The Undertaker on Hot Ones: Can The Dead Man Take The Heat?
The Undertaker’s episode of Hot Ones is now online.
The Dead Man has been doing the media rounds to promote Sunday’s WWE Survivor Series pay-per-view. The event marks his 30th anniversary with WWE. The company is promoting the show as the Undertaker’s Final Farewell.
Hot Ones features celebrities being interviewed by host Sean Evans while eating increasingly spicy chicken wings. Here are some highlights of the interview:
The Undertaker spoke about the experience of breaking character over the past year for the Last Ride docuseries and other interviews. He’s been in wrestling for over 30 years and considers himself a very old school guy. It’s awkward for him to talk about the business so openly. The old school ‘rassler’ in him makes him want to ‘close the curtain’ again.
Early in his career, he was absolutely miserable doing media appearances like Regis and Kathie Lee in character. He knew it was great for WWE, but he hated it.
He was asked about the first character he portrayed in wrestling, ‘Commando’ in Central Illinois Wrestling. Undertaker was very impressed with the question, saying, “You’ve done some homework, brother.” He was a starving wrestler at the time, but looks back on those times fondly. His dad gave him some great advice: “The toes you step on on your way to the top are connected to the asses you’re going to have to kiss on the way back down.” This lesson taught him to treats people with respect no matter how big a star you are.
Undertaker named Arn Anderson as the best technical wrestler he ever saw work.
The most impressive physical athlete he’s ever seen is Brock Lesnar. He called Lesnar a freak athlete and couldn’t believe how agile Lesnar was for a big man.
The most savage backstage pranksters were Curt Hennig, Mr. Fuji and Owen Hart. He said Mr Fuji would escalate things to such an extreme level that he couldn’t share the worst of his antics.
When asked to name four matches he would recommend as definitive examples of great pro wrestling, he listed:
- Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat (WM3)
- Ric Flair vs. Harley Race (Any of their matches)
- Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels (WM25)
- Edge and Randy Orton (WM35)
Undertaker spoke about wrestlers court. He said it was a serious thing, but also a friendly, lighthearted way that wrestlers were told they needed to ‘check themselves’ for getting out of line. If you were called into wrestlers court, there was usually a pretty good reason for it, such as ‘gimmick infringement’ (stealing another wrestler’s moves.)
Other topics discussed include his favorite match with Steve Austin, the evolution of his theme music, his love of riding motorcycles and Mike Tyson’s lasting impact on pro wrestling. You can watch The Undertaker on Hot Ones in the YouTube player embedded below:
