During an interview this week on Booker T’s Hall of Fame podcast, old man Undertaker said old man things about how too many wrestlers today have forgotten the most important aspect of the pro wrestling business. So here he is reminding current stars that they need to tell stories in the ring, and that doing too many Cool Moves will shorten their careers.
“It is completely two different worlds. It’s crazy, because 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 it’s almost sometimes 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 storytell.
I’ve mentioned it to different people high up, and it’s like, hey we can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. But I think at some point we’re gonna have to figure out a way to get it back in there. And I’m just thinking of their health, if nothing else.
I tell people this all the time, and people look at me like I’m crazy. But in any given wrestling match, any match, at some point in that match you’re two inches away from something really catastrophic happening…and the stuff that these guys are doing to get reactions from the crowds, it just makes it exponentially more dangerous than what 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 times, now what do you have for me? So you have to continue to push the envelope to, okay what am I gonna have to do to get a reaction?
And it’s hard to argue with them, because look, business is great. It’s their era. It is what it is. But just being there through the years, and knowing what it does to your body, it’s just like, man, you’re not gonna have careers like we had. You’re gonna burn out. You’re gonna get hurt.”
I’m sure Undertaker’s heart is in a good place with this message, but a decent amount of what he said there is wrong.
Wrestling careers today are lasting longer than than ever before. Today’s wrestlers generally maintain healthier lifestyles than in Undertaker’s day, and make much smarter decisions with their bodies when they are outside of the ring.
Today’s wrestlers also work a much lighter schedule, to the point where someone like LA Knight is viewed as a workhorse for performing in over 60 matches in 2025. That number would be laughed at in Undertaker’s day.
A big part of the reason why Undertaker’s body feels like shit now is because he worked so many more dates and house shows than today’s stars. That factor has largely been minimized today, which helps wrestling careers last longer. Burn out also isn’t as much of a problem today when drug addiction is less prevalent, and wrestlers are working significantly fewer dates.
Back in the 1990’s, Vince McMahon was looking to move on from top WWF stars like Hulk Hogan and “Macho Man” Randy Savage when they were approaching 40 years old. Today, some fans don’t blink an eye when nearly 50 year old wrestlers are world champions and/or often in the main events. Expectations are different because today’s wrestlers have more staying power than stars in Undertaker’s day.
It’s true that lots of today’s matches feature spots and moves that are riskier and higher impact than in his time, but that’s always been true in pro wrestling history when comparing a current generation to the ones that came before it. Undertaker was doing big leaps over the top rope that were uncommon for big men his size in previous generations, for example.
Finally, the fact that business is so good today means either Undertaker is flat out wrong about his claim that today’s wrestlers forget to tell stories in the ring, or it’s not as important as he thinks it is to the bottom line. I have gotten used to rolling my eyes whenever retired wrestlers say today’s stars don’t tell stories in the ring. It seems to me that they are a little jealous of the fact that today’s stars can do so many more impressive things in the ring that blow the older generations out of the water.
There are definitely some great aspects of wrestling from Undertaker’s day that are lost today due to a very different developmental process, and overly scripted matches and promos, but that’s not really what he is complaining about above. He is instead going on about a lack of storytelling, video game moves being bad, and shorter careers, and I just don’t see how those claims hold up to scrutiny.
What do you think, Cagesiders? Is Undertaker being an old man spewing typical old man things about the current generation of wrestlers? Or does he make good points about there eventually being a physical breaking point, and how the toothpaste needs to be put back in the tube? Let me know in the comments below.
