The Undertaker Left Shaking After Disastrous Pyro Incident

Many things can go wrong in a wrestling ring but as The Undertaker found out in one infamous WWE incident, it can go very wrong before you even step through the ropes.

At Elimination Chamber 2010, The Undertaker entered the demonic structure as World Heavyweight Champion hoping to plot his own course to WrestleMania 26. However, The Deadman’s final title run of his career ended thanks to Shawn Michaels who interfered in the match to goad The Undertaker into facing him once again on the grandest stage of them all.

However, before The Undertaker even set foot in the Elimination Chamber, things had already gone badly wrong. During his entrance, the WWE Hall of Famer was engulfed in flames from his pyro leaving him with a badly burnt body.

Speaking to Chris Van Vliet on his Insight podcast, The Undertaker gave his full take on what happened and began by revealing that he’d already asked for part of his pyro to be placed further away before the frightening incident:

Yeah, that was pretty hairy and potentially could have been far worse than what it actually was. A lot of things happened just by chance that night. Backstory, two weeks prior I have Kevin Dunn and the lead pyro guy out on the stage. I’m saying these pyro balls when I stop at the edge of the stage right before I hit the ramp. I said these two powerful bursts right here are too close, I’m getting a lot of heat. I said I want my entrance to be as scary and as cool as possible. But I said these right here, they need to back out a little bit.

The guy goes no I think it was there’s just a draft in the building. I was like, I don’t care if there’s a draft in the building. I’m telling you these pyro bursts are too hot, they’re too close. Kevin Dunn said you need to back them up.

However, as The Undertaker found out, that didn’t happen. But he did explain how the situation could have been a whole lot worse if he hadn’t made two last-minute decisions:

Okay, so now we jumped forward two weeks. It’s the Elimination Chamber, it’s in St. Louis and I’m the champion. We’re gonna switch the belt because we’re leading into me and Shawn [Michaels]. So originally, I had one of my Hellraiser jackets on. I had that coat on, well, when I wear that coat and when you wear the belt, you can’t see it, because it all fastens together. And I said, okay, this is my last night as champion, I want people to see the belt. I don’t want to carry the belt, I don’t want to drag the belt, I want to wear the belt. This could be the last time that I have it.

So the last minute I switched from the Hellraiser coat to the duster and hat so that when I walked down, you’ll be able to see the title. The first thing that I did right was that. So now I was the last one into the pod and I was gonna be the last one to come out. So I’m thinking about, okay, my hair is gonna dry out and when my hair dries out I can’t see a thing.

So I take a couple of extra bottles more than I usually would do and I just doused myself with water so that my hair stays wet so when my music hit, I’m drenched in water. I mean, it’s just pouring off of me. That was crucial.

The Undertaker Went On The Hunt For Pyro Handler

But disaster still struck as The Undertaker explained what went through his mind when he was engulfed in flames and why he was determined to get through the match despite blisters forming on his chest:

I come out and make my entrance. I stop at my normal spot, my head down waiting to do the lift. The pyro ball on the left comes up and it comes right up my left side. I mean, it’s like he moved it in and it’s so hot. I will no sell something as long as I possibly can until I can’t take it. So I turned to my right to get out of the fireball and then this one goes off. Now I’m right in it.

So I’m totally engulfed in this propane pyro ball. And the only place that I knew safe to go was go straight because you’re also dealing with walking off the stage and I’d be on fire and take a huge fall.

So I run out of the fireball and obviously everyone’s freaking out and they’re trying to cover for me. So I come out of this pyro ball and I can see my hat’s on fire and my right sleeve is on fire. Now if I hadn’t switched coats this arm would have been totally just trashed. Then without all the water that I had on me, I mean, my eyebrows were all singed up my face was burnt and then I had a big burn right around my singlet. So I’m in the pod, I know that I’m okay but now I have the burnt flesh and burnt hair smell.

I’m looking down and I’m watching the skin on my chest bubble up, it’s blistering up and I’m getting madder and madder and madder. They’ve got a couple of ring crew guys underneath. Back then the floor of the pods were grates. So they’re handing me bottles of water up from the bottom and I’m taking the water and I’m pouring them on myself. I still gotta go. They’re asking me do you want to stop? Do you want to get out? I was like, no man, we got business to do, I’ve got to drop this belt to Jericho.

So everybody they work, they work, they work. Finally, I’m the last one in and then I ended up going another 20 minutes with Jericho and that jackass puts me in the Walls of Jericho. My burned chest is on the mat and I’m thinking you got to be kidding me!

So finally Shawn comes up through the ring gives me the super kick and then I get out of there. I’d already told him, I said look if that dude is backstage when I get back I’m gonna kill him and I totally meant it. So I’ve been out when I came out it was all over with man, I blew through Gorilla backstage it was like a ghost town. There was nobody anywhere. And everybody’s kind of behind me chasing me because they want to take care of my wounds and everything, but I was like, man, if there’s any chance this dude is here he’s dead, because I was p*ssed.

But yeah, so I had severe burns on my chest and ended up having to go to the burn centre the next day and went into a little bit of a shock later that night. Once I started trying to shower and get cleaned up I came out of the shower and I was just shaking. So yeah, that was pretty scary, that one could have been avoided.

The Undertaker also admitted he risked becoming a parody at the end of his WWE career as he reflected on how tough he’s found retirement from the ring.

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