The Undertaker Rejected WrestleMania Match With WWE Hall Of Famer

The Undertaker had a big decision to make.

Although “The Streak” wasn’t the draw it would later become, a WrestleMania match with The Undertaker was still a big deal in 2002.

Coming off the back of the invasion, the star had plenty of new prospective opponents and that paved the way for a personal dream match against Ric Flair.

The blood-soaked WrestleMania X8 encounter was given a huge reaction by fans, with an Arn Anderson cameo bringing the packed house to their feet. When all was said and done it was ‘Taker who got the win, but Flair proved he had some gas left in the tank despite being all but retired prior to returning to the ring earlier that year.

Speaking on his Six Feet Under Podcast, Undertaker looked back at his match with Flair, revealing he turned down a match with Rob Van Dam to face the veteran.

“That was a lot of fun… I remember Vince [McMahon] coming to me that year, I hadn’t… I didn’t have an opponent. And he comes up to me, he goes, he’s like apologizing to me. He goes, ‘Mark, yeah, we booked all this out and I don’t have anybody for you.’

He says, ‘You can either have RVD or Flair.’ And no nothing against RVD. Cuz I had really good matches with RVD.

I was like, ‘Flair.’ He looked at me like, ‘What?’ I’m like, ‘I want Flair.’ And he just… He couldn’t grasp it. I mean Flair had a run in the WWE. But he wasn’t a WWE guy.

For me, it’s Ric Flair. I said, ‘At WrestleMania? Are you kidding me? I want Flair.’ Flair was on the backside of his career. But still… That whole thing was a lot of fun.

That’s where I went and beat up his kid at the training center. That was one of my favorite vignettes that I ever did,”

The Undertaker Regrets Roman Reigns Match

While his match with Flair was an undoubted high point, not all of his WrestleMania matches left The Deadman with the same level of satisfaction.

During the same episode, The Undertaker said his match with Roman Reigns still bothers him. The pair met at WrestleMania 33 with the veteran badly hampered by injury and his advancing years. In looking back at the bout, ‘Taker said he shouldn’t have been in the ring as his body was shutting down.

Shortly after the match Undertaker underwent hip surgery before returning to action on nine more occasions, eventually retiring in 2020.

H/t to WrestleZone