The Undertaker almost faced a 6-time IC Champion at WrestleMania X8 instead of Ric Flair

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Ric Flair and The Undertaker
Ric Flair and The Undertaker

The Undertaker's WrestleMania record now stands at 23-2. However, for a long time, it seemed like The Deadman was invincible at the Show of Shows. Amongst The Undertaker's memorable matches at WrestleMania, was his No DQ match against Ric Flair at WrestleMania X8.

The Undertaker had the option of facing RVD at WrestleMania X8 instead of Ric Flair

During his recent appearance on Broken Skull Sessions with Steve Austin, The Undertaker revealed that Vince McMahon had originally given him two choices for his Mania opponent for WrestleMania X8. Vince McMahon had told him that one option was Ric Flair while the other was Rob Van Dam. Undertaker revealed that he chose Ric Flair before Mr. McMahon had even finished saying "Flair". The Deadman revealed he ended up choosing Ric Flair over RVD because at the time, he felt that he would have the opportunity to wrestle RVD later:

Going into that year, I remember Vince pulling me into the office at TV and going, ‘Mark, I’m so sorry, I haven’t got you figured into Mania.’ I was like, ‘I kinda noticed. Everyone is deep into their heels already.’ He goes, ‘I have two guys for you, RVD and Flair.’ I don’t think he got ‘Flair’ all the way out before I said ‘Flair.’ He was shocked. Vince was shocked because he thought I was going to go with the younger guy.
RVD was on his way up and was doing good things, but I went with Flair. He was still like, ‘You don’t want to work with RVD?’ I said, ‘I have plenty of time to work with RVD, I want to work with Flair.’ Flair wasn’t one of Vince’s guys so he didn’t have the say like me or you [Austin]. I was like, ‘I have the choice, right? I want to work with Flair.’ He goes, ‘Okay'. H/T: Fightful

The Undertaker's win over Ric Flair at WrestleMania X8 took 'the streak' to 10-0 at the time. The streak was finally ended by Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 30 in 2014. The loss to Brock Lesnar took his WrestleMania record to 21-1.

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