The Undertaker Goes One-On-One With Tom Segura! | 2 Bears, 1 Cave

Speaker 1 Hey everyone, I'm filming my new stand-up special in Milwaukee at the Riverside Theater on November 14th and 15th. Tickets are available in Milwaukee for the November 14th show only.

Speaker 1 Get your tickets now at tomsgirt.com/slash tour.

Speaker 2 100%.

Speaker 1 All right, welcome to another episode of Two Bears One Cave. I've never seen somebody that is the opposite of the usual person that sits in this chair.

Speaker 1 We're going from a grotesque, visually impaired-looking human, somebody that is offensive to the eyes, to an absolute pleasure, a gentleman, a legend. Give it up for The Undertaker, everybody.

Speaker 1 Let him hear it.

Speaker 1 And don't forget that WrestleMania takes place Saturday, April 18th and Sunday, April 19th, 2026 in Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, and tickets are available now.

Speaker 2 Damn. Damn.
Damn, you're pretty good at this, bro.

Speaker 1 I mean, you know, done a few thousand of them.

Speaker 2 A few thousand of them. Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's pretty cool that Allegiant Stadium is going to... It's so wild having watched the evolution of WrestleMania.
And I was watching that one of the docs about the first time

Speaker 1 that

Speaker 1 I think Vince was like, I think we can do a stadium. And people were like, a stadium? What are you crazy?

Speaker 1 And then I think it was in New York, right? It was a giant stadium.

Speaker 2 So the first stadium show, I believe, was the old

Speaker 2 the one in Detroit, not the, not the one with the Skydome? Skydome. No, no, no, that's Toronto, isn't it? Skydome?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think you're right. But it's, is it where the Lions used to play?

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They've got a new stadium now, but

Speaker 2 this is, this is kind of wrestling history. I should know this.
But,

Speaker 2 yeah, it was. what, 80,000, 90,000.
It was ridiculous. Yeah.
And they filled that thing up.

Speaker 1 And that must have been like eye-opening to everybody. Like, oh, shit, this is.
Yeah. We can actually do this.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And, and they, and

Speaker 2 they did that one. And then we still went back and did a few arena shows.
Like, my first mania was at the old

Speaker 2 sports arena in LA.

Speaker 1 Uh, you know, so down, like down the forum?

Speaker 2 Like, yeah, not the forum.

Speaker 1 It was called the sports.

Speaker 2 The sports arena. I think that's where the Clippers originally played.
Okay.

Speaker 2 And,

Speaker 2 you know, yeah, we weren't even, yeah, we couldn't even handle the forum

Speaker 2 at that point.

Speaker 1 Well, you're part of the, the, the group of people that helped, obviously, transcend like the lines of popularity and the reach of this sport. I mean, you, you started when it was still.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, it was, we had already had a really, really good run. Like that, that Hulk Hogan run at the end, at the late 80s.

Speaker 2 was just, that's what took it, I think, to new heights,

Speaker 2 to new new heights where it just wasn't that

Speaker 2 old carnival atmosphere.

Speaker 1 Your early days were some of like smaller like venues.

Speaker 1 Yeah, because one of the things, like when we met, for people, I've said this before, but for people that don't know the way we met, it always makes me laugh because I was having a home gym put together and I was ordering equipment.

Speaker 1 And I was talking to this guy who was doing it for me. And I said, oh, I want a piece of equipment that another company makes.
And he was like, that's fine.

Speaker 1 But he goes, you know, we make something similar.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 1 And I said, well, you know, I'd like to say yes. But in order for me to feel comfortable, I'd really like to try it before.

Speaker 2 Which is smart with gym equipment. With gym equipment.

Speaker 1 And he goes, well, I have a client in the area. And he would let you try it.

Speaker 2 And I go, okay.

Speaker 1 And then he just sends me a group text. Hey, Mark, this is Tom.
He'd like to try it. And you're like, sure.
And then he sends me a text separate.

Speaker 1 he goes mark is the undertaker I go you want to fucking lead with that dude then I'm texting the undertaker he was like sorry so I think that was Dustin maybe yeah Dustin Riddle I believe yeah great guy and and by the way you know they do great work

Speaker 1 people um so I went over to your house uh your well you're under construction house but your gym was done the gym was yes gym was your priority you could tell as an athlete

Speaker 1 gym is first which was incredible and we tried the equipment it was great but when we were talking, one of the things that stood out to me was there's like so many similarities about the grind of the early days for a wrestler and a comedian.

Speaker 1 Right. Because we were talking about like doing doubles and how you hit an age basically where you're like, I don't want to do fucking two of these, man.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Like, and also the incessant non-stop traveling. It's just like, it's a very minus the physical aspect, obviously, but that lifestyle feels very like parallel, you know?

Speaker 2 Yeah, it is, it is really similar. And, and I didn't, you know, I don't know how y'all feel about it, but I would come home

Speaker 2 and, you know, because you think I've been on the road now. I've been on the road for months.
And like, I can't wait to get home, but then you're home for a couple of weeks.

Speaker 2 And then you're just like, Yeah.

Speaker 2 I need to go. Yeah.
I need to go again. I got to go.

Speaker 1 To which, and also to my, like, my wife will be like, can't wait for you to get home. And then on those weeks, she's like, it'd be nice if you had some dates.
Maybe go out on the road.

Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 It was tough. Because you, you spend all that time with a certain group of people.
Yeah. And you have a certain way of doing things.
It doesn't necessarily correlate to home. Right.

Speaker 2 You know, it's just a whole different mindset and atmosphere. And

Speaker 2 at that point, you know, and you're, as you're coming up the ladder, I mean, it is, it's all about that grind and

Speaker 2 wanting to be. you know, wanting to be better and get better and work on the, you know, work on the overall product.

Speaker 1 And it was uh yeah it would drive me nuts when i went home oh yeah it absolutely i mean it is an adjustment to home life and road life yeah i mean and it the thing is people when they go like how do you do like the road life you're like well i've been doing it so long that that's normal to me it's you don't think about it right it's like when you travel right you you're so set and you know your your rhythm yeah like when you bring your family sometimes yeah this is like what you doing yeah what you know this is the way we do this yeah this is weird and it's a completely yeah you have to take yourself out of that uh that mentality yeah for sure yeah now how what because i feel like i mean this goes for a lot of career choices but like the i'll just say like the audacity to say i want i want to be a wrestler it's a you know it's like a it's a crazy obviously lifestyle but i mean you're a big guy you're an athletic guy did you always have your eye on wrestling no it happened it it happened really by chance.

Speaker 2 I was in college. I was playing basketball.
Right.

Speaker 2 And I started to get some inquiries. My coach did.

Speaker 2 Obviously, they weren't allowed to talk to me, but my coach was like, hey, you're starting to get a lot of interest with some European pro teams for tryouts.

Speaker 2 And I didn't, I mean, I didn't have NBA talent. I wasn't ever going to be an NBA player.

Speaker 1 But you loved basketball. At the time, yes.

Speaker 2 Basketball, I dedicated like from the time I started playing at 12 to my junior year in economy, that's everything revolved around basketball.

Speaker 2 So, you know, I go to between my junior and senior year of college, like they said, oh, well, you know, kind of what the feedback was is, you know, they wanted to get me a little, a little thicker, a little stronger for the style that they played over there.

Speaker 2 So,

Speaker 2 you know, I'm doing my summer leagues and everything else, and I'm really hitting the gym hard, trying to put on another 10 or 15 pounds of muscle and uh you know trying to make myself as i guess as

Speaker 2 appealing to a you know a team as possible and uh so i'm going to this gym every day and there was another guy that he actually worked at the gym he's a couple years younger than i was and uh we kind of struck up a friendship and he was like hey man he goes uh You know, Yoda, I'm going to go to this wrestling camp.

