The Undertaker could have seen his undefeated WrestleMania streak not break double figures had he not made a major change to his character.
The Streak was not acknowledged until The Deadman’s 10th match at WrestleMania in 2002, with it being purely coincidental that Taker had won the previous 9 bouts at The Show of Shows. With more misses than hits in the early years of the undefeated streak, earlier victims included Psycho Sid in the main event of WrestleMania 13 and infamous encounters with Giant Gonzales at Mania 9 and the Hell in a Cell match against Big Boss Man at Mania 15.
Missing WrestleMania 2000 due to injury, the Hall of Famer returned with a new persona at WWE Judgement Day 2000, The American Badass. During a promo and catchphrase-heavy Attitude Era, The Deadman believed that the change was necessary to stay relevant and be able to hang with the other top stars at the time.
This was also the time when The Rock and Steve Austin were the biggest stars in wrestling, with both men main eventing the 1999 WrestleMania. According to The Undertaker, had he not made the change in character then there was a strong possibility that he would have put over Rock or Austin at a previous WrestleMania to validate their status as main eventers.
Speaking on Six Feet Under, the former World Champion believes that if he kept his previous gimmick the same then a WrestleMania loss looked extremely likely. Taker also noted that this would have been the right decision:
“I would have to think the percentages would be pretty high that the streak would have gotten broken sooner. I don’t know that for certain, but the percentages, and my understanding of our business, tells me that would have been a nice checkmark on somebody that was coming up. Little did we know that Steve’s career would be cut short. Little did we know that Rock was going to come off and become a big movie star. I would have gotten fed to one of them, and it would have been the right thing to do,”
Following his reinvention as The American Badass, Undertaker would go on to defeat Triple H at WrestleMania 17. The Streak would stay alive until WrestleMania 30, where The Phenom would be shockingly defeated by Brock Lesnar.
The Undertaker Reveals Restrictions From Vince McMahon
The launch of Undertaker’s podcast has given multiple never-before-heard stories about his lengthy relationship with Vince McMahon. When discussing The Final Farewell segment that took place at Survivor Series 2020, The Undertaker revealed that even then Vince McMahon had rules that needed to be followed.
H/t to Fightful.