The Undertaker Admits He Risked Becoming A Parody In WWE

The Undertaker has been open about his struggles with retirement since walking away from the WWE ring and admits he risked becoming a parody of himself.

The Undertaker had the last match of his legendary career at WrestleMania 36 when he defeated AJ Styles in a cinematic Boneyard Match. Since then, The Phenom has been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and is still around the company doing his speaking tours alongside many of WWE’s major shows.

But retirement has not come easy for him and The Undertaker has noted he finally found closure with his cameo appearance at WrestleMania 40 when he dropped The Rock with a wicked chokeslam.

The Undertaker Wanted To Keep Wrestling

Speaking to Chris Van Vliet on his Insight podcast, The Undertaker discussed how hard he’s found his retirement and admitted towards the end of his career he risked becoming a parody of himself:

I never really [thought about it]. I knew the end was near, but I didn’t. It’s weird. Like, I knew that it was going to come but I wasn’t mentally preparing myself for it. I always just thought I was going to be able to do it and realistically, you know, Father Time is undefeated. I knew early on, even when I was still working, and I love this business so much, but I knew I was going to have a hard time.

People always ask me, Well why don’t you go down to the PC? Or why don’t you be a mentor? When I’m around, I do that kind of stuff. But as an everyday deal, I can’t do it. Because recently, I’ve just kind of had closure, ‘Mania. I don’t know if you heard this but I struggled since I retired at being at live events. I would go, I was at the Rumble because I had 1DeadMAN Show in Clearwater.

I stayed over and I was at the Rumble. By the time I think maybe the first match had gone out I left. Because internally, my body and my mind is you should be getting ready, you should be going out there and I get almost, I wouldn’t say anxiety, but I just get this feeling like I can’t take it because I want to be out there so bad.

I wanted to continue to wrestle, obviously, my body broke down and Father Time is undefeated, I never wanted to be a parody of myself and I really risked that at the end. I had some matches that I think maybe at one point in my career, they were bad.

But there was one point in my career I felt like I could take anything and turn it around and I just didn’t have it in me, like the match I had with Goldberg in Saudi Arabia. I should have picked up on the fact that he had his bell rung, and then [he] rung it again when he hit the post, I should have been sharp enough to adapt at that point, and not try to get to where I was getting.

Infamously, The Undertaker clashed with Goldberg for the first and only time in their careers at Super Showdown in Saudi Arabia in 2019. Goldberg was already knocked silly after his customary headbutting of his locker room door on the way to the ring and the match is considered one of the worst of all time as both men struggled through it before The Undertaker mercifully won.

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