The legendary Undertaker recently spoke with Comicbook.com to discuss all things pro-wrestling, including his thoughts on his WWE Network Last Ride documentary, why he never wrestled Sting, and much more. Highlights from the interview are below.
Says the last episode of Last Ride is still being edited:
To be completely honest? I have seen many different variations of the last episode. We’re still making edits and trying to figure out how we want to put the content altogether. So yeah, I’ve seen a lot of versions of the last episode.
His overall thoughts on the the series:
I’m just going to give you a little history into it. So I had the camera start following me… Let’s see, was it (WrestleMania) 33 with Roman. I was pretty sure at that point or at least I had myself convinced that I was sure that that was going to be it and so I wanted the cameras around just to capture some of the atmosphere around WrestleMania so that I would have it for down the line, obviously it was going to be a pretty emotional weekend. And I just wanted to capture a lot of the interactions with my colleagues and so that’s how it originally started. We had no intention of doing a documentary and then just as things progressed, we just kept every time that I was around was at any kind of WWE event, we had the cameras there and then one thing led to [another]. And so the next thing, we’re three years into this. And then we realized okay, we really have something here. So I’m very happy so far with everything that’s [aired]. All the other episodes, I think we’ve really been able to get into my mindset of where I was at particular moments in the last three years, whether good, bad, or indifferent. And then just being and doing most of it away, you get really raw, unguarded answers from me, which obviously everyone knows how well I’ve protected this character and never let anything like this stuff get out. I’ve been really pleased and excited with how it’s come out and the reaction from our audience.
Not being comfortable throwing Mick Foley off Hell in a Cell:
The only thing that I can think of, and we all know how this story turns out. I wasn’t on board really for throwing Mick Foley off the cell. I mean, I knew where he was coming from… but I wasn’t really sold on it. And many times I told Mick, I was like, “Mick, we don’t need to do that.” I said, “we can make this great.” And he was dead-set. And then we got Vince on board with him and I was like, “okay. I just want to go on record as saying that I’m not really comfortable with this,” but obviously I wasn’t the one getting thrown off the cell.
What his career would have been like if he had gone to WCW:
I honestly don’t think we’d be sitting here having this conversation right now. I think I would have… Just with my own personal drive and my love of the business, I think I would have bounced back. And Vince being the businessman that he is and to his credit, a more forgiving soul than me, I’m sure that I would have probably come back at some point. But the legacy and everything wouldn’t have been the same if I had left. I would have had to start over and thinking about it now, it seems like it would have been a catastrophic mistake if I had really entertained it and made that decision. I was never anywhere close to making that decision. I mean, I listened to some conversations, but every plus that I could come up with I can come up with five minuses. And I always knew at some point, Vince and the WWE were going to turn it around and they did. And I’m glad that I stayed and everything worked out, but I don’t think my career would have been what it is if I had made that jump.
Thoughts on a match against Sting:
Well, in this world, you never say never, but I think as great as it sounds on paper… And it does, I mean obviously that is a super marquee match, right? But where I kind of differ from a lot of people is I look past the marquee value and I look on the ability to deliver. So like you said, there’s so many people that are clamoring for that match that I just don’t know that the match could deliver on the people’s expectations. And the only reason I say that, I’ll take full [responsibility], I don’t have the mobility or the same skill set that I once did that I would need to make that match great. So there’s just certain things, it’s better left to the theater of the mind to actually put it out there. And then with the expectations being so high and the match not delivering, it would be a bigger disappointment than the match never happening at all. It’s different, but in the same sense of like who’s the greatest: [Michael] Jordan or LeBron [James]? I mean, you’re never going to know because they’re never going to have the opportunity to play against each other. And it’s the same thing. That’s a great match, but 10 years ago I think it could still happen and it could still be a stellar match. I’m just not sure at this point that it could deliver on the hype.
The American Badass Returning for WrestleMania 36:
I think we cut that off. We cut that off kind of early when we did the American Badass the first time. I think we could have got a little more mileage out of it, but, it was a different variation. It was an older iteration of it. The American Badass has got a few more years on him. He’s a little more grizzled even. And there were still so many I think, aspects of The Undertake you could see in there, so I think it was just like I’ve wrapped everything all together. And I think those people were really excited.