The Undertaker Recalls The Most Violent Feud Of His Career
The Undertaker has reflected on what it was like wrestling one particular Hall of Famer, who wasn’t afraid of wrestling a violent style.
When fans think of stipulation matches in WWE history, The Undertaker’s name likely comes to mind. After all, the “Deadman” competed in a lot of different gimmick matches because he was the ultimate gimmick character.
One man who competed in multiple gimmick matches with The Undertaker was Mick Foley aka Mankind, who in 1996 started a legendary rivalry with Taker. The two men competed in matches like a Boiler Room Brawl, a Buried Alive Match, and their most famous stipulation match was Hell in a Cell at the King of the Ring 1998 pay-per-view.
During a recent episode of his Six Feet Under podcast, The Undertaker talked about how the violent style of matches were fitting for his rivalry with Mankind/Foley.
“It was just so violent, for the time period and what they had seen up to that point. I mean, the violence that we projected on each other. There wasn’t anything really that matched that.
I think with Mick and I everything that we did because of our characters it all made sense. You would expect us to be in a Boiler Room Brawl because of his character. You would expect a buried alive, you would expect a body bag. It all made sense to where we were at in our story and what we were doing.”
The Undertaker Felt Like Rivalry With Mankind Made Sense
As he continued on the podcast, The Undertaker spoke about how committed Foley was to the Mankind character and that’s what made their rivalry feel so special.
“With Mick and Mankind always, my image and my understanding of it is like, ‘I will do this to myself. Just so that I can do this to you.’ That was Mick’s mentality, right? That was the story that he was telling. I’m going to endure this much pain, which is going to be…it’s going to be monumental pain, just to inflict a little bit of pain on you.
When you started thinking about that kind of mindset, how deranged an individual does he have to be to do those kind of things? I would wear him out. And then he would get on the apron and take a stick or a pencil and jabbing into his leg and he’d pull his hair out. That’s just next-level commitment.
But it all made sense into his tormented mindset and that’s what made it so believable. Then you have this indestructible force called the Undertaker. Like this guy is going to kill himself. This guy will torture himself to torture this person.”