Taker was asked if he feels the energy and momentum with WWE and if it’s comparable to the Attitude Era.
Taker said, “I will go and in my head I’ll try to pick things apart and there’s a lot of things that I don’t like. Obviously, there’s still a huge aspect of storytelling that’s missing. It’s getting better but overall, the atmosphere and business you cannot deny what’s going on right now. Everything is sold out. It was for the Rumble or maybe at Mania, I was walking down the hallway and they had this sheet on the wall of the cities that there are no comps for. And I’m not just talking about 2 or 3 cities, there’s a list of 30 cities that you cannot get comps for because they’re sold out and I hadn’t seen that since the Attitude Era. Obviously, prices are different and all that but the energy level in the crowd. The product, the guys, it’s strong man. I will never say anything is better than the Attitude Era. I’m gonna hold onto that but what’s going on right now is as close as you’re ever gonna get and they’re making more money.”
The words professional wrestling are no longer banned in WWE. For decades, Vince McMahon wanted wrestlers to be known as sports entertainers. Bully Ray asked Taker if he considers a pro wrestler or a sports entertainer.
Taker said, “I’d be lying if I said I haven’t put both on medical forms and stuff like that. Probably more times than not it’s professional wrestler. Later on as people recognize you more and more, then you try to change it up a little bit to sports entertainer…I’m always at my core and at my roots, I’m always gonna be a professional wrestler. I’m proud of that part.”
On using his real name for his podcast, “It is strange [being called by his real name] but seeing that podcast [and] WWE is allowing me to do that, to keep it separate that’s why we’re using Mark Calaway. It’s kind of cheaper.”
Taker said during the interview that he’s still hesitant about the “Six Feet Under” podcast but he’s warming up to it and he would like to interview people from outside of wrestling. The video version of the podcast is a massive success with over 300,000 followers on YouTube.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Busted Open Radio with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
