The Undertaker explains why he changed into the American Badass character

While speaking with True Geordie, The Undertaker talked about the thought process behind his “American Badass” character during the Attitude Era…

“So the American Badass, several things were going on there. One, yeah, I got hurt. I injured my groin and right close to coming back from my groin injury, I tore a pec, so I was out most of that whole year leading into the American Badass. But what was going on was the Attitude Era. You know, you’ve got Stone Cold who’s cutting these incredible promos that people can really identify with, right? I mean it’s like real life with a little bit of gas behind it. You got The Rock cutting these unbelievable promos. All these promos are just — they are so good. I think — I would have survived but I wouldn’t have thrived if I would not have taken a break and took — as good as the character is, you’re kind of boxed in too, with what you can do and what you can’t do. You know, it’s hard for The Undertaker to be in the ring while The Rock is talking about poontang pie, you know what I mean? And that had some type of retort that The Undertaker could give. So, one, it was a period for me to just take a deep breath and do something different for a minute.” (quote courtesy of PostWrestling.com)