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If you’re a WWE fan, there’s a good chance you listen to wrestling podcasts. And if you listen to wrestling podcasts, there’s a very good chance that the dream interviewee on your favourite show would be The Undertaker.
The WWE legend, real name Mark Calaway, hasn’t given many media interviews during his career and the chances of him ever appearing on a podcast are slim-to-none.
Fans love to hear real-life stories from their favourite Superstars, whether it be about the wrestling business or about what they get up to outside of the squared circle, but The Undertaker is one person who we rarely hear speak out of character.
With that in mind, we’ve trawled through the world wide web and watched every real-life interview with Calaway that we could find to bring you five of the very best anecdotes and comments that he has given over the years.
#5 He revealed how he got The Undertaker gimmick
One of the most in-depth interviews Mark Calaway has ever given was prior to his WrestleMania X8 match against Ric Flair.
Speaking on 'Off The Record' on TSN, he had a wide-ranging chat with Michael Landsberg about all the major wrestling topics that people were talking about in March 2002.
Addressing the negative aspects of the business at the time, Calaway said he had reservations about Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash returning to WWE, while he bemoaned that the element of surprise in wrestling had been taken away because of websites (sorry, Mark).
He also revealed that he walked away from his first-ever meeting with Vince McMahon, which took place at the WWE owner’s house, thinking he was not going to be offered a job with the company, only for Vince to later call him and ask “Hello, is this The Undertaker?”.
#4 He has huge respect for Mick Foley
The Undertaker and Mick Foley’s in-ring battles have lived long in the memory for WWE fans, with their Hell In A Cell encounter at King of the Ring 1998 the obvious highlight from their selection of brutal matches together.
In 2000, the Biography Channel produced a documentary about Mick Foley called “Madman Unmasked”, in which Mark Calaway gave his thoughts about his on-screen rival and his various WWE gimmicks.
Calaway said he let it be known that he was not a fan of the Dude Love character – one of Foley’s alter egos and a persona he created as a teenager – but praised him for his willingness to take so much pain in his matches just to entertain fans.
The 01:47 clip is worth a watch if only to see Calaway give a serious interview while he’s dressed in his Ministry of Darkness attire.
#3 He might manage MMA fighters one day
In a backstage interview after UFC 121 in October 2010, Mark Calaway gave his thoughts on Brock Lesnar’s defeat to Cain Velasquez at the event and discussed his own potential plans for MMA one day.
Calaway, 45 years of age at the time, told FIGHT! Magazine that while time had passed him by with regards to trying out MMA competitively, he might try to manage some fighters when his WWE days are over.
The first part of the interview centres around what happened at UFC 121, but you can skip ahead to 03:20 to hear what he had to say about potentially getting involved in MMA.
Calaway’s appearance that night is probably remembered best for him asking “you wanna go?” to Lesnar as he walked by following his loss, which led to months of speculation that Lesnar would return to WWE. Of course, he did, and three-and-a-half years later he broke The Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania.
#2 He appeared on Jimmy Kimmel in 2003
Fans of The Undertaker have probably seen his 2003 interview with American talk show host Jimmy Kimmel before.
Ahead of his SummerSlam match with A-Train, Mark Calaway discussed a range of light-heartened topics with Kimmel. He spoke about A-Train’s hairy body, reinventing himself as a character and collecting people’s debts when he was younger.
His appearance on the show wasn’t complete without a surprisingly even pillow fight with Cousin Sal, which begins at the 07:45 mark of the video.
You can see from the 10-minute clip just how charismatic Calaway is in real life. It makes you wonder why he didn’t do more media appearances like this throughout his career.
#1 He addressed concerns about high-flyers in 2002
Way before Randy Orton began the ‘Dive…’ debate earlier in 2017, Mark Calaway addressed concerns about moves being executed by young high-flying wrestlers in 2002.
During an interview on The Score, the long-time locker-room leader said that the effort being put in by WWE’s younger Superstars at the time more than made up for their lack of wrestling psychology.
However, he added that a lot of their work was “awfully reckless” and it was “not very good resource management” for them to perform so many risky moves on such a regular basis.
The whole seven-minute interview embedded in this article is interesting to watch, or you can skip ahead to the 05:00 mark for his comments about the high-flyers.
