On the most recent episode of “Something Else to Wrestle”, now available to watch via WWE Network, host Bruce Prichard discussed WWE changing The Undertaker’s gimmick to The American Badass biker character back in 2000, and the different opinions which went into the gimmick change.
On how Vince McMahon and The Undertaker disagreed heading into the change, Prichard had the following to say:
“[Undertaker] wanted to be The Biker, he wanted to be the guy that he is in everyday life, of course, with the volume turned up quite a bit. So there really wasn’t a whole lot of ‘what if we did this? Or, what if we did that?’ It was, if we’re gonna change, that was something that he was immediately comfortable with, however, when you’re talking about this, there was a lot of trepidation. There were people that were uncertain as to ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.’”
Click Here: France Rugby Jersey
On people in WWE, namely Vince McMahon, being nervous about changing a proven commodity like The Undertaker:
“Yeah. I think everyone was nervous. But it was also viewed upon as a brand new character and introducing somebody. Now, in the back of our minds, in the back of Vince McMahon’s mind, in the back of my mind, it was, we’re always going to go back to the original Dead Man, and we are always going to go back to the original Undertaker. In ‘Taker’s mind, it was ‘if we make this change, we can never go back’.”
You can listen to more in the provided clip, and if any of the above quotes are used for article purposes, please credit ProWrestling.com for the transcription.
Read Also: The Undertaker Possibly Wrestling a Match at WWE SummerSlam?