2003 BoxingInsider.com Interview with WWE’s Undertaker at UFC 43

BoxingInsider.com: Do you get any pointers from watching the UFC or incorporate any of the styles into your training and arsenal of pro wrestling moves?

The Undertaker: Oh definatly. I come out here. I study this. I am a big fan of UFC and Mixed Martial Arts. I try and incorporate some of this stuff into what we do. I think it makes my style of wrestling more unique when I can incorporate some of this stuff.

BoxingInsider.com: How do you compare the conditioning of the athletes in the UFC compared to the conditioning of the in the WWE?

The Undertaker: I am sure it is pretty similar… These guys… (Interrupted by fans)…

BoxingInsider.com: Do you see the WWE working with the UFC in the future?

The Undertaker: Who’s to say? Our sport is becoming more and more physical and its becoming more athletically enhanced so who’s to know. I think UFC is the wave of the future, probably the WWE in the future will progress into a whole less entertainment and a lot more hard fought battles … not that their not.. Just not as big an emphasis put on the entertainment aspect.

BoxingInsider.com: If you were a few years younger would you like to compete in the UFC?

The Undertaker: Oh, Id Love to! I’d like to have given it a shot in the old UFC, even now Id give it a shot … even now … these guys are so well. These guys are so well versed in grappling, striking, kicking, submissions; it really has progressed into a science. I am a huge fan of this. For that reason alone these guys are some of the baddest dudes in the world because you don’t know where it is going to come from. You don’t know if you are going to get punched or taken down or submitted … you don’t know … when they call it ultimate fighting, this is it cause it incorporates every style, every facet of hand to hand combat and mixed martial arts. This is awesome. I am a huge fan of UFC.

BoxingInsider.com: A few wrestling questions. What is your opinion of the Internet and how it has changed the wrestling business?

The Undertaker: I don’t know that it really changed the business. I don’t really have too many positive things to say about the Internet a lot of people are self professed experts that have never been in the ring, never booked a territory and never been responsible for their writing actions. But a lot of people can sit back and criticize what we do. I try not to pass judgments till I walked in someone’s shoes.

If it was up to the Internet and we did what they suggested there would probably be a lot whole lot less people watching. They are a very small group. I am not talking about the all of the Internet there are a lot of fan based sites that are really good and they remember that they are fans.

But these guys that think they are wrestling experts, I think they are a joke, they are people who forgot they are only fans. They take themselves way too seriously. They need to remember that we do this for their entertainment and should stop critiquing and enjoy it for what it is.

BoxingInsider.com: Triple H has been getting a lot of criticism for to having “too much stroke” in the company because he is with Stephanie McMahon. Do you have any comments on that?

The Undertaker: You know, that is going to come with the territory. When you are involved with someone from the McMahon family that is going to come with the territory regardless if it is true or not. I know Triple H loves this business, puts his heart and soul into it.

I am sure some of the criticism he gets is unwarranted and it’s perceived that he has ‘all this stroke.’

He does a lot of thinking for the rest of the company not even for just his own angles and his own personal benefit. He is a student of the game. He is going to have to learn, as is Stephanie that they are going to have to roll with the punches and this thing, it was their choice to be together and now they have to face the consequences which is idle rumors and chit chat about his stroke and what he does.

BoxingInsider.com: How is your Elbow? (Undertaker recently had elbow surgery)

The Undertaker: The Undertaker: Elbow is coming along, I’d say it’s about 80 percent the surgery was a real success, I got to go on the road now. I get on the red eye out of here. Have to be in Austin tomorrow night to wrestle tagging with Brock Lesner with the FBI going around the loop right now. Its coming I’m in good shape and hopefully I’ll be able to get this thing back to 100 percent and pick it up a notch.

BoxingInsider.com: How many more years do you think you have left in wrestling?

The Undertaker: As long as I can compete with these kids and stay at their level. I have a huge advantage in that I understand this business and I know what I am doing. It’s always going to be a physical thing for me.

But as long as I can go out there and compete which I feel I can do then I am going to hang around. I definitely don’t want to be there when people are out there in the audience saying you know you should have seen him when he could do this and he could do that. I have rededicated myself into being in the best possible shape and being the best I can be. That is all I can do.

BoxingInsider.com: Thank you very much.

The Undertaker: No Problem.