The Undertaker responds to claim he assaulted WWE star because he was gay
The Undertaker spent more than 30 years as an active competitor. The WWE Hall of Famer is widely regarded as one of the greatest pro wrestlers of all time, and much of his career was spent as a locker room leader. The veteran is now addressing a controversial allegation.
Chris Kanyon is widely regarded as one of the most underrated stars of WCW. The former Mortis was with WCW from 1995 - 2001, and then with WWE from 2001 - 2004. Kanyon, who passed away by suicide on April 2, 2010, at the age of 40, was also one of the first openly gay pro wrestlers.
Taker and Kanyon have two matches on record. Taker, Kane, and Kurt Angle defeated Kanyon, Steve Austin, and Diamond Dallas Page at a live event on August 17, 2001, then two days later The Brothers of Destruction retained the WCW Tag Team Championship while capturing the WWE Tag Team Championship from Kanyon and DDP in a Steel Cage match at SummerSlam 2001.
There has been a story floating around for years, alleging that The Undertaker maliciously hit Kanyon with a steel chair because he was gay. On a recent episode of his Six Feet Under podcast, The Phenom discussed the topic of chair shots with guest Maven. Taker defended his use of steel chairs and expressed a bit of frustration with the accusations. He added that he hates everyone the same.
"In my defense, go back and look at the whole scope of how I swung a chair. I hate everybody the same. There was no malice. There was no, 'Oh, I'm going to try and hurt the greenhorn.' If you look at all my chair shots when we could hit... now, granted, at the time, we did not know about CTE. I came up in a generation where that's how you swung a chair and I've been accused and I'm getting a little hot about it," The Undertaker said. [H/T Fightful]
Big Evil then addressed the alleged malicious chair shot against Kanyon during an angle. The 59-year-old Hall of Famer boldly denied the idea, saying he didn't know the former United States Champion was gay until years later.
"I’ve been accused of smashing Kanyon with a chair because he was gay. I didn’t even know he was gay. I didn’t even know until years later. I couldn't care less [that Kanyon was gay] but there's people out there that have created that rumor, 'Oh, Undertaker smashed him.' Undertaker swung a chair the way Undertaker swung a chair. If I swung a chair at somebody, the way I swung it, I'd expect the same one back. Watch me and Triple H. He beat the crap out of me. That's just the way I learned how to swing a chair," The Undertaker said.
Maven also defended Taker as being exceptionally safe in the ring during their matches. He also said chair shots the way he was taught to take them are fairly safe, even though it's not a popular opinion.
The Undertaker on Roman Reigns as the face of WWE
The Hall of Famer has been retired for a few years now, but the veteran had the chance to work with some of today's top WWE Superstars, including Roman Reigns.
Undertaker and Roman had their first and only singles bout at WrestleMania 33, held under a No Holds Barred stipulation. The Tribal Chief won the main event. They also teamed up at Extreme Rules 2019, defeating Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre in a No Holds Barred bout.
Speaking to A&E for their recent Biography documentary on Reigns, The Deadman said The Head of The Table finally figured things out and is comfortable being the face of WWE.
"He finally figured it out, and now you have a guy who's completely comfortable with who he is, and he's comfortable being the face of the company," The Undertaker said of Roman Reigns.
Hulk Hogan also had major praise for Reigns as The Bloodline leader when speaking to A&E.