Booker T and Brad Gilmore welcomed WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker as their guest on the “Hall of Fame” podcast.
The Undertaker talked about today’s talent doing high-risk spots in matches:
“It is completely two different worlds. It’s crazy because never in a million years can I imagine how athletic these guys are today. I don’t know if it was the video games they played as kids, but they’re doing video game type stuff in the ring. I think it’s almost, sometimes it’s a curse, because they’re so athletic and they rely so much on that aspect, that they forget the most important aspect of what we do, and that is storytelling. I’ve mentioned it to different people high up, and, you know, it’s like, ‘Hey, we can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube’, but I think at some point we’re going to have to figure out a way to get it back in there. I’m just thinking about their health if nothing else.”
“I tell people this all the time, and people look at me like I’m crazy, but in any given wrestling match, any match, at some point in that match, you’re two inches away from something really catastrophic happening. The stuff that these guys are doing to get reactions from the crowds, I mean, it just makes it exponentially more dangerous than what it has to be because after a while, people get desensitized to the crazy moves, the double backflip off the top rope onto the floor. I’ve seen it done a couple times. Now what do you have for me? So you have to continue to push the envelope to, okay, what am I going to have to do to get a reaction? It’s hard to argue with them because, look, business is great. It’s their era. It is what it is, but I mean just being there through the years and knowing what it does to your body, it’s just like, man, you’re not going to have careers like we had. You’re going to burn out. You’re going to get hurt.”
Undertaker on veterans offering their advice to younger talent:
“We love the business. We want to see the business continue to grow, but we also have years and years and years of experience, and I know the injury bug pretty damn well, and that’s just one aspect of it. I don’t care how long the business goes on, the essence is always going to be good storytelling. This is one of the things I say quite a bit. Wrestling isn’t about wrestling moves. It’s not. It’s about storytelling. We use wrestling moves to help tell that story, but it’s not about all that. That’s just a tool to get to the essence of A versus B and whatever that story is that wraps them up.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit The Hall of Fame with Booker T & Brad Gilmore with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
