Although The Undertaker became a legend during his time with WWE. The groundwork for this legend was laid elsewhere.
Prior to making his spooky entrance for the first time at Survivor Series 1990, ‘Taker had been attempting to carve out a career with WCW. However, after being told that no one would ever pay to see him wrestle during contract negotiations, the would-be Deadman decided to head to WWE.
During a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet, Undertaker explained that it was these words from WCW booker Ole Anderson that lit the fire under him to succeed. This helped his dedication to The Undertaker character and incredible work ethic.
“I think it was, the one thing that kind of really put the fire under me was being told by WCW that I would never draw money. I mean, to this day that motivates me, you know, being told to my face that hey you’re a great athlete, you’re never gonna make money. And, you know, so that and then just the passion that I had for this, and then I knew, right, really early on what I was doing with the character.
I mean, that was such a gift, that character. I mean, it hit me. I mean, it just hit me right between the eyes. I knew when I got it I was like, wow, this is special, this is really special. And then it just, it just became part of me and I lived it. And I think the dedication to always being that guy everywhere I went, every time somebody saw me, it was that guy. And, you know, it, there was probably to, you know, probably to a fault, my personal life, everything kind of took a backseat to being The Undertaker, which is probably not fair, I mean, to my older kids, and I’ve made amends with them. But you know, I’ve heard different guys, I’ve heard [Steve] Austin talk about this, you can’t be, or we couldn’t figure it out, a lot of guys do it now.
But back then we just, we grinded everything and everything that we were as human beings were poured into our characters, and I just, it was the most, probably the most important, you know, outside of my kids, it was the most important thing in my life was to be Undertaker, and for that to be genuine, and for people just to like, even if they didn’t understand or they didn’t know, or there’s like, there’s something different about that guy. It wasn’t a character for a long time. It was just, I think that guy’s really like that.
Not whether I was a zombie or whether I was dead. They, I mean, obviously they knew that I was a live human being. But they genuinely believed, I think, that I thought I was The Undertaker. And I think that came off, you know, I think that’s the way that I was perceived, like, this dude is just different and different from what everybody else was doing. So I don’t know, I think it was just like the dedication to the craft and the character that and nothing else came before that.”
The Undertaker Offered New Non-Wrestling Role
Speaking elsewhere, the legend again admitted that he has struggled with coming to terms with being retired, stating that if his body was willing he’d still be wrestling. During the same interview, ‘Taker also revealed that he’d been offered the chance to become a coach at the WWE Performance Center.
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