The legendary Undertaker was a recent guest on the Bill Simmons podcast to discuss his famous Hell in a Cell grudge matchup against Mankind (Mick Foley) from the 1998 King of the Ring pay per view. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
On the famous chokeslam spot:
That cell wasn’t supposed to break like that. It was only supposed to give way. I had already had that match with Shawn [Micheals] and Shawn’s half of what Mick weighed, I’m 315 and Mick’s probably 280 and we’re walking on the chain linked panels and you can hear the wire cling and they’re shooting off. I’m just really fortunate, right before I chokeslammed him, I stepped off the panel on top the poles, if I hadn’t, we could have had a really far worse outcome. He landed, his tooth went through his lip and lodged in his nose. He’s in la la land at this point and I can tell in his eyes that they look like a slot machine, and I’m hitting him and telling him ‘Mick, lets go, lets go home man’ and he’s telling me to give him a second. What I thought was just a giant booger in his nose, finally you realize it’s his tooth. He takes the tooth and hands it to the ref and I’m like only in wrestling. It put a hole right through his lip.
Going into the match with a broken foot:
Yeah, I went into that match with a broken foot. I was more concerned whether Mick was breathing or not then to worry about my foot. I’ve got a pretty high pain tolerance, most times it’s a blessing but maybe you’re tougher than you are smart. It’s kind of what we’re dealing with now for this whole process it’s like what are you doing to yourself trying to get this match you want and the ending you want and what are you doing long term?
His WrestleMania 32 match with Shane McMahon:
In my book, there’s way too much margin for error for that. Shane [McMahon] felt like that too, I was in that match as well so there’s a recurring theme here but I didn’t want any part of it. That cage is 5 foot taller than the one I threw Mick off of. He looked like a little ant when I was laying there on the table looking up at him; he didn’t look that big. Then that’s a really small hard landing area to hit that desk.
Full interview below. (H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.)