The Undertaker is one of the revered names in professional wrestling. He is one of the most iconic WWE wrestlers in the history. He has accomplished almost everything in the company in his more than 20-year career. In last few years, the amount of matches The Undertaker has comparatively reduced. So he has become more of an attraction for the WWE, where the company uses him as a tool to increase the ratings.
Undertaker surprised everyone when he returned before Extreme Rules to help out Roman Reigns. He teamed up with Roman again to defeat Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre at Extreme Rules.
But when is the The Undertaker returning back to WWE? The WWE on Saturday announced that the Phenom will make an appearance on September 10th on SmackDown Live, which is incidently the week for Clash of Champions. Even though, Taker is reportedly not booked to appear at the pay-per-view, he is expected to make an appearance to increase hype up Clash of Champions. But Wrestling Oberserver Network’s Dave Meltzer noted that Undertaker’s return this time is not done to spike the ticket sales and the company was planning it for a while, which suggests his return could be done to be build a new storyline.
The Undertaker had match earlier this year against Goldberg, which was heavily criticised. The match between the two legendary wrestlers was a botch-filled affair as both failed to coordinate on basic moves. Such was the dangerous nature of some moves that the fans feared for the life of the two wrestlers. Goldberg dropped The Undertaker on his head while attempting a Jackhammer, while the Phenom also botched the Tombstone Piledriver.
Fans, media and even WWE wrestlers blasted the 52-year-old Goldberg as they highlighted him as the reason why the match failed to click.
Goldberg then explained the reasons behind the match being a laboured affair. He recently sat down in an interview with Booker T & Brad Gilmore and explained the reasons behind that much-maligned match with The Undertaker.
‘I ain’t gonna make excuses, that’s for sure, I’m just gonna answer questions and give facts,’ Goldberg said.
‘Facts are that the reason why I did that match and took that opportunity because it was an opportunity of a lifetime whether I was 22, 52 or 102. ‘Not that it was in Saudi Arabia, that it was against Undertaker and he was a guy I’ve never crossed paths with. ‘The heat I knew going in it was going to be hot, but in two-a-days in Georgia, playing for the Falcons or playing for the Bulldogs or playing wherever, the Rams out in LA, man it’s hotter than hell and you know it’s going to be hot. ‘It’s one of those things you accept, but had like the perfect storm of crappiness, you know, for me. ‘Because people don’t know all the things that go into everything, right?
At 52, going against Taker, being Goldberg in the short period of time that I had, I could either do one of two things: I could get in good shape or I could get as big as humanly possible so I don’t look like an old Goldberg next to Undertaker. ‘So it’s a compromise, it’s always a compromise. ‘This last time [against Dolph Ziggler at SummerSlam], though I didn’t need that cardio, man, I didn’t concentrate on getting big at all in the four weeks that I had. I just tried to get in shape. I didn’t try to add a pound, I tried to lose weight this time. ‘The ring post thing, hey man, that’s a spot that you know a couple of the bookers came up to me afterwards and said, ‘well we called it. We knew you were gonna do that,’ because 50 per cent of time I’ve done that spot I’ve not had good results. ‘Here’s the deal, I don’t profess to be an entertainer on the level of a Ric Flair that can go out and make people laugh, I mean I can but it’s not my way of doing things.
‘My way of making people’s jaws drop is blurring the line between reality and fiction, you know? ‘So everything I do has to be, okay, the kick that I took from Dolph, you know the first kick that I took? Yeah, that felt really good. Because I had to react to it because it planted on me. It was perfect. ‘That’s the way that I work, man. I’m a reactionary guy and if I’m gonna be a defensive lineman that was an all-American, if I’m gonna be a guy that played a couple years in the NFL, if I’m gonna be guy that is known to be a thrasher, I’m not going to run into a turnbuckle and miss it and act like it killed me. ‘I can’t do that so I have to make it look as close to it killing me as possible and sometimes, unfortunately, the circumstances are such that I go a little overboard and at an accelerated age your body can’t take that overboard like it used to, I can’t bounce back from it like I used to.
‘And then the perfect storm of the heat, and the perfect storm of Taker maybe not having the timing and not going at the same time at one point, at the end of the day there ain’t never been a day in the ring that I couldn’t pick up, and you know that. ‘There ain’t a dude on the planet who I haven’t been able to pick up and dump, and not on his head.
It was an unfortunate deal that I just shouldn’t have gone as hard as I went and then hey, you know a couple of people, ‘Hey, well what about the referee? He should have called it.’ Well guess what? The referee asked me 15 times how I felt. You know what I told him? 15 different answers. I did. I know I told him something different every time because I felt different every time he asked me. ‘Remember when I put my hand through the limousine window? I’m not the smartest guy in the world when it comes to trying to be a monster and turn green from zero to 100 like a light switch. And sometimes it’s just tough and I go overboard. ‘It is what it is. Hey, that’s what made it exciting man, and so I just can’t bounce back at 52 like I used to, that’s all.’
First Published:
Aug 25, 2019 03:16 IST
Source: HindustanTimes