PWInsider reported on Friday that Undertaker would be at the WWE Performance Center next week, including on Tuesday when NXT holds their weekly TV. It would be the latest big name to appear on Tuesday’s show, with WWE already confirming the likes of John Cena, Cody Rhodes, Paul Heyman, the Brawling Brutes, and Asuka.
The Undertaker has mostly been making one man show appearances in recent years after having his last match in 2020 against AJ Styles. He made an appearance earlier this year at Raw is XXX in his American Bad Ass gimmick, confronting LA Knight and giving approval to Bray Wyatt.
Here is the current card for NXT on Tuesday:
Carmelo Hayes (with John Cena) vs. Bron Breakker (with Paul Heyman)
Roxanne Perez vs. Asuka
Pub Rules: Brawling Brutes & Tyler Bate vs. Gallus
The Undertaker nearly went one-on-one with a shark recently.
On Sunday, Michelle McCool posted to Twitter about an encounter the couple had with a nurse shark close to shore. According to McCool’s post, she texted Taker upon seeing the shark and he rushed out to help. He is shown standing between his wife and the shark in video of the incident.
“Guess I wasn’t big enough to scare him away but you are,” McCool can be heard saying in the video.
I was simply enjoying a book on the beach when this “vegetation” looked a lot like a shark…..so I text hubby @undertaker 🦈😳kinda digging that last picture …A LOT😍#myprotector 🖤 pic.twitter.com/z9goXelzNT
Taker and McCool recently celebrated their 13th wedding anniversary. Last week, McCool posted to Instagram about the occasion, “13 It’s all yours @undertaker! Love you the most……Our sweet girl made this & their voices at the end melt my heart!”
Taker recently finished a tour of the UK with his 1deadMAN show. He performed a show the day of Money in the Bank in London on 7/1, on 7/2 from Wolverhampton, 7/3 from Manchester, and a show from Glasgow on 7/4.
The Undertaker says he knew Vince McMahon wouldn’t be able to stay away from WWE.
The 57-year-old reflected on hearing McMahon was stepping down during a recent interview with Ariel Helwani.
Taker said:
He called me the day before he announced [his retirement] and we got into an argument because I thought he was ribbing me. I said, ‘There’s no way, there is absolutely no way you’re stepping away.’
We ended up kind of going at it a little bit. Finally, I was like ‘alright, okay.’ Sure enough, next day, Vince resigned but I knew there was no way he’d stay away.
McMahon returned as the company’s executive chairman in January. WWE has publicly stated that his only role is to spearhead efforts regarding a potential sale but Taker feels it will still be challenging for him to not be more involved.
Even in this role, I think it’s going to be challenging for him. I mean, that’s his baby, man, he’s the one who created this whole thing.
I know he wants to make sure that these TV deals and everything are done the right way and right now that’s his sole motivation but that’s Vince McMahon, I don’t know, we’ll see where it goes. A WWE without Vince is hard to imagine.
When asked if he foresees a scenario where Vince McMahon is not involved with the company, Taker responded:
I would have a really hard time imagining that there wouldn’t be some kind of contingency that he has some type of control there. I don’t think even if the company was to get sold, which I don’t have any feeling one way or another whether that’s going to happen or not, but I just can’t imagine somebody coming in and buying the company and running it the same way with just the dedication to detail the way it’s run now.
However, Taker believes that Paul “Triple H” Levesque has done “great” in his role as Chief Content Officer. Taker continued to say that Triple H’s current role is “the perfect position for him.”
He has always been a creative force even when he was just a talent. I mean, he just always had great ideas and it’s the perfect position, I think, for him. I think he’s done a really, really good job and under a really difficult situation too.
Up next for Taker is a performance of his 1deadMAN Show on Friday, March 24, from the Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. The show will begin shortly after the conclusion of WWE SmackDown from nearby MGM Grand Garden Arena the same night.
WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker appeared in a commercial for DraftKings during Sunday’s Super Bowl LVII telecast.
