The Undertaker (@undertaker) is a retired professional wrestler and WWE Hall of Famer. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at Fanatics Fest in New York City to discuss his role in AAA and the legendary El Grande Americano mask vs. mask match, his favorite matches from the WrestleMania streak, the story behind his Old School move, who took the best and worst chokeslam, dragging Hulk Hogan with his motorcycle, how much longer he wants to do his podcast, and more!
How many more years or months do you want to do the podcast?
“Oh man, you say years? No, we’re probably talking months. I think when this contract rolls out, I don’t think we’ll be renewing.”
At what point in your career do you feel like you started thinking about it coming to an end? At what point was that?
“Unfortunately, way too late. I think it was November 22 2020, when it dawned on me that you might need to find something else to do here.”
Well, you’re working with AAA now. So, what exactly is the role you have with AAA? And also, how much credit do you take for one of the greatest matches, El Grande Americano versus Original El Grande Americano?
“Myself and Jeremy Borash kind of had this idea, but El Grande and Chad Gable, man, they took the thought and the idea, and they really took it to a whole different level. There were some highly motivating speeches that I gave both of them before they would go out.”
What did those sound like?
“I don’t know how [if I can say], there’s a bunch of kids here [laughs]. No, I would reiterate to them how important what they’re about to go out and do is not only for AAA but for their own personal careers, trying to motivate them to do things differently and be more edgy, more aggressive, more violent, right? It took a while for that to kind of set in, and for them to see my vision. My vision is, I want us to put out a product that is completely different from NXT, it’s completely different from SmackDown or Raw. I want it to be different from every other wrestling. That starts, to me, with storytelling, athleticism, and aggression. It’s a process, and everybody’s starting to buy into it and realizing that what we’re doing down there has got the attention of the wrestling community.”
What exactly is your role with AAA?
“I thought I dodged that question. I went all the way around it. That’s why you’re the best, because I thought I went all the way around it, and you would forget that. Oh my gosh! I guess in layman’s terms, I’m the head of creative.”
One of your roles in retirement has been you’re the guy delivering the wonderful news to people that they’re getting inducted into the Hall of Fame. How did you become that guy?
“You tell me. I don’t know. I didn’t know that I was getting that job. I think Stephanie was the first, and I was like, oh, that makes sense. Stephanie and I have a long history together. I’ve watched her grow up, and that made sense, right? I knew her longer than everybody else. But then from there, ‘Hey, can you come back? Can you do this?’ I’m like, okay. So I guess now I’m the Hall of Fame guy.”
I know you’re a huge fan of Gunther and the work that he’s doing. I’m curious if you were retiring in 2026, do you think that final match, that retirement match, would be you versus Gunther?
“Yeah. I mean, that would be a good one for sure. I like the way he works, and I like the way he takes his time and builds to a crescendo in a match. But there’s guys like Oba out there now, and one of the guys that I think may be the biggest star may be Trick Williams. I love Trick. All those guys I would have loved to have worked with.”
When we talk about The Streak, I think the match that immediately pops into people’s heads is WrestleMania 30. The streak ending. I’m curious, what are your top three WrestleMania matches during the streak?
“Well, there’s actually probably four, and they’re all right there together. 25, 26, 27 and 28. I had great matches with Batista, and I had a great match with Edge, but I think the 25, 26, 27 and 28 storylines. The two with Shawn, and then the two with Triple H. I mean, it’s very rare that you get to do something like that. Because that was all one continual story. It was me and Shawn, the light versus the darkness, streak versus career, then Triple H gets involved to take up for his buddy, and then it culminates in the end of the era. I think they were all storytelling classics, and yeah, I think those four matches are what professional wrestling is supposed to be about.”
At Survivor Series 1996, you had a teardrop tattoo on your face for that one match only. What’s the story behind that?
“Oh, I was probably crying because of who I was working with. No, so there’s an old thing like when you see people with teardrop tattoos, they took a life and didn’t shed a tear. So it was just part of my swag. It was all right, well, this is kind of cool. I knew that people would wonder, like, what’s the, what’s the teardrop for, you know? So it was kind of for swag and aura, and you know, people asking that same question. It’s like, what’s with the tear? Then the tear got WWE’d, and it turned into like a water drop.”
Triple H has told this story before, but I don’t think you have. He says that the people’s elbow was created strictly to get you to laugh. Is that true or false?
“Yes, I think there was another conspiracy at the time to do something, so the guys did something really hokey. I think it actually started in a dark match somewhere, and yeah, they were always [trying]. For a while there, it really became the thing to do to try to get me to break character. But what else would that be for? That’s the hokiest looking thing in the business.”
