The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar have previously gone face-to-face outside of the WWE environment.
The Deadman was in the audience at the UFC 121 event in 2010, which saw Cain Velasquez defeat Lesnar and become the new UFC Heavyweight Champion in the main event.
The Undertaker Faced Brock Lesnar 1 Year After Lesnar’s WWE Return
Following the conclusion of the show, Ariel Helwani would conduct an interview with The Phenom in the crowd. Helwani asked Undertaker for his thoughts, with the Hall of Famer stating he was shocked at the result.
The interview was interrupted as Lesnar walked out of the octagon and past his former rival, with Taker simply asking The Beast “Do you wanna do it?”
Undertaker was asked about this exchange and his intentions while appearing on the Hawk vs. Wolf podcast. The former WWE Champion stated that he was not just there to watch the show, but to set up something for the future:
“No, I was, I was strictly there to to pick a fight. But pick a fight on our format [wrestling], not his format [MMA]. And it took — I don’t know, we did that and then nothing happened… not until years later.”
The Deadman and The Beast would rekindle their Ruthless Aggression rivalry 4 years later at WrestleMania 30. In what was one of the most shocking results in the history of the company, Lesnar would defeat The Deadman at WrestleMania, winning the match and ending the undefeated streak at 21-1.
Taker was also asked why the match took so long to take place, with Lesnar still being under contract with the UFC as the main reason why the confrontation was not capitalised on sooner:
“It probably could have been [a win-win for everyone]. But again, it didn’t happen for years. I mean it was years later before he got out, he left UFC and then came back to the WWE. So we jumped the gun a little bit on the timing, but it was a buzz in the MMA community.”
H/t to EWrestlingNews for the use of transcriptions.