Undertaker joined extreme sports legend Tony Hawk, Baseball Hall of Famer David Ortiz, and Kevin Hart among other sports and entertainment celebrities in the DraftKings ad.
Undertaker last appeared for WWE at Raw’s 30th Anniversary episode on January 23, taking part in an angle with LA Knight and Bray Wyatt ahead of the Wyatt vs. Knight Mountain Dew Pitch Black match at the Royal Rumble on January 28.
The Super Bowl ad is not the first time that Hart and The Undertaker have worked together, as ‘Taker appeared on Hart’s “Cold as Balls” in 2022.
NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Tyrus also appeared in a Super Bowl commercial for Fox News Channel’s Gutfeld! talk show, holding the NWA title belt:
Pro wrestling royalty appeared in full force at Ric Flair’s Last Match event.
WWE Hall of Famers The Undertaker, Bret Hart, and Mick Foley were among those who attended the event in person and were shown sitting ringside for the main event of the pay-per-view. Former WWE talent Michelle McCool, Undertaker’s wife, was also ringside for the match.
Earlier in the show in a backstage segment, Jerry “The King” Lawler appeared with Jerry Jarrett, siding with Jeff Jarrett in the lead-up to the main event, Flair and Andrade El Idolo vs. Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal. Flair and Andrade won the match when Flair pinned Jarrett with a figure four.
WWE’s Cody Rhodes Dolph Ziggler, Shawn Michaels, AEW’s Sting and Jim Ross, and WWE Hall of Famers Trish Stratus, Kurt Angle, and JBL were among those that sent in video messages in support of Flair that aired during the telecast.
DDP was also involved in an angle on the show during the Bunkhouse Stampede battle royal.
Former TNA president Dixie Carter, Lex Luger, Doug Dellinger, Booker T, Jake Roberts, Will Sasso, and NWA’s Nick Aldis also sent videos that aired.
Among other notable personalities that appeared in the crowd during the show were JJ Dillon, Vickie Guerrero, and Kid Rock.
Former NWA and WCW announcer Bob Caudle, who turns 92 years old on August 2, opened and closed the telecast with pre-taped videos.
When A&E’s second season of Biography: WWE Legends kicks off on Sunday, July 10th, it will do so with a two-hour episode on The Undertaker.
According to their schedule on that day, there will be four hours of WWE lead-in programming with a WWE Hidden Treasures episode on Jerry Lawler and previous Legends episodes on Steve Austin, Booker T and Shawn Michaels.
Following the two-hour debut, the new show WWE Rivals will debut with a one-hour episode focusing on Michaels vs. Bret Hart.
Following that, A&E will air WWE Smack Talk with Booker T and Peter Rosenberg discussing The Undertaker documentary with special guest Glen “Kane” Jacobs.
The partnership between WWE and A&E was first announced in 2019 with Biography episodes on Austin, Michaels, Booker T, Roddy Piper and Randy Savage.
In March of this year, the two sides announced a multi-year expanded partnership for 130 hours of content that includes 35 new Biography episodes, 24 new episodes of WWE Hidden Treasures, and 40 episodes of WWE Rivals.
The first inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame has been announced as The Undertaker will be enshrined as part of this year’s ceremony at WrestleMania 38 in Dallas, Texas.
The ceremony will air live on Peacock and WWE Network after SmackDown on Friday, April 1st. For the first time, they will hold the event on the same night as as SmackDown as a doubleheader for fans.
The 56-year-old Houston, Texas, native born Mark Calaway made his WWE debut in October 1990 as Kane The Undertaker which was eventually changed. He made his TV debut at that November’s Survivor Series as a surprise addition to Ted DiBiase’s Million Dollar Team.
He won his first WWE Championship by defeating Hulk Hogan at the following year’s Survivor Series, a title he would win four times. He also won the World title three times, the WWE Tag Team titles six times, the WCW Tag Team titles once and the WWE Hardcore title once.
His last “match” came at WrestleMania 36 in March 2020 when he defeated AJ Styles in a cinematic Boneyard match while his last actual in-ring bout came a month prior in Saudi Arabia in a gauntlet match that he won.
