The Undertaker makes it clear that his days as an in-ring competitor are behind him.
“The Deadman” last wrestled in the Boneyard Match against AJ Styles at WrestleMania 36, and he subsequently had his Final Farewell at WWE Survivor Series 2020. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2022, bringing his 30-year career as an in-ring competitor to an official conclusion.
Speaking on Hawk vs. Wolf, “The Phenom” was asked whether he would want to wrestle another match if he could. He answered, without hesitating, by emphasizing that he’d be competing if he was physically able to do so.
“Absolutely,” he said. “If I was physically able to do it, I would be out there right now.”
The Undertaker then looked back on his last few matches and noted that some wants were happy to see him in the ring, while others weren’t as enthusiastic. he WWE Hall of Famer went on to elaborate by noting that he would wrestle if he felt like he could deliver the kind of performance he thinks the fans deserves, but he can’t.
“It’s crazy because there’s a huge amount of our fan base that, we’ve ingrained you on a curve,” he said. “They understand that you’re getting long in the tooth, you’ve got a lot of miles on you, but they just want you out there. Then there’s that one part of the fan base, like, ‘Ah, man, he’s old, he shouldn’t be out there, he shouldn’t be doing this.’
“Without any hesitation at all, if I felt like I could go and deliver, and deliver a performance that people expect when they see my name on the card, I would do it. But I know I can’t. It’s been a horrible transition for me.”
As he continues to navigate his post-wrestling career, The Undertaker admitted that he wasn’t sure whether he’d ever find the same passion he had for competing.
“I don’t know that I’ll ever find a passion like I did for actually being in the ring,” he said. “I’m doing the one-man show, and I’m enjoying that, and it’s new to me, so I can pour myself into it again. But I don’t know that I’ll ever have that passion that wrestling gave to me. Again, I watch the product, and I’m thinking like, ‘Damn, I would have done that differently, I would have done it this way.’ You’re kind of like, ‘Man, [looks at his body], why don’t you work?’”
In recent months, The Undertaker has been hosting his 1 deadMAN SHOW events; another two have been announced for March. More information is available here.
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