Speaker 2 I'm going to be a professional wrestler. He says, you should go, you should do that with me.
Just like that. Just like that.
And at first, I was like,

Speaker 2 no, I think I'm going to go try and play some Pro Ball overseas. That's kind of, that's kind of where I think I'm going.
Now,

Speaker 2 that being said, I was a huge wrestling fan as a kid. You were? Oh, yeah.
Okay. Yeah.
And as I got into, you know,

Speaker 2 I boxed a little bit and got into team sports and everything else, I kind of moved away from it. So I'm a little,

Speaker 2 I'm a little removed from it. But, you know, he comes in every day.
Every day I come into the gym, he goes, come on, man, you ought to do this camp with me. And I'm like, nah, nah, nah.

Speaker 2 One thing I've always been is kind of a realist. Like I know what my, I know what my abilities are, what my abilities aren't.
And I look at things, you know, in a pretty reasonable fashion, I think.

Speaker 2 So I kind of start thinking about it. I'm like,

Speaker 2 do I really want to go to Lithuania and be the 12th guy on the bench?

Speaker 2 And now I'm back watching the product again. And the one thing that I noticed is there aren't a lot of

Speaker 2 athletic big guys. Like at that time period, now we're talking the late 80s here.
Like all the really big guys are

Speaker 2 big guys that don't move around a lot.

Speaker 2 So now I'm kind of, you know, now I'm kind of catching up with the product and now the thoughts in my head. And like, I could be some.

Speaker 2 Maybe, you know, I'm just kind of looking at the overall thing. And I'm like, what do I have two, three years? If I make a team, you know,

Speaker 2 what do I have really? You know, and, or,

Speaker 2 you know, is this something that, that, you know, so I end up going to the camp, right?

Speaker 2 As soon as I started, man, I fell in love with it. Really? Yeah.

Speaker 2 I mean, just, and I really, I mean, at the beginning, I got screwed over by the guy that we, you know, the guy that he was going to have training, train us, screwed me over, took my money, left town.

Speaker 2 But I got enough, I got enough from him that it really sparked something.

Speaker 2 And then, you know, now, so now

Speaker 2 I'm training to wrestle.

Speaker 2 I'm playing, this is all in the summer. And now I'm still doing my

Speaker 2 basketball because I still got another year of college left. Oh, shit.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 So, I mean, it's just like workout, play basketball, train to wrestle every day. It's just, you know, and I know.

Speaker 1 And is your mind starting to go like look more at red? Like, oh, yeah. You're thinking about it all day.

Speaker 2 Yeah. So I went, and

Speaker 2 so I think I left my the end of my junior year, I left, I was maybe 240.

Speaker 2 I show up,

Speaker 2 I show up my senior year in college, I'm 280 pounds. Damn.

Speaker 2 That's what my coach said. He looked at me and it was like, and he was old.
I mean, he was one of those old school coaches that didn't, he couldn't, he, he equated size with being slow.

Speaker 2 And although I was faster, quicker, jump higher, stronger, obviously.

Speaker 1 He was much stronger.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And,

Speaker 2 you know, he, he banned me from the weight room right away. And

Speaker 2 all this stuff. And it was, it all happened one day at practice.

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Speaker 2 Early on in the school year,

Speaker 2 we're doing some drills

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 2 we're doing this drill where he throws the ball up, two guys kind of like a tip-ball deal, and then it's a hustle drill, right? You have to tip it and then go get possession of the ball.

Speaker 2 Well, all these basketball players are, you know, they're 6'7, 6'8 ⁇ , 6'9, but they may be

Speaker 2 180, 190. I mean, they're just super

Speaker 2 thin, lean dudes, and they were all scared to death of me. Yeah.
I mean, there just wasn't,

Speaker 2 we're talking 87.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah.
There's not 200, you know, six foot eight, 200 and 80 pounds. Dudes, no.
Yeah. And they're all terrified of me.
And so we're doing this drill and coach throws this ball up.

Speaker 2 And this guy, instead of even trying, he undercuts me. Oh, he does? Yeah.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 we both come tumbling down, right? And now I'm already, I'm like already in wrestling psycho mode, right? So I jump up.

Speaker 2 I jump up really quick and I step on him. I step on his chest and I was like, listen, motherfucker, you ever cut me like that again, I'll break your, you know, effing neck.

Speaker 2 Calloway, get out of here. That ain't the way we do.
You know, and it was at that moment.

Speaker 1 Like, I was like, I'm a wrestler, dude.

Speaker 2 I'm done. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And he's like, you remember, you know, Charlie Brown where the teachers,

Speaker 2 that's all like he's yelling. He's constantly screaming at me.
And I'm having this moment. And then it's like, this is it,

Speaker 2 So I went to each guy. Everybody's lined up in this drill, right? So I go to each guy.
I was like, man, I'm sorry. I hate to do this,

Speaker 2 but I'm out, you know. And I went to each guy, apologized to each guy for, you know, bailing on the team, but I knew it was done.

Speaker 1 And did you drop out of school right then, too?

Speaker 2 For whatever reason, I tried to keep going to school for a while.

Speaker 2 But it was just like,

Speaker 2 every day, it's just me like, what else can I do to get better

Speaker 2 at this? And, you know, eventually, yeah, I eventually just stopped. I think I needed

Speaker 2 maybe 15 hours

Speaker 2 of school left.

Speaker 1 Where were you in school at the time?

Speaker 2 I was in Fort Worth, Texas Wesleyan University. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 yeah, so then it was just like. All in.
All in. And everybody is like, are you stupid?

Speaker 1 Now, did you have, because one of the things about pro wrestlers is like, there's, you know, there's the athletic component, like how this person moves and how they're able to like put on the show that is the fight.

Speaker 1 But then there's like the actual,

Speaker 1 you know, I'll say like the acting. The personality.
The personality. And like, you know, you shine in both, but I feel like you're such a natural performer.

Speaker 1 Like on top of the athletic stuff, the actual performance of the persona. Was that like, I'm like, like I would be, I would

Speaker 1 tell a casting director, like, this guy can act, you know, like you can act.

Speaker 1 Was that like natural to you? No. So you worked a lot at that too.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I had to. And my character, like, not, not initially, like the first few years, not before I become Undertaker,

Speaker 2 like. That was the part that was actually behind is being able to market myself and make myself interesting.

Speaker 2 Because I think initially when you get into wrestling, everything is focused on the actual wrestling. The physical side of it.
The physical side of it, right?

Speaker 2 Learning the, you know, learning how to protect yourself and how to do moves and to move in the ring. So everything's kind of focused.
It's kind of the athlete's mind.

Speaker 2 And it takes, that's the hardest part, really, is making yourself marketable.

Speaker 1 I'm sure.

Speaker 2 And trying to,

Speaker 2 you know, make your,

Speaker 2 it doesn't matter whether people love you or hate you. Yeah.
But they have to do one or the other. They have to.
They have to be invested in one.

Speaker 1 If they're indifferent towards you, you don't have a.

Speaker 2 You're not going to have a long career. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 They either want to pay money to see you kick someone's ass or they want to pay money to see you get your ass kicked.

Speaker 1 And it's fascinating how sometimes these guys are grinding it out 10 plus years and all of a sudden a persona that just takes on and people go like, oh shit.

Speaker 1 And they respond to it. They connect to it.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, we've had guys, yeah, that were kind of just middle of the road for most of their career and then tap on something late.

Speaker 1 Because who is it now that like blew up? And a few years ago, I don't think anyone Roman.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Roman Reigns is probably the

Speaker 2 biggest faces,

Speaker 1 you know, in the and it was around for a while.