He was honored at the 2020 Survivor Series after 30 years with WWE, closing the show with a short promo saying it was time for him to rest in peace. He did his traditional pose while a hologram of former manager Paul Bearer was projected. Earlier that year, he said he was retiring as part of his Last Ride docuseries on WWE Network.
The Bryan & Vinny & Granny & Craig Show is back with tons to talk about including our usual weekly Granny Q&A, her Weekly Wrestling Report and Undertaker book reading, and then the boys review and all-timer, RAW EPISODE 10. A fun show as always so check it out~!
While doing the media rounds for next year’s WWE WrestleMania 38 at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas, past headliner The Undertaker spoke with The Ticket Sports Radio about his current health status.
Undertaker (Mark Calaway) revealed he is set for multiple surgeries in the coming months and joked about extending the wait time a bit longer.
“Both my hips are partial hip replacements already. I need a right knee. I have surgeries lined up, but I have to wait until hunting season is over,” he said.
He noted to the Dallas Morning News recently that while the “wrestling bug” still bites him, he feels that he can’t perform at a level and “give people what they expect at this point.” Although the passion is still there, he admitted, “Ican’t deliver physically on what people’s expectations are” and acknowledged that his time has “come and gone.”
Undertaker hasn’t competed on WWE TV since WrestleMania 36 in March 2020 where he defeated AJ Styles in the cinematic boneyard match.
This week, former wrestler, trainer, and broadcaster Les Thatcher and I talk about the Undertaker’s recent comments about the WWE locker room of today while on the Joe Rogan podcast. Then, we preview this weekend’s WWE Royal Rumble and who’s going to win.
Appearing on the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Sting said he is interested in the idea of doing “cinema-style matches,” and that when he spoke with AEW President Tony Khan prior to signing with the company, the subject of cinematic matches came up.
“When Tony called and spoke with me and he asked ‘Are you interested in doing cinema-style matches?’ I said ‘Yeah, I am. I am,'” he said.
Sting also revealed that he had pushed for a cinematic match with The Undertaker in WWE, but it never came to fruition.
“I didn’t want it to end the way it ended. I was pushing to get a cinema-style match with The Undertaker. And for probably a litany of different reasons, it just wasn’t going to happen,” said Sting.
Those are just two of the items that were discussed during a wide-ranging interview with hosts Tony Schiavone and Aubrey Edwards that covered Sting’s entire career.
Sting also discussed how he came to know Tony Khan originally.
“I got a call from Tony Khan five years ago, or maybe even more. I didn’t know who he was. Then he mentioned the Jacksonville Jaguars… So I did my research and found out that there is a Tony Khan and a Shad Khan,” he said.
“I ended up calling him back, he wanted me to sign a baseball bat and he wanted to present it to the team at the time. So I met Tony long before AEW, long before that even happened,” said Sting.
“Then my second-oldest son actually tried out with the Jaguars. He tried out with four different teams, the Jaguars being one of them. So there’s some history there with Tony.”
Sting also talked about how he came to sign with AEW.
“He called me again, oh, maybe a year ago or so. Actually, he didn’t call me, he just sent a text. And I’m still with WWE [at the time], so I’ve got to be careful how I handle all this kind of stuff, so I just kept it superficial, and that was that,” Sting said.
“I’d say two months ago or so, somewhere around then, I reached out and I said ‘Hey, are you still willing to talk?’ and he said ‘Yeah,” so here we are,” he said.
When asked a question about what he would like to get out of his time in AEW, and also what he would like to give, Sting had a twofold answer.
“I’d love to be able to go out, I don’t have to go out on top, I’m just saying go out in a positive light,” Sting said.
“I would like to mentor some of these guys and be any kind of help I possibly can. Even thought it’s changed, I still get it and I’d like to be a part of helping some of these guys get better.
Sting also spoke briefly about his negotiations with Vince McMahon in the years between WCW folding and his ultimate arrival in WWE in 2014.
