Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
The Undertaker appeared on The Norm and D Invasion on Sportsradio 96.7 The Ticket on Wednesday morning 11/10, revealing he is due for a knee replacement while discussing his career and the on-sale for WWE's Wrestlemania. Some highlights from the conversation:
How he feels physically these days:
"Both my hips are partial hip replacements already. I need, I need a right knee, so I have surgeries lined up. I just...I gotta wait until hunting season is over for [them.]"
Whether he misses performing in the ring:
"I miss performing in front of our live audiences, especially around WrestleMania time. It's just, you know, it's the game. I was very blessed to have a very long career where I was active for so many years, but the body can only take so much and deliver so much, and for me that time. I realized at the last WrestleMania that I had, that I did [Wrestlemania 36] that my time had come."
Whether being involved in real estate in the Austin area is boring compared to WWE:
"Pretty much everything I do now, you know, other than I get on some pretty good hunts here and there...yeah, there's not a lot that compares to the adrenaline rush of walking out in front of 101,000 people at AT&T stadium. That's kind of hard to duplicate."
Who is he these days - Mark Calaway or The Undertaker:
"You know, what I'm somewhere caught in the middle and then that would, that would be the American Badass I think. There was that run there in the early 2000s where I kind of moved away from the traditional Undertaker and I turned into the biker gimmick, which ist anot just another extension of my real personality. I'm gonna call it there in the middle between all three of those really. You're not going to see, unless it's a very special kind of event...I'm going to kind of let that character rest and, and let the the legacy of it live in people's memories. Mark Calaway will always be the Undertaker. It's just, now that you're going to get a little bit more insight on the Undertaker from Mark Calaway, if that makes sense."
Wrestling in the legendary Sportatorium in Dallas:
"Walking down that ramp at the Sportatorium, never did I envision walking in front of, 80-90-a hundred thousand people just screaming at the top of their lungs. There's nothing that I could ever imagine. When I wrestled at AT&T Stadium for WrestleMania 32...you you kind of become a little bit desensitized to it. eou never take it for granted, but even that night, because that's the night that we set our attendance record of 100,000 people...I did take just a moment, just a quick moment and there was that whole reflection of where I started and where I was at at that moment and it was incredible. As y'all all well know when AT&T Stadium is full. I mean, it is just massive and just an ocean of people. And, the energy was incredible. So amazing."
"The biggest memory that comes back is, is that's where I had my first real professional match and I had it against, he's now he's now deceased, Bruiser Brody, and I just remember being physically just dominated in my first match by, you know, this guy, who's a maniac. I learned so much. I learned so much so quick about the industry and it was a humble beginning, but it put me on the road to, where we eventually ended up."
More from the interview on Page 2!
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
Bang On Casino