Speaker 2 Yeah, he had been around a while. And,

Speaker 2 you know, he,

Speaker 2 he, obviously, you, you, you look at him, he checks off all the boxes, right? I mean, he look, he looks like a star. He's athletic,

Speaker 2 um, but he didn't have a connection initially,

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 2 they were really trying to really push him down, you know, the fans' throats. Yeah, and wrestling fans will reject.

Speaker 2 I mean, they feel like you're putting them on, yes, they will reject it in a heartbeat. And then, um,

Speaker 2 you know, I guess it was somewhere around COVID, man.

Speaker 2 He just really

Speaker 2 hit his stride and really became the face of the company for uh

Speaker 2 you know since then and i mean he's he's done really well and now he's starting to transition into

Speaker 2 um you know outside projects and yeah acting and everything else it's pretty cool to see it happen right like to see somebody

Speaker 1 like when i'm going to ask you this when you are

Speaker 1 like developing the Undertaker persona I find a lot of times that like ideas like this is an idea that clearly I would say you know worked out like this is one of the most successful, yeah, one of the most successful personas in the history of the sport.

Speaker 1 But a lot of times, when, like, you know, like, if I'm writing something, something that eventually works out, there's a phase where you have doubt, where you're like, is this fucking stupid?

Speaker 1 You know, like when you're, when kind of, you know, kicking this idea around with other people at the company, is part of you also like, what? Like, an undertaker?

Speaker 2 Yeah. So, so when I came up, so basically there was WCW, another company, and there was WWE or WWF at the time.
And at that time, like they had all these over, just over-the-top characters. Right.

Speaker 2 Right. I mean, it was, it was, the show was kind of designed for a younger audience.
Yeah. And everybody was this, just outlandish character.

Speaker 2 And I'm, you know, I'm a traditionalist, right? Yeah. So I always liked, I always liked the product at WCW better.
It was more traditional,

Speaker 2 serious wrestling. And

Speaker 2 I got an opportunity there and basically was told,

Speaker 2 you're a great athlete, but

Speaker 2 you're never going to draw money.

Speaker 2 Like, wow. Okay.

Speaker 2 That's a, you know, that's a, that's a, that's a big, big

Speaker 2 sandwich to have to eat, right? Face to face. Somebody just told you that, you know, yeah, you're a great athlete, but nobody's ever going to pay money to watch you wrestle

Speaker 2 so now you know now i have the other product and i i go have a meeting with vince mcmahon and you know he wasn't that thoroughly impressed either

Speaker 2 it was i guess it was my personality like he he looked at the wrestling yeah he's just a big you know just a big guy yeah you know but it was my meeting with him

Speaker 2 that even got a second look. And then I get a call one day and he's got, he came up with the whole character,

Speaker 2 which was based on the Undertaker was based on an old Western-style Undertaker.

Speaker 2 You know, the two guys in Main Street, they go have the gunfight, and one loses, the guy comes out, starts measuring for the pine box. That was the original concept.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I get a phone call one day, and it's Vince. Yeah.
And he goes, Is uh

Speaker 2 is this the Undertaker?

Speaker 2 Like, Undertaker, what the, what is that? What What is, what is the under, you know, yeah.

Speaker 2 And there was a, there was another

Speaker 2 kind of a,

Speaker 2 another thing going on on their show at the time where they had this giant egg. And

Speaker 2 I just knew, like, I knew that was going to be me. I was going to be Eggman or some stupid shit like that.
And I was, I was just, I almost would give myself a,

Speaker 2 yeah. So this all happened around the same time that I debuted.
The same thing. Mark, you like eggs, right? I love eggs, but I didn't want to come out of the egg.

Speaker 2 I mean, look what comes out of the egg here, right?

Speaker 2 I mean, that's, you know, this is what I'm at home. And then I finally get the call.
And he said, you know, asking me if it's the Undertaker.

Speaker 2 And I'm still trying, like, this sounds like Vince McMahon, but is it really Vince? I mean, I've only met him once. Yeah.
Right. And I'm like,

Speaker 2 Undertaker. Undertaker's not chicken man.
Like, hell yeah. This is the Undertaker, right? Yeah, yeah.
He's like, great. God damn.
Can you be here tomorrow? And I'm like, Stanford, Connecticut.

Speaker 2 I'm like, yeah, I can be there. Right.

Speaker 2 I'm so green and know so little about the world at this point. Like, I hang up with him and I'm like, oh, shit, how am I going to get there? Yeah.
Right. Because I got no money.

Speaker 2 I got, I mean, I'm broke. And finally, somebody obviously calls me back and sets up travel.

Speaker 2 But anyway, he brings me up to the office and has these storyboards laid out and with the, you know, with the images of the Undertaker. And I'm just like, oh, this is really cool.

Speaker 1 So you do, you do dig it.

Speaker 2 Like when you find it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Once I, once I saw it

Speaker 2 and then,

Speaker 2 you know, he kind of gave me

Speaker 2 an idea of what he was looking for. And then he kind of handed it over to me and said, okay, now

Speaker 2 make it yours. So now I'm invested in, I'm watching all of

Speaker 2 Friday the 13th movies and the Halloweens,

Speaker 2 all these things. And I'm trying to take little bits of all of them and incorporate them and make them my own.

Speaker 2 But yeah,

Speaker 2 it was a little strange at first because I, I, I, you, you're right. You're like, you don't want something to be, I mean, that really has the potential

Speaker 2 to be really corny. And, um,

Speaker 2 it, I was just really,

Speaker 2 I think it was so different at the time that it, um, that it resonated somehow with people. And then that character, an Undertaker.

Speaker 2 somehow or another become beloved. Yeah.
In a very short amount of time, like people were just enamored by this character. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And there's nothing about it that is, you know, where everything is baby faces and heels. There's nothing baby faced about that.

Speaker 1 And no.

Speaker 2 By the time that I wrestled Hogan in 91,

Speaker 2 like when we come out,

Speaker 2 I remember that was in Detroit as well. And we came out and it was like,

Speaker 2 obviously Hogan was the good guy. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And it was like 60-40, the crowd was in in favor of me.

Speaker 1 Really? Yeah.

Speaker 2 I mean, Hulk Hogan, that's the thing. That's, you know, yeah, I mean, is this the name?

Speaker 1 Surreal,

Speaker 1 like, for you to be like, I wanted to do this. You know, you see that, like, hey, maybe I have potential.
Now you're doing it. And now, like,

Speaker 1 is that pretty much when you realize, oh, I'm like, this is as I'm here.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that night was

Speaker 2 that night was really surreal and

Speaker 2 a real full circle moment of like, wow. Because it would only been,

Speaker 2 I don't know, four years or so. Yeah, it's pretty fast.
It happened really fast for me. I was very fortunate.

Speaker 2 It seemed like going through it, it seemed like it was forever because I had been to, you know, I had to go to South Africa and I stayed in South Africa for four months and Japan and all these places and WCW.

Speaker 2 But yeah, the whole process to get to that point, yeah, was not that long a time.

Speaker 3 This is the best vodka in the world. You're talking to a man has put 10,000 hours into a couple things: eating pussy and drinking vodka.
I'll bring my wife in if you want.

Speaker 3 I'm pretty good at the first one, too. But this is better than pussy.
This is the best vodka you're ever going to have. It's clean.

Speaker 3 My sleep scores through the roof because of it. It tastes clean.
Everyone I've given it to loves this vodka. Tom, tell them.

Speaker 1 It's absolutely fantastic. We have a proprietary distillation process.
And listen, we are winning competitions. We have gold medals in various competitions.

