The Undertaker watched The Rock’s first night in WWE and concluded he was finished before he started.
Asked on the latest episode of Six Feet Under for his first impressions, he did not dress it up.
“I remember the night that he came out in Madison Square Garden, but I saw him with the kind of the island gimmick on, the, what were they, tassels? I don’t know what those were called, but they looked like tassels to me. And he came out with this rah rah babyface kind of energy, and I was like, oh man, this guy’s done for.”
“I swear, I thought, man, you knew he was talented, he was an athlete, he played football at Florida, but he came out with that babyface presentation, and I was like, oh man, this guy, he don’t stand a chance.”
He conceded the point.
“It’s one of those things, duly noted. I was wrong. He had a fair run. I guess he’s okay. Yeah, I definitely missed on that one. He really turned into something extremely special. I wish he’d have hung around a little longer. But you know, you got big dreams, you got to go live them.”
The night The Rock stopped looking at him
His favourite story from working together is not about a match being good.
“I remember one particular night that I’m working against Rock, and I think it was a Monday Night Raw. He is absolutely just kicking the s*** out of me, and he’s just going off, and he’s throwing punch after punch after punch, and I’m selling, and he’s hitting me, and then I look at him, and I realize that he’s not even looking at me. He’s looking over my shoulder at the Tron.”
“He’s basically watching himself kick my ass on the Tron. So he is over here wearing me out, but his head is looking this way, like he was really actually enjoying watching himself kick my ass.”
“I had to call him out. Like, hey, dude, if you’re going to kick my ass, will you at least look at me while you do it? Which he laughed, and we had a moment. But that was just one of those deals. Like, are you kidding me right now? You’re not even going to look at me?”
WrestleMania 40 and closure
The two shared a ring again at WrestleMania 40, when The Undertaker returned during the main event.
“When I came out at the end of that at 40, that was fun, man. That was a little walk down memory lane. I tell you what, though, I think he got a little heavier, or I’m not quite as strong as I used to be. I don’t know what that was.”
“To be able to get in there with one of the guys from that era and relive a little bit of that magic, that was fun. It was worth the run that I had to make to get to the ring on my brand new replaced knees. It all paid off, because that was a really cool moment, and actually, that really gave me a lot of closure as well to my in-ring wrestling career. It was just kind of like, wow, this is fun, and this is a good way to shut it all down.”
The Rock debuted as Rocky Maivia at Survivor Series in November 1996 at Madison Square Garden.