What’s the story behind the Old School?
“Well, first I stole it. I stole it from The Spoiler. I waited. I worked with Spoiler when I was in World Class Championship where I got my start, I worked with The Spoiler originally, and he did it. He did the wrist lock and walk the rope thing. So I had to wait. I had to wait till The Spoiler retired, and then I took it, and then I was like, well, if he did it this way, I’m going to do it this way. So originally, you know, I would drop somebody in the ring, and then I would go up, and then I would tightrope out three or four steps, and then drop the elbow. By the time I got to WWE in 1990, I was already walking with a limp because we would do three or four TV tapings in WCW, and that’s three or four elbows a night. So I remember Jody Hamilton. I come back after one of those matches, and he’s like, ‘Kid, you’ve taken years off your career with that elbow.’ No, sir, Mr. Hamilton. I’ll be able to do this forever. By the time I got the call to come up, I was already walking with a limp. So, those old timers know a little bit more than they get credit for sometimes.”
Who do you think took the best chokeslam, and who do you think took the worst chokeslam?
“I tell you what, Brock Lesnar’s chokeslam is pretty tough. In fact, I think I give him one once that he actually came out of my hand at the top. He’s probably pound for pound the best chokeslam bump. Then worst? Oh my gosh. Khali was up there. Yeah, there’s been a few there’s been a few stinkers.”
There’s one you gave to Hogan, and he didn’t get up very high.
“No, that didn’t work for him, brother.”
But a fun segment with Hulk Hogan, where you’re dragging him around behind the motorcycle. Give me the setup for that because you’re dragging him down one hallway. I’m sure you’ve got to stop, reset, turn around, drag him back the other way.
“I think there was a point in there somewhere where he had stolen my motorcycle. Again, I don’t know chronologically, but he fancied himself as being in that biker culture too, and so somehow or another, I drop him and get him all tied up behind my bike. I’m just cruising through the arena with him, trying to run him into as much stuff as I could. I think that was after he tried to steal my bike and it stalled out on the ramp. It was a good time because I knew at the end of this long corridor behind the arena, it opened up into the loading dock, and I knew what I was trying to do was kind of to whip it close enough so that he would kind of go into the wall. I couldn’t quite generate enough speed to get the effect that I wanted, but it looked pretty good.”
So would you just show up for Raw or SmackDown or pay-per-view, and there was just a bike for you
“For a lot of it. We actually had a couple bikes made, and then I don’t know if you guys remember. It was an all-white bike. Loved it. It was totally custom made. All my specs, how I like it with Ape Hangers and forward controls. It was the most comfortable bike that I think that I’d ever ridden. I had it maybe two or three weeks and Vince goes, ‘Ah, damn, I think we need to do something to that bike.’ I’m like can we sub a different bike in instead of taking this one out? [Vince said] ‘No, of course not.’ So that beautiful pearl motorcycle got pushed off the stage, and I was just like, man! It’s like, come on, nobody’s gonna know the difference.”
Did you have any mishaps with the bike?
“I had a mishap in Baltimore once where I stole a police a police bike. So it was really it was really humid, and I was gonna chase somebody out of the loading dock onto the street on a on a on a police bike, and man I took off, and it’s that really slick concrete, and it was kind of sweating a little bit, so it was it was slick, and man, I made this turn and I lost the back wheel, the back wheel went down. I was fine. The bike, I think he lost the back left bucket. He lost. He was happy though. He didn’t care. He was the cop was like, ‘This is the coolest. Hey, will you sign this?”
We’ve seen these videos recently of your daughter Kaia in the ring. It looks like the fact that she has two Hall of Fame parents, mom and dad. It looks like it’s been passed down to her. A future WWE superstar?
“Unfortunately, probably yes.”
Why is that unfortunate?
“I wake up every morning and I do a little body assessment like what’s working today, what isn’t working. I’m not discouraging her from it but those are those kind of the things. Obviously the grind is not like it was when I came up. But I hate thinking of one of my children having to wake up and be in pain like that, but that’s just being a dad. If it’s in her heart and that’s what she wants to do it, then obviously I will do everything in my means to make sure that she does it right. She’s kind of stuck on that flippy do stuff. She’s taken my rope walking and added a flip to it. It’s almost like a see what I can do, Dad. You never did that. Okay, all right.”
What is The Undertaker grateful for?
“That enough people still care about what I did, my family and my lord and saviour.”
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