Speaker 1 And honestly, you, the the people, are the ones telling us how great it is too. This is not just smoke that we're blowing here.

Speaker 1 We're telling you because you're telling us this is now your favorite vodka. So thank you.
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Speaker 1 If they don't carry it, tell them you want them to carry it. Tell them, request it.

Speaker 3 When you go to the bar, you say, hey, do you carry Porosos? And if they say no, you go, you should. It's pretty freaking awesome.

Speaker 1 And then walk out.

Speaker 3 You know what I do?

Speaker 2 I go, do you carry Porosos?

Speaker 3 And they say no, I bring out a bottle and give it to them. I go, now you do.

Speaker 2 Can I get a bottle of a glass of Porosos? That's awesome. That's awesome.

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Speaker 1 And also, it wasn't, not only did that happen fast, but the staying power of The Undertaker. It wasn't like, and now it's gone.
Like,

Speaker 1 The Undertaker, this is like iconic household. Like, I remember talking to my wife about wrestling.

Speaker 1 And she was like, she goes, yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 Literally, she goes, I don't know anything about wrestling. I go, nothing.
She goes, I mean, I know like the Undertaker. You know, like, it's like, it's one of those things where, like, even somebody

Speaker 2 look into her past.

Speaker 1 I don't know. She was, she did, she dated some pretty interesting types.

Speaker 1 But the fact that she, I'm saying, like, you know, it's like one of those things where somebody goes, I don't know anything about this industry.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, I know, you know, it's like somebody going, I don't know movies directors. I know Steven Spielberg.
Right. They just know a reference.
Right. But that's your character.

Speaker 1 I mean, that's the Undertaker.

Speaker 2 Like, I've been, yeah, I was, I've been incredibly blessed to be, be, to stay relevant for such a long period of time. And a lot of that is, is kind of reinventing myself too along the way.

Speaker 2 I think a lot of times what happens is people get, and I tell people, the young guys, when I talk to them all the time, I was like, man, you can never be content in this business because

Speaker 2 there's so much content being produced. Yeah.
You burn out so fast.

Speaker 1 Right. And you learned that? Like you just figured that out?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 I wish I could say that I was like really smart, but it was just kind of an intuitive thing. Like

Speaker 2 I'm starting to feel like a certain way doing this, right? Like it's, it's like, okay, it's kind of getting to be like making the donuts, right? Every morning.

Speaker 2 So if I'm feeling like this, my audience has got to be feeling a certain way as well. So

Speaker 2 that was one of the things that.

Speaker 2 I think gave me such longevity was being able to stay true to the character for the most part, but evolving it and

Speaker 2 moving it along.

Speaker 1 What would that look like to you? What would evolving?

Speaker 2 I mean, it started out simply by just changing colors.

Speaker 2 Like, you know, there's nothing fancy about The Undertaker, but the original look was, you know, the long coat, the hat, everything was gray and white. And, you know, just changing it to purple.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Just like, oh, that's different. Yeah.
You know, and then, you know, a couple of years later, changing, you know, changing some of the

Speaker 2 look and adding different, you know, move sets and just trying different

Speaker 2 one of the things that stands out when you look at these like is it challenging at all difficult to wrestle with gloves on those gloves yeah yeah so again yeah those gloves because they they they when you sweat they get wet and they start to roll down and they want to come on you're grabbing your opponent yeah so eventually i moved to uh an mma glove which you can strap them down and and uh i think the uh i think my opponents appreciated those too because there was a little bit more padding in them.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 On those days that I got a little too close. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Now, what, like, the one of the things, too, is like, I think nobody, you don't really appreciate certain sports if you don't see it live. Like, the live experience changes everything.

Speaker 1 And that's one of the things I told people when I went to see a Monday Night Raw thing. I was like, man, this is

Speaker 1 like the energy and the

Speaker 1 show, the spectacle that is the night, it is so much different in person.

Speaker 1 You really get an appreciation for it. One of the things you see so much better, too, is just how physical things are.

Speaker 1 How injured have you been doing this?

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 2 how long have we got? I can run them down.

Speaker 2 I mean, just long-term damage. I've had both knees replaced at this point.

Speaker 2 Partial hip replacements.

Speaker 2 That's just from the wear and tear. Sure.
So, but like acute injuries, I've blown out both

Speaker 2 eye sockets. I've had orbital blowout fractures in both eyes.

Speaker 2 I've been set on fire.

Speaker 2 Most people don't list that in their injuries. Yeah.
Actually, I've been set on fire twice.

Speaker 2 You know, torn. torn muscles, concussions,

Speaker 2 numerous lacerations, broken bones.

Speaker 1 And in that match, you just, your adrenaline just kind of carries you through it?

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 you know,

Speaker 2 that's one of the great areas how we've evolved to where the product is now. Now we have doctors ringside, we have trainers, we have, I mean,

Speaker 2 it's treated just like any other major league sporting event. I mean, the athletes are very well taken care of now.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Not so much,

Speaker 2 you know, in the 90s 80s or before that. Yeah.
I mean, if somebody in the locker room had a roll of tape, I mean, that was a big deal. That's a big deal.
Yeah. Right.
Holy shit. Yeah.

Speaker 2 So, and, and we just had that mentality. Um, if you can figure out how to get to the ring, you go to the ring.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And if you get hurt during the match, you do the best you can to figure out a way to get out of it. Yeah.
It was just the, it was just the mentality.

Speaker 2 Whereas now, when, if, if someone gets busted open, you'll notice that a lot of times they will cut away.

Speaker 2 Doctor will come in, put,

Speaker 2 I don't know, what do they use?

Speaker 2 Like

Speaker 2 the nitro, whatever they can to stop the,

Speaker 2 yeah. Yeah.
And if they can't stop it, then they'll, they'll stop the match now.

Speaker 1 Really? Protect the athlete a little bit.

Speaker 2 Yeah, protect the athlete. And obviously, we don't.
We don't advocate having the blood and guts that we used to either. Sure.
It's,

Speaker 2 you know, for the old school purist, it's like, ah, you know, but it's just a,

Speaker 2 it is, it's where the product is evolved. But back to the original question, I've had

Speaker 2 18, I guess, 18 surgeries

Speaker 2 to replace and

Speaker 2 to fix wrestling-related injuries. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And do you, do you, I mean, do you live with pain? Like, is this?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, it's, and I don't, you know, I don't, I try not to complain about it because I know, I mean, I knew the whole time that eventually

Speaker 2 you're going to get to that point. I mean, you just, you don't play the game that hard and, and not have residual effects.

Speaker 1 But I'll say this, you look great and you move around really well.

Speaker 2 And smoke and mirrors, man. Yeah.
Smoke and mirrors. Yeah, it's, that's kind of key too.
Once it's all over.

Speaker 2 You know, I was never really like a body guy, right? I never really cashed in on what I looked like physically. Yeah.

Speaker 2 I kept myself in physically good shape and that becomes really important once you retire. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Because that's when

Speaker 2 you're like, I don't, I don't have to do this anymore now. Yeah.
And that's when guys blow up and they stop moving. And then that's just, it just all those years come crashing down.

Speaker 2 Yeah, they come crashing down on you hard. So I get,

Speaker 2 I do twice the, twice the workouts for half the results, but,

Speaker 2 you know, it keeps me, it keeps me moving. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, that's great that you're still, because I mean, that day you were working out when I went to your place and you're like, still train all the time.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And it's just, I mean, it just kind of keeps me, you know, it keeps my mind going as well.
Like, you know, although I know I'm not going to get back in the ring and have a match,

Speaker 2 it's just, it's just part of it. It's better.

