WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker discussed how the sport of wrestling has evolved since his time in the business during an interview on Booker T’s podcast.
“It is completely two different worlds. Never in a million years could I imagine how athletic these guys are today. I don’t know if it was the video games they played as kids, but they’re doing video game type stuff in the ring. I think, sometimes it’s a curse because they’re so athletic and they rely so much on that aspect that they forget the most important aspect of what we do — and that is storytelling. I’ve mentioned it to different people higher up and they’re like, ‘Well, you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube.’ I think at some point, we’re gonna have to figure out a way to get it back in there. I’m just thinking about their health if nothing else. I tell people this all the time and people look at me like I’m crazy, but any given wrestling match, at some point in that match, you’re two inches away from something catastrophic happening. The stuff that these guys are doing to get reactions from the crowds, it just makes it exponentially more dangerous than it has to be because after a while, people get desensitized to the crazy moves, the double back flip off the top rope onto the floor. I’ve seen it done a couple of times, now what do you have for me? So you have to continue to push the envelope where, ‘Okay, what am I going to do to get a reaction?’ It’s hard to argue with them because look, the business is great. It’s their era, it is what it is. Being there through the years and knowing what it does to your body, it’s like, man, you’re not going to have careers like we did. You’re gonna burn out, you’re gonna get hurt.”
“We love the business and want to continue to see the business grow, but we also have years and years and years of experience. I know the injury bug pretty damn well and that’s just one aspect of it. I don’t care how long the business goes on, it’s always going to be, the essence of it is going to be good storytelling. Wrestling isn’t about wrestling moves, it’s not. It’s about storytelling. We use wrestling moves to help tell the story, but it’s not about all of that. That’s just a tool to get the essence of A versus B and whatever story that wraps them up.”
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(quotes courtesy of Skylar Russell)