“You know, after it [WCW] ended, we never did talk. There was no discussion, at least immediately after [WCW closed],” said Sting.
“It was maybe a year after that Vince reached out and we had a conversation. Talking with Vince was always good,” he said.
“But then you’d get his group of attorneys and my attorney and then it all kind of falls apart.”
Sting also had positive things to say about his time spent in WWE.
“You know, I thought, ‘I’ve done just about everything there is to do here,’ and I had fun. They treated me good,” Sting said.
The AEW Unrestricted podcast is available on all major podcast platforms. Video versions of past episodes can be found on the TNT website, although video of the Sting episode is not yet available.
*Editor’s note: this transcript has been edited for clarity.*
After months of videos and interviews insisting that he’s retired–probably–almost surely, Mark “The Undertaker” Calaway did what was billed as his final appearance at a wrestling show as the main event of Survivor Series, the same show where he debuted the character 30 years earlier.
The timing was fitting, the situation anything but. It made for a nice story to do so on the 30th anniversary, but there was no pressure to do it at any time and this could have been saved for another show–with fans. Plus, it can’t possibly be the farewell, since he’s likely going to main event the next class, or one thereafter, of the Hall of Fame. As symbolic as Survivor Series is to his story, it is nowhere close to WrestleMania, where the streak made him, even more than Hulk Hogan and Shawn Michaels, the enduring figure of the biggest shows in wrestling history.
WWE’s foray into new third party partnerships has begun as they announced Thursday that the Undertaker will be joining Cameo for a limited run of 30 “personalized video messages which he will fulfill at Survivor Series.”
Requests are being taken now with a cost of $1000 per message.
Undertaker has been doing the media rounds again this week as he prepares for what is being billed as a “Final Farewell” at Sunday’s Survivor Series, celebrating 30 years in WWE.
WWE made news recently after they changed their policy and forbade talent from having their own separate third party deals with Cameo and Twitch. Part of the rationale is to establish broader partnerships with revenue being counted against the talent’s yearly downside guarantee vs. going directly to them. Since Undertaker isn’t an active talent, it’s unknown how his compensation for the potential $30,000 in revenue will work.
WWE talents that have Cameo accounts recently have seen the company logo added to their profile, but neither WWE or Cameo has yet to formally announce a partnership.
A documentary on the intertwined career of the Undertaker and Kane will debut at the Austin (TX) Film Festival & Conference in October before debuting on WWE Network the following month.
“Brothers of Destruction” will close out the week-long conference on the night of Thursday, October 29th while the Network debut is set for Sunday, November 15th, part of a month-long celebration of Undertaker’s 30 years in pro wrestling (“30 Days of the Deadman”).
The documentary description from WWE: “The film breaks new ground as cameras capture a candid discussion between The Undertaker and Kane about their storied careers for the first time. Intertwined since Kane was introduced as The Undertaker’s long-lost brother in 1997, The Big Red Machine and The Deadman have been both bitter enemies and fierce allies, but their relationship never failed to captivate the WWE Universe, resulting in one of sports-entertainment’s most incredible legacies.”
WWE debuted the well-recieved Undertaker documentary series earlier this year on the Network with Undertaker (Mark Calaway) doing a slew of mainstream interviews to help promote it, something he had been reluctant to do for decades due to the character.
After news that multiple people in WWE tested positive for COVID-19, Friday’s SmackDown on Fox was taped at the Performance Center earlier in the day and to make up for limited talent available, they did a tribute to the Undertaker and replayed a version of the boneyard match edited for television.
On Saturday’s Wrestling Observer Live, we talk about the Undertaker’s legacy and his greatest matches.
Before that, we discuss reasons why WWE seemingly has a certain attitude when it comes to talent and testing for COVID-19 with a quote from a book that might sum it up. One of those recent WWE talents that contracted the virus is Renee Young, an incredibly talented broadcaster and one of the best in-studio hosts I have ever seen.
Plus, we discuss the Swamp Fight announced on SmackDown and what I would do each year with the Bray Wyatt character.