Speaker 1 It's better for

Speaker 2 my mind. For sure.
Yeah. And you never know when they're going to call you to, you know.
Like, I couldn't have a match anymore, but I can come in there and punch somebody in the face or

Speaker 2 choke slam them or something. And you definitely don't want to look like, you know, a pile of crap when you.

Speaker 1 do you enjoy your role with like the wrestling world today? I mean, you're obviously like, you know, this iconic figure and you're still involved.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I'm, I'm able now to

Speaker 2 obviously have a little more personality

Speaker 2 and not be so deadpan with the character. So that, that's fun.

Speaker 2 You know, I think sometimes

Speaker 2 because

Speaker 2 yeah, I think sometimes I get a little overexposed for not being able to go actually and have a match. You know, it just becomes difficult.

Speaker 2 You know, you'll get your, your naysayers like, oh, well, you got the old man out there doing stuff, you know? It's like, well, there must be a reason if they keep asking, right? Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 But,

Speaker 2 yeah,

Speaker 2 I like my role. I, I get to, for years, I didn't interact at all

Speaker 2 with the fans. And, and, and so now, you know, I'll do, I'll do signings every once in in a while.
I don't do a lot of them, but I do, I do enough to get out there. I go and,

Speaker 2 you know, I do, uh, I do my One Dead Man show, which is kind of a,

Speaker 2 that's a really cool experience for, for a wrestling fan and an Undertaker fan, because you, you actually get to hear a lot of the stories of, uh, you know, even things that I don't say on the podcast or

Speaker 2 on someone else's podcast, like in, in, in the one dead man, because we, you know, we take the phones and we don't allow recording. So you really get an uncensored that's rad for a fan.

Speaker 2 Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you'll get my true opinions on

Speaker 2 the state of the business and the company.

Speaker 1 Let's have this fucking conversation.

Speaker 2 That's pretty cool. Yeah.
So it is, it is a really cool experience, I think, for

Speaker 2 Undertaker fans, but wrestling fans in general.

Speaker 1 By the way, do you like the acting? Does that something that you have fun with?

Speaker 2 I never,

Speaker 2 I was so

Speaker 2 like it paid off i i guess but i really never once i started being the undertaker yeah everything was focused around that character yeah um i wanted people

Speaker 2 i always wanted people like i i knew they did i knew they knew like well he's not really dead yeah yeah right right but i wanted people to when they saw me

Speaker 2 even

Speaker 2 in public, I wanted people to always go like, yeah, no, I ain't fucking with that guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, no, there's, he's,

Speaker 2 there's something different. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 so I didn't, I didn't do a lot of media and I didn't do a lot of, like, again, I didn't do a lot of interactions.

Speaker 2 And I, and I lived, you know, people talk about all the time, like, how did you live that character? Yeah. Every, you know, like now I've got, I've got yellow tennis shoes on and jeans.

Speaker 2 Like, if you saw me, I didn't have my wrestling gear on, but if you saw me in the airport, there'd be no doubt who that was.

Speaker 2 i was always dressed in black yeah uh you're keeping it going i kept i kept it going and um yeah i i lived it yeah for

Speaker 1 and but this is what also i mean to be like totally transparent this is what great actors do when they are committed to a character a lot you know a lot of them do the method approach and they they live in the costume or whatever it is and they they just go i'm just going to be this character even offset and it just helps them you know commit to that character i mean mean similar things yeah and that and that's the way the way i approached it because i didn't want

Speaker 2 because the character is

Speaker 2 is so unique and so different like i just in my mind

Speaker 2 i didn't want people like to to see that on tv and yeah oh that's you know that's that's death yeah and then you know see me somewhere out in public with a hawaiian shirt on yeah yeah yeah you know a fedora with a you know it's just like uh-huh undertaker's bullshit yeah he's bullshit yeah and um but that shows a level of care about the fan experience which is cool you know like I just saw this clip I don't know if you saw it where I think what's his name Tarico's is it Tarico interviewing Michael Jordan I don't know if you saw this clip that went viral and he goes

Speaker 1 it just popped up like a few days ago and he goes um

Speaker 1 come on like when was the last time you picked up a basketball he was like like years and he's like no but like when was the last time and he goes it was the Ryder Cup and I was renting a house, like obviously a nice house from somebody to stay there.

Speaker 1 And the owner said, you know, they was going to stop by and do photos like with Mike. And he goes, I went, I met everybody and I,

Speaker 1 you know, did the photos. And then the owner of the house was like, hey, I just want you to shoot like one free throw.

Speaker 1 And so Mike says, you know, he goes, this is the most nervous I've been in years. And he goes, come on.
He goes, no, because he had his grandkids there.

Speaker 1 So I know that those kids have heard the stories of 30 years ago. And he goes, I have never been so nervous.
And then the guy interviewing him is like, you swish it?

Speaker 2 And he goes, yeah, of course.

Speaker 2 Of course. It's Jordan.
He's like, yeah. He's like, yeah.

Speaker 1 He goes, and that set me off. But I, what he was, the parallel to me is that like, you care about the fan experience.

Speaker 1 You care what they, like, like, you know, you don't want someone to see you out there with the fucking straw hat on going,

Speaker 2 yeah. Somebody they're like, that's just Undertaker.
Yeah. That sucks.
That would suck.

Speaker 1 And I still get it.

Speaker 2 Even

Speaker 2 people were so invested in that character. I get it now.
Really? Like, oh, yeah. Like, oh, yeah, I prefer.
I prefer it when my Undertaker didn't talk.

Speaker 2 You know, or if I'm doing something like I've done, you know, like I do TV shows or anything like that. It's just like, that's not my Undertaker.

Speaker 2 wow yeah i mean that there's so that's the level of commitment to it yeah the i mean kids like i i've been around for so long that people that come to see me as kids now have their own kids sure and it's kind of a it's yeah and they're telling the kids this guy's gonna scare the out of you right like what's he doing with the hawaiian shirt old again what the hell is that now i want to ask you because one of the things that stand it's like your sport is just full of freaks like athletic freaks right specimens you know you see these guys and you're like, Jesus Christ, I didn't know this kind of human existed.

Speaker 1 And in all your wrestling and all the matches,

Speaker 1 like I was, I talked to Cody Rhodes about this. I was like, you know, I know obviously there's a lot of big, strong guys, but like, what was like Mark Henry?

Speaker 2 Like, he was like, bro, like, he was so much stronger than anyone has ever put their hands on me.

Speaker 1 Do you have like people who you think about, like, you're obviously a big, strong guy, but people you stepped in the ring with and you're like, holy shit like this person

Speaker 2 yeah there's there's yeah there's guys that are just absolute beast um

Speaker 2 you know brock lesnar for one like

Speaker 2 and especially in his first run like so brock's what six three six four

Speaker 2 uh he he was about 290 295

Speaker 2 in his first run before he went to UFC.

Speaker 2 And you, and you look at somebody like that, and there's just like, there's no way he can be as fast as he is. Yeah.
Right.

Speaker 2 It's just

Speaker 2 your eyes and your brain can't, you, you can't comprehend

Speaker 1 someone this big moving like this.

Speaker 2 Moving like that. Yeah.
He was just a freak of an athlete.

Speaker 2 And then strength-wise, you, you can guys like Mark Henry or Kane.

Speaker 2 Kane was so freaking strong.

