Former WWE star explains why The Undertaker wanted to confront him after a SmackDown show
Stevie Richards recently recalled how WWE’s handling of his infamous steel chair shot incident with John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) confused The Undertaker.
Richards landed a vicious steel chair shot to JBL’s head during the July 7, 2005, episode of SmackDown. Although he intentionally hit the former WWE Champion in the head, Richards did not mean to connect with so much force.
Speaking on Rene Dupree’s “Cafe de Rene” podcast, Richards revealed that he and JBL worked together with WWE’s website after the show. Both men tricked people, including The Undertaker, into thinking they had real-life issues.
“You know who wasn’t in on it?” Richards said. “Undertaker, who came up to me at the next TV. He was gonna come up to me and confront me. He saw John first and, to his credit, he should have [confronted Richards]. Like, ‘Dude, you actually went to the website and said you did it on purpose or hurt one of our talents?’” [3:13-3:31]
Richards told WWE’s website he purposely hurt JBL as revenge for busting open The Blue Meanie during an in-ring brawl. In reality, the former Right to Censor leader spoke to JBL after the chair shot incident and they agreed to continue the story online.
What did The Undertaker say to Stevie Richards?
Love him or hate him, Stevie Richards worked that Right to Censor gimmick like a true champ #WWE https://t.co/yGKm27d2Qd
Although The Deadman did not aggressively confront Richards, he still spoke to the former ECW star about his situation with JBL.
The WWE icon politely warned Richards he needed to be more careful in the ring due to the company’s number of injuries.
“He even pulled me aside right afterwards and I said, ‘Taker, I swear to God I didn’t mean to do it,’” Richards added. “He goes, ‘You have to understand we have a lot of injuries right now. Now we’re down another guy, gotta be careful.’ He was not intimidating or belligerent or trying to scare me. He was just trying to tell me sternly, like, ‘Hey, man, you don’t do that.’” [3:55-4:17]
Richards also said in the interview that he “lost a great deal of respect” for Arn Anderson in WWE. The veteran producer allegedly made a derogatory remark about him after he competed in a match against Chris Masters.
Please credit “Cafe de Rene” and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.