice of cucumber and somehow got it at the bottom of the glass of my iced tea.
So I think I had, I was eating a hamburger or something. So I take a bite of this burger. I’m chewing it up. I take the tea, gonna wash it down. I’m drinking and then I see it. It’s like that moment of [realization] like ‘Oh my god. That’s a cucumber and it’s in my drink.’
I slam the drink down and get the big spit pop from him. He spits what it is in his mouth out. I’m cussing him right in the middle of the restaurant and he’s like, ‘What, What I didn’t do that.’ I’m like ‘You’re a damn liar. You know you did that.’ That’s why I don’t like cucumbers. I ate too many as a child, got sick and travelled the world with a evil manager who would sabotage my food with cucumbers. So there it is.”
The Undertaker Praises AEW
The Deadman was famously a part of WWE for 3 decades and remained loyal to the company throughout triumphant and turbulent times within the promotion. Although retired from in-ring competition, The Phenom still keeps up with the product and gives his thoughts on the big stories in wrestling on his podcast. When discussing a recent AEW angle, The Undertaker described it as smart booking.
On a new episode of his podcast, The Undertaker addressed another bizarre rumour.
H/t to SEScoops.