Speaker 2 It's just,

Speaker 2 you're like, dang, because again, you think,

Speaker 2 I'm a pretty strong guy. I can move a little bit of weight.
Yeah. And then you feel somebody grab, you know, when somebody grabs you, and it's just like, oh,

Speaker 2 this is different. This is different.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Big show was like that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 But yeah,

Speaker 2 there's some guys in wrestling and in this era, too. Now, we got guys like Braun Breaker, who is

Speaker 2 a phenomenal athlete. And I think they clocked him,

Speaker 2 I don't know, 22, 23 miles an hour. Absolutely.
That's ridiculous. And he's 200 and

Speaker 2 I think he's 240 pounds. That's

Speaker 1 22, 23 miles an hour?

Speaker 2 Something to that effect. I could be off on that number, but if you see him

Speaker 2 move,

Speaker 2 oh my gosh, he is just, he's a second generation.

Speaker 2 He's a second generation rest of his dancing.

Speaker 1 He ran a 4,540. This guy's 250.

Speaker 1 Jesus.

Speaker 2 That's ISO speed there.

Speaker 2 He just about depleted him. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, Jesus.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 He looks like it. I don't know if he's selling that or that.

Speaker 2 Just real choice. He has no choice.

Speaker 2 He hit him. Holy shit.
Look at this.

Speaker 1 He's like, I can do a flip.

Speaker 2 Watch this.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah. He fell.
That's not a wrestler. So he doesn't even have any clue how to protect himself.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And he's a little bit amped up at that point. Braun is right there.
Yeah, you can see that. He's a little amped.

Speaker 1 Oh, man.

Speaker 1 Right now he's above. Like, what am I doing with my life? I shouldn't have done this.
This was a bad idea.

Speaker 2 Shit. That's just one human being catching another human being and tossing them around.

Speaker 2 There are some true freaks in the wrestling.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no. And again,

Speaker 1 I'm reiterating this point. It's one thing you see it on video.
You're like, God damn it.

Speaker 2 But in person,

Speaker 1 everything registers so differently. Speed does, power does.
Yeah, the whole spectacle of it just, it lands so differently.

Speaker 2 That's what I always tell people.

Speaker 2 A lot of people have

Speaker 2 preconceived ideas about what wrestling is or what it isn't. And

Speaker 2 that's usually what I say. Just go.
Go to a and not necessarily like just a live event, but a televised live event. Yeah.
That's where you get all the bells and the whistles and everybody's

Speaker 2 a little bit more more amped up.

Speaker 1 I mean, the show itself, but also, because

Speaker 1 you can't describe the effect of a hype crowd without feeling it. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Like, I can tell you, oh, it's really when you're in there and it, like, you feel like you're in the Roman Coliseum.

Speaker 1 People are,

Speaker 1 and also when they're boo, when they hate somebody, you're like, oh, and then it becomes fun. You're like, yeah, fuck you.

Speaker 2 Yeah, dude. You don't even know you're ass kicked.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's really exciting.

Speaker 2 It's a great atmosphere.

Speaker 1 yeah i felt like that too i mean first time i went to ufc it's like i knew what ufc was and i was like yeah i've seen like you know who doesn't like a good fight but being in the arena for the fights especially a like a big oh yeah big it hits different yeah yeah it really does do you look back on on your career which is obviously like this crazy legendary career do you are you most fond of a certain match like do you look back and go like i'm this is the one i um

Speaker 2 So the match I'm probably,

Speaker 2 as far as a wrestling purist kind of matches, would have to be WrestleMania 25.

Speaker 1 Sean Michaels. Sean Michaels.

Speaker 2 That was as close to

Speaker 2 perfect that

Speaker 2 I ever got.

Speaker 2 I mean, there's, it was just one of those things when you're in the moment. Look at that.
crowd. Yeah, that was at Reliant Stadium in Houston.

Speaker 1 Jesus.

Speaker 1 You're super lean here, right?

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 2 I'm three, probably,

Speaker 2 yeah, about 305 there.

Speaker 1 305? Yeah.

Speaker 2 Shit. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And then obviously Sean is probably one of the greatest, if not the greatest, in-ring talent ever.

Speaker 2 There's, you know, we're both in this particular, we're both in our 40s. Wow.

Speaker 2 This is both late in both of our careers. But

Speaker 2 so we had this one 25.

Speaker 2 We came back, ran it back

Speaker 2 in WrestleMania 26, where it was his career against the streak, which

Speaker 2 at that point was

Speaker 2 that was like

Speaker 2 my selling point at that was the WrestleMania undefeated streak.

Speaker 2 And then went from these two matches to

Speaker 2 two matches in a row with Triple H, which is, you know, Sean and Triple H are really close. Yeah.
It was like a four-year story that

Speaker 2 happened.

Speaker 2 But yeah, WrestleMania 25 is,

Speaker 2 in my opinion,

Speaker 2 we were able to

Speaker 2 not only be athletic and show all that, but the story that we were able to tell. And that's what wrestling, that's what wrestling is about.
It's about the story.

Speaker 1 Wrestling is a soap opera with violence.

Speaker 2 And that's kind of the

Speaker 2 and that's the hard part a lot of times for guys to understand and to really grasp that concept is,

Speaker 2 yeah,

Speaker 2 it's about the wrestling, but really what it is, it's the storytelling. And we use the wrestling to help tell the story.
Yeah. Right.

Speaker 2 And this was about as close to, again, perfect on all the, on all fronts.

Speaker 2 And I mean, to have these people. emotionally connected.
I mean, look at the, you know, the size discrepancy.

Speaker 2 And they all, you know, they all think that there's a chance that I'm losing for the first time at WrestleMania in this match.

Speaker 1 Yeah, which is like you want them to go through that emotional route.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah.
That's the, that's the whole deal.

Speaker 2 Fuck, he's going to lose. Yeah.

Speaker 1 How much, by the way, in these matches, whether it's WrestleMania or a standard weekly match, how much chatter is there to each other that like while it's going on?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 And that sometimes it just, it depends. Like what was was really cool about this is we're both again we were well into our careers

Speaker 2 we're on the backside of our careers actually and you're vets and you know what you're doing but yeah well even though you know sometimes when you're you're a vet and and you do have a really long and storied legacy like the young guys sometimes come in and they're they're scared to death right so you have to a lot of times you have to talk and and calm them down and because they they want to go right they They get this opportunity to be in this match.

Speaker 2 They want to go.

Speaker 2 Sometimes you just got, oh, take a breath here.

Speaker 1 And is that in the ring too?

Speaker 2 You're like, yeah, you'll, you'll, you, sometimes, yeah. Sometimes you get popped and you're like, oh, okay, you got one coming.
Okay. Just so you know.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 You got you too. You know, there's, there's a, there's a fair amount of, you know, each guy's different, but there's a fair amount of shit talking.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 There's, uh, you know, this is what I'm about to do kind of deal.

Speaker 1 If you get, if something like an unexpected like oh shit my my ribs my arm or something like will you be like will you be like you know yeah

Speaker 2 well if you're able to yeah like yeah like okay i dude i need to or you know you'll maybe you say hey throw me out throw me out of the ring and just give me a second i've you know like i broke a rib or something yeah it's just something to create enough time to assess what what the damage is and whether or not you're going to be able to finish or you're going to have to add lib to finish because of some

Speaker 2 injury.

Speaker 1 Is there a wrestler you hated wrestling?

Speaker 2 That list is about as long as the list of my surgeries. It's pretty much

Speaker 2 there,

Speaker 2 you know, early on in my career, like I had a, like every

Speaker 2 big guy that was out there,

Speaker 2 I got him. Uh-huh.
Right.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 not all of them were real gentlemen. Well, not only, not real gentlemen, but they were, they, they were limited

Speaker 2 in what they could do. Right.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 so you, you end up, a lot of times, you got to try and make chicken salad out of chicken shit. Right.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And that, but,

Speaker 2 you know, there's just certain people you vibe with and people you don't vibe with. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Again, with back to Sean Michaels, like he could have a, he could have a five-star match with a broomstick. I mean, that's just how good he was.
Right.

