The Undertaker warns wrestlers about taking dangerous risks: “You’re going to burn out, you’re going to get hurt”
During an appearance on Booker T’s Hall of Fame podcast, The Undertaker commented on how professional wrestling has changed since his era…
“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 a curse sometimes 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 storytelling.
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 going to have to figure out a way to get it back in there because these guys—and I’m just thinking of their health, if nothing else.
I tell people this all the time, and they look at me like I’m crazy, but in any given wrestling match, at some point in that match, you’re two inches away from something really catastrophic happening.
The stuff these guys are doing to get reactions from the crowds, it just makes it exponentially more dangerous than it has to be because, after a while, people get desensitized to the crazy moves.
The double backflip 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. Okay, what am I going to have to do to get a reaction?
Whereas our era—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 like, man, you’re not going to have careers like we had. You’re going to burn out. You’re going to get hurt.”