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Irrespective of how the business of professional wrestling has evolved over the last few years if there's one Superstar who's always maintained kayfabe, it's The Undertaker. The Deadman has kept his personal life rather private for the majority of his career but that has changed recently.
Undertaker: The Last Ride is now streaming on the WWE Network and offers a closer look into the life of the man named Mark Calaway. Three chapters of the docuseries have gone live so far and showcase The Undertaker in a never-seen-before candid demeanor.
Using the medium of The Last Ride, The Deadman has dived into a lot of anecdotes from the years gone by and spilled the beans on several topics. Let us have a look at some of the secrets about The Undertaker that we've learned so far from the series.
#5 The Undertaker had his struggles with working occasionally and a case of ring rust
For decades, The Undertaker has enthralled fans week in and week out in the WWE. He has always put his body on the line and given his all to the business. However, with age, The Deadman too has faced several issues with his shape and he explained so in The Last Ride.
"I had a five-year stretch or so there where my schedule would be I would prepare for Mania, I would have my Mania match. Then I would have some kind of surgery to repair whatever had been bothering me going into that match and then go straight from rehab right into training to be ready to go into Mania."
Given his health concerns, The Undertaker has been working only once or twice a year of late and that comes with its problems too. The Deadman didn't shy away from explaining that without the working regularly, ensuring that he's ready for a match is the main problem. Two days prior to WrestleMania 33, this is what The Undertaker had to say in a car interview:
"This point every year that's kind of the big issue making sure that there's enough gas in the tank. And that's kinda a product of only working the few matches that I do now, everything that I'm dealing with now. It's a kinda crazy web I weave trying to train effectively and to get the maximum result I can with what I'm working with."
#4 The Undertaker's confidence took a hit after he suffered a concussion against Brock Lesnar
Most wrestling fans received the biggest shock of their lives when Brock Lesnar hit The Undertaker with multiple F5s and ultimately ended his WrestleMania streak. As far as The Deadman is concerned though, it wasn't the result of the match but what happened during the same that impacted him the most.
The Undertaker had a concussion and he revealed that to this date, he still has no memory of the match.
“I'm not sure when I got concussed. I don't know how that match happened. I have no recollection of any of that. My last memory of that day was at about 3:30 in the afternoon...What I think happened, is between getting older and then not having all the reps and taking all the bumps through the course of the year, eventually, it caught up with me. That explains what happened in New Orleans, that's why the concussion happened. But it's one concussion in one match, it destroyed my confidence."
The Undertaker then talked about how he was filled with self-doubt heading into his match against Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 31 and it was then that Triple H helped him out. The Deadman explained that Triple H came up to him and said:
"Hey, remember who the f*** you are."
This eventually helped The Undertaker shed his inhibitions, calm down, and put on a show for the night.
#3 The Undertaker almost retired after WrestleMania 33
If you watched The Undertaker vs Roman Reigns back in 2017 at WrestleMania 33, you'd remember The Deadman leaving his hat, coat, and gloves inside the ring after the match. It seemed at the time that it was over for him. The truth is that it actually could've been the final match of The Undertaker in WWE. The Undertaker revealed his disappointment at the match:
"There was so much emotion...The utter disappointment of the performance that I just gave, there's the searing pain that's running down my leg coupled with the fact that this is the last time I'm gonna come and be on this stage in this manner. I don't think there was ever a thing more real than me putting the hat and the coat and the gloves down...I was so disappointed in my performance and the fact that I let myself do that, that was one hundred percent real and me saying goodbye."
Eventually, The Undertaker didn't retire because of how unhappy he was with his performance and wanted to go out in a better way. During one of the portions of the second chapter, he would go ahead and claim the need for doing better.
"I feel like I need some redemption for that performance."
The Deadman would return at WrestleMania 34 and dispatch John Cena is a quick match where his performance was certainly up to his usual standards.
#2 The Undertaker wasn't satisfied with his match against John Cena on a personal level
Following the debacle against Roman Reigns, The Undertaker really did put his best foot forward. He lost a lot of weight, trained properly, and seemed much healthier as compared to his previous outing at WrestleMania 33. However, The Deadman would only get a three-minute match with Cena and he expressed his displeasure about the same.
"Professionally it was fine, personally it left me a little empty. I was able to train for the first time in a few years in a way that I wanted to train, pain-free in my hips. I was prepared to do a 20-30 minute match."
The Undertaker even went on to suggest that had he got the perfect match with John Cena in terms of storytelling and obviously the in-ring elements, he could've possibly walked away. But that wasn't to be eventually given how short the match was and The Deadman concluded that nothing much could be done about it.
#1 The Undertaker is struggling with his retirement decision
The one recurring theme across all the three chapters of The Last Ride so far has been the retirement of The Undertaker. However, instead of Mark Calaway giving us an idea of when he could possibly hang up his boots, we've seen him being confused about the decision. Towards the end of the second chapter, this is what The Undertaker had to say:
"You know it's been a running joke - in how many years I'm gonna retire. I think if I had to I could, it's just a matter of if I want to. I could look at it like, okay you can still go, now do you wanna go? There's no sense in giving you an answer really 'cause I couldn't give you an honest one."
In the third chapter of the series, we saw The Undertaker talking about Shawn Michaels walking into the Streak vs Career match at WrestleMania 26 knowing that this was the end of the line for him. He stated that he also wanted that kind of clarity.
“I’m so envious of Shawn because he was able to walk away from it, he was good with it. Do I wish I had that clarity? Absolutely. I absolutely wish I had that clarity.”
It only goes on to show that The Deadman is struggling to come to terms with his retirement decision.