Speaker 2 So when you get guys like that are that accomplished in the

Speaker 1 can you tell, like, what makes Sean so incredible, like so great?

Speaker 2 He just exceptional talent. Yeah.
I mean, he loved the business. He was a phenomenal athlete.
He had this incredible personality.

Speaker 2 He, you know, he would make you, he's that guy. Look at him.
I mean, you want to punch him in the face. Yeah.
Right. Especially in his early.
the early part of his career.

Speaker 2 He was just like,

Speaker 2 yeah, I want to beat the shit out of this dude. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And as hard as I tried, never, I could never quite get to him enough. He always got away, you know, from the real beating until

Speaker 2 we had a match called, you know, Hell in the Cell.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 2 And,

Speaker 2 you know, again, well, he even got out of that because

Speaker 2 about ready to, I beat the snot out of him for 30 minutes. And that was the debut of Kane.
Again, great storytelling. But, you know, he was just, man, he just, he had it all.
He was good on the mic.

Speaker 2 His character was

Speaker 2 good.

Speaker 2 And for a smaller guy,

Speaker 2 when, you know, for me in a wrestling match, it always broke down. Like, you can do all the wrestling and everything.
It always at some point breaks down to where it's just dukes, right?

Speaker 2 It's just a fight. And not everybody had that, that they didn't have that edge.
He did. Like

Speaker 2 he could do everything. he was ahead of his time

Speaker 2 um

Speaker 2 with his in-work ability

Speaker 2 but when it came down to the even if it came down to just the fight he was he was believable and uh just uh i don't i don't i don't i mean he's he's recognized as one of the greats but i don't think really people really understand how good he was

Speaker 2 um he he runs now he runs one of our our our um our shows our nxt program he's ahead of all of our our our new talent coming up so he's like is that like when like so the new guys like they they all go to like camp and they well they go through they they have to they have to go through a selection process to even start to be trained and then they graduate from there then they go to um our nxt program which is one of our tv shows it's our for our young talent sure and he's he's the um you know he he runs all of that

Speaker 2 that's awesome man yeah so so we got i mean the future's in really good hands.

Speaker 1 That's great. Yeah.
Yeah. And then they have someone really legendary to look up to, which has got to be.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And not only does his,

Speaker 2 you know, not only does he have the talent, like he, he's done everything there is to do in the ring, but he's had his ups and his downs too, like, like his real life. Yeah.

Speaker 2 So he, he, he can relate, you know, people, oh, you don't know what I'm going through. He's like, yeah, I do.
I kind of do. Yeah.
Yeah. I kind of do.
I've been there. Yeah.

Speaker 2 So it's.

Speaker 1 Are there there wrestlers too? Because, I mean, you find this in every major sport.

Speaker 1 I'm assuming there's just guys, maybe less today than back in the day, that would just try to hurt people in the ring.

Speaker 2 Yeah, there were

Speaker 2 not if they thought they could make money with you.

Speaker 2 Right. Yeah, yeah.
But there were a lot of liberties taken with,

Speaker 2 like, we used to, before we started doing Raw,

Speaker 2 Monday Night Raw and everything, we would do, we would tape our, our regular weekly TV TV shows. And usually you didn't get like marquee matchups.
You would get, say,

Speaker 2 okay, so you get Undertaker from Joe Smith from

Speaker 2 Allentown, Pennsylvania, right? Just some local kid that's trying to get a break. You go in there, you run through all your signature moves, and you crush them in about three minutes.

Speaker 2 And that's all you got.

Speaker 2 So, but there were, there were guys back in the day that would have no regard for

Speaker 2 those guys' safety.

Speaker 1 Oh, right.

Speaker 2 They were just like, they're just like a piece of meat.

Speaker 2 So, and, you know, there's just certain guys, certain guys work different ways too. Like, there's certain guys that just like, I'm going to hit you really hard and tell you sorry later.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 This is how I operate.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And as long as, like, I didn't really have a problem with that, as long as they didn't bitch when it came back.
Right, right. Right.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 It's one thing if you're going to clean my clock and then bitch about it when I, when I throw a receipt back at you, you know, that's when you're going to have a problem.

Speaker 2 But if that's the way you, you know,

Speaker 2 you can hit me hard. Hit me hard.

Speaker 2 Don't hit me hard in the nose or in the face somewhere where I'm, you know,

Speaker 2 you're going to have, but if you, if you, that's the way you want to work, we can work, call it working snug. You know, if you want to work snug, I can work snug.

Speaker 2 Just don't, you know, don't bitch when it comes back. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And,

Speaker 2 you know, but yeah, everyone, I think today is,

Speaker 2 they're a lot more professional and on the same page.

Speaker 1 Yeah, well, it just evolves so much, right? And you get, and you, I'm sure that the, uh, the training for a new person is so much better today. Like

Speaker 1 how this operates.

Speaker 2 Oh, man.

Speaker 1 How to take the process.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. The process is

Speaker 2 crazy. Yeah.
Like I started in a guy's backyard.

Speaker 2 Yeah. trying to

Speaker 2 to dodge piles of dog crap.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah. You know, to now where you have to go through, they go through, I mean, we go to, we send people to the combine now, the NFL combine, these conference combine.

Speaker 2 We go out and actively recruit

Speaker 2 to try and find the absolute best athletes

Speaker 2 that are out there, which is, you'd think, oh, wow, that's great. Yeah.
But a lot of times they have. absolutely zero knowledge of professional wrestling.

Speaker 1 Sure.

Speaker 2 So you're taking someone from step one yeah and that that's a that's a much more difficult process if you're you have such a better understanding if you're if you're a fan of the product yeah than somebody who's never been a fan of it like because they're just thinking like well i'm gonna turn it up all the way and yeah let's go and like whoa

Speaker 1 well it really evolved yeah it's like it's almost like uh i don't know if you've seen like a like some of the big high school locker or gyms these days you're like this looks like an nfl locker room like i remember my high school gym, it looked shit like this.

Speaker 2 Like, this is crazy, it is like facilities, yeah.

Speaker 1 It's a facility, yeah.

Speaker 1 Now, you have been obviously immensely successful in this, so let's have a fun chat. What's the stupidest shit you ever bought? Uh, once you started making money, what's the stupidest shit?

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 um, everyone's got some stupid shit.

Speaker 2 I'm sure, yeah, no, I do. I'm trying to think,

Speaker 2 I bought it. I remember the first, like, it wasn't stupid, but it was like the, like, I've loved motorcycles for a greater part of my life.

Speaker 2 And like when I finally, finally got out of debt, which was probably two years into my WWE run,

Speaker 2 I finally bought my first new motorcycle.

Speaker 2 And my house that I had didn't have a garage.

Speaker 2 So I had to open up the double doors and park it right inside the, there was like a stone foyer that I parked my Harley cool.

Speaker 1 But that's your preferred mode of transportation, though, motorcycles, right?

Speaker 2 It used to to be. Now

Speaker 2 I don't move well enough. Like my neck and everything doesn't move well enough.

Speaker 2 People on their phones and shit, I'm a little nervous about it. I still love to ride, but I don't ride like I used to.

Speaker 2 But I've gone through all this silly shit, the boats and the jet skis and all the,

Speaker 2 you know, went through all the cars. Now, you know, I rolled up in my old Ford, my 250 today.

Speaker 1 I know. I felt like I was parking next to a man.
I knew it was you.

Speaker 1 I just pulled up in my little bitch ass sports car and I was like, that's got to be him.

Speaker 2 Yeah, man. It's what, what else would a redneck from Texas be driving, right?

