The Undertaker reflects on maintaining kayfabe during early WWE days
The Undertaker is one of WWE's greatest creations. A lot of the credit goes to the man behind this character, Mark Calaway.
These days, the product has changed drastically, with the ever-growing popularity of social media. When WWE Hall of Famer Booker T commented on Undertaker's dedication to staying in character for so many years, The Deadman retorted, "To a fault."
Speaking on the Hall of Fame podcast, Undertaker reflected on his early days maintaining kayfabe. The veteran knew the hand he was dealt was a "gift," and all he cared about was making sure people saw him differently, rather than as a "corpse" or "dead":
"I knew I had been given a gift with that character, and I knew that I wanted to make it different. Back then, obviously, we didn't have to worry about cell phones, but still, I wanted the character to be as realistic as possible, it was so over the top. I didn't know if I wanted them to feel like I'm a corpse, or dead, but I wanted people to understand I was different," he said. [From 28:02 to 28:42]
He continued, stating that it was a "commitment" he made, to live as the character. The Phenom revealed outside of the ring when traveling or seen in public, he always used to wear black attires and kept a stoic face:
"So all my street clothes, although they were different from my ring clothes—I always wore black jeans, black boots, black T-shirts, I had a coat made for winter, and people would see me in the airports, obviously we would travel everyday, and you can just see it on their face like, 'This dude is really, something wrong with him,' and even if they weren't a wrestling fan, it was like, 'Who is this guy?'" Taker recalled. [28:42 to 29:26]
The veteran also touched upon the camaraderie he shared with his peers, noting that it is what he misses most now that he is no longer an in-ring competitor and on the road.
The Undertaker reminds younger wrestlers that "storytelling" is what ultimately matters
The Undertaker is appreciative of how much of a boom period it is for the wrestling industry today, but he still feels a lot of the younger talent do not understand the business. He stated that it is not about high-risk moves, but storytelling:
"I don’t know if it was the video games they played as kids, but they’re doing video game type stuff in the ring. I think, sometimes it’s a curse because they’re so athletic and they rely so much on that aspect that they forget the most important aspect of what we do — and that is storytelling."
Calling World Heavyweight Champion Gunther one of his favorite wrestlers today for this very same reason, both Undertaker and Booker T agreed he is the best there is today.
The Phenom also recently revealed that he hopes to see Brock Lesnar back in WWE. He feels The Beast is probably the only superstar who can stand as a legitimate threat to The Ring General.
If you use any of the quotes, please credit the original source and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.