Speaker 1 Nothing better, though. Honestly, like, I'll go a pretty long period of time without it.
And then I get into a truck and I'm like, this is just sitting up there, the view.

Speaker 1 You know, it becomes addictive.

Speaker 2 I'll tell you a funny story, though, about that, because it's got a

Speaker 2 four-inch lift on it. It's got big 38-inch tires on it.

Speaker 2 Again, but again, I love sitting up there and being able to see everything. So, a couple weeks ago, I'm at Whole Foods.
I went to buy some steaks, right?

Speaker 2 I was going to grill some steaks and I'm parked. I backed into a spot at Whole Foods and

Speaker 2 got stopped a couple times in the store. So now I'm a little bit late.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 So I get in, throw the food, throw the steaks in the car, in the truck, and I jump in and I pull out, right?

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 the truck is so high

Speaker 2 that I didn't see the car

Speaker 2 next to me.

Speaker 2 I

Speaker 2 ran right over the front end of this car.

Speaker 2 My back wheels ran right over

Speaker 2 the hood.

Speaker 2 You leave a note?

Speaker 2 No,

Speaker 2 I was like, oh, you got to be shitting me here, man. I can't.

Speaker 1 Please tell me it was a fan. They're like, no, it's cool, dude.

Speaker 2 Unbelievably, it was. It was? Yeah.

Speaker 1 They're like, this is one of the greatest days of my life, man.

Speaker 2 I need a new car, but this is cool. We got a new car out of it.
yeah.

Speaker 2 But it was,

Speaker 2 yeah, I just ran over the front. That's hilarious, man.

Speaker 1 I couldn't see it at all. Holy shit, yeah, it's up there.
Yeah, it's a big ass.

Speaker 2 And what, I mean, obviously, I wasn't paying probably as much attention as I should, but I couldn't see it. I couldn't see it because it was lower, like a

Speaker 2 Mazda, yeah, that he had lowered to

Speaker 2 both ran opposite those back wheels ran right over.

Speaker 1 Just

Speaker 1 he's like, no fucking way, you ruined my car?

Speaker 2 Cool, yeah,

Speaker 2 What the hell? Oh, yeah, okay. We'll figure this out.
Yeah, I'm a fan of it. But, yeah.
But so, yeah, you got to be careful. That's cool.
Your redneck mobiles.

Speaker 1 You've hung out, by the way, with Mike Tyson a few times, right?

Speaker 2 I have too. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And it's one of the most memorable experiences that I've had, you know?

Speaker 1 I don't know if

Speaker 1 it's the same to you where I was just like, I mean, the first time, I mean, every time I've run, I just ran into him again, but every time he's just kind of like, this is crazy. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You know, just thinking about watching him fight. Like, was it

Speaker 2 different?

Speaker 1 Because you were coming from being another athlete. So I think it's different for you, but

Speaker 2 it's still, it is, right? Yeah. If you, if you were

Speaker 2 in boxing in the time that Mike had his run,

Speaker 2 he, man, there was no one bigger than Tyson. Yeah, it was like that.
And there was nothing, I mean, that was probably one of the hardest tickets to get on his title runs. And,

Speaker 2 you know, he, he, he, back, I'm trying to think what year it was, but he was, he came on our show and, and, and did, um, he did some stuff with us. And it's just, it's pretty cool, man.

Speaker 2 Pretty cool, right? Yeah. To see, it was cool for us to, to see how big a wrestling fan Mike Tyson is.
Yeah. Right.
Um, you, because you forget. You forget people are fans of what you do.

Speaker 2 Of what you do, right? And

Speaker 2 you just don't look at it like that. Like, oh, shit, that's Mike Tyson.
And he's looking back, oh, shit, that's stone cold, or that's, you know, that's the Undertaker. And

Speaker 2 yeah, so

Speaker 2 always,

Speaker 2 I tell you what, man, he's always been like a gentleman,

Speaker 2 just like a

Speaker 2 he, he's like

Speaker 2 a little kid when he's around wrestling, though. Really? And he lights up.
And he, yeah, and the shit that he knows,

Speaker 2 it blew me away, man. Like, I did his, I did his podcast a couple years ago.
And,

Speaker 2 once I adjusted to the smoke level.

Speaker 1 Yes, a lot of smoke, right?

Speaker 2 A lot of smoke. Right.

Speaker 2 Once I adjusted to that,

Speaker 2 we'd be talking about something. And then

Speaker 2 I think he's about to fall asleep.

Speaker 2 And then the next thing, man, he just rattles off. Yo, what happened with Bruno back in the Bruno San Martino back in the thing when he fought? And I'm like.
Where the hell did all that come from?

Speaker 2 But you could tell, like, he is a genuine fan of the product.

Speaker 1 I feel like if I was a wrestler and they're like, all right, and then we're going to, Mike's going to hit you, I'd be like, hey, let's kind of walk through this a few times.

Speaker 2 Or I'm like, I only want to do that once.

Speaker 1 Like, you know, like, we're going to sell it, right? Yeah. Like,

Speaker 2 chill, chill out.

Speaker 1 Don't get too excited. Like, yeah, I talked to somebody.
I think it was Zach about the hangover. You know, like, because he punches them in that.

Speaker 2 And they were like, all right, let's

Speaker 1 get stunt over here, talk about how we pretend to punch somebody because like you just don't want him to have the itch yeah oh man i don't want any flashbacks right now no dude like even like i mean i saw him what it was a month ago and you know you're still like yeah i mean the the

Speaker 2 width is still there the the way he walks you're like yeah you still have torque in those hips yeah you don't he yeah you don't lose that power no yeah the reflexes and and the speed and some of that goes away but the power is power is still there, dude.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 And are you talking about a no, like it's one thing hitting another boxer, but hitting someone outside of that is just, yeah,

Speaker 2 I wouldn't want to do it.

Speaker 1 Well, dude,

Speaker 1 this is a real treat. Thank you for coming in today.

Speaker 2 It's been a pleasure, man. I can't believe we're living in the same town.
I know. It's taken this long to.

Speaker 1 And I'll tell you this. I told everybody this when I met you, and it'll be a huge disappointment to people that still wish The Undertaker was The Undertaker at all times.

Speaker 1 But you're such a genuine, authentic, nice man.

Speaker 2 It's like, it's a, well, thank you.

Speaker 1 You're a real pleasure to be around.

Speaker 2 Well, I appreciate that, man. Yeah,

Speaker 2 as seriously as I take what I did and what I do, I don't take myself as seriously as you can. You can tell.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I'm at a great place. I feel like I've been incredibly blessed and get to do things like this.

Speaker 1 It's awesome. Yeah.
Let's work out sometime. I want to come back to the gym.

Speaker 2 Yeah, come on back, man. Let's do it.
I've got some more equipment over there now.

Speaker 1 I want to try some new shit. Not at all, brother.

Speaker 1 Don't Don't forget, WrestleMania 42 takes place April 18th and April 19th, 2026, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, and tickets are available right now.

Speaker 1 I'm telling you, if you've never seen this tough live, there's just nothing like it.

Speaker 1 Make it a trip. It's Vegas.
Go have some fun, you know, gamble, dance, listen to music, get ripped, and watch WrestleMania. And huge thanks again to the Undertaker, Mark.

Speaker 1 Thank you so much for coming in. And we'll see you guys next week.

Speaker 2 Bert and

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Speaker 5 But now you must return to the surface,

Speaker 5 where ARC machines roam.

Speaker 5 If you're brave enough, who knows what you might find?

Speaker 5 Ark Raiders, a multiplayer extraction adventure video game. Buy now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC.
Rated T for Team.