411’s WWE ‘Meeting The Undertaker’ Report

-Air Date: 11/01/20
-Run Time: 23:18

-30 Days of The Deadman continues with this short feature. The premise is WWE Superstars talking about their first meeting with The Undertaker. This should be interesting and a decent way to waste 23 minutes. Let’s get to it!

-Various guys are asked about their first meeting and we have a sweet group involved in this: Reigns, Foley, Shane, Austin, Flair, Batista, Hall, Edge, Cole, The Rock, Jeff Hardy, Woods, HHH, Corbin, and Orton among others.

-We start with World Class Championship Wrestling and that’s where Steve Austin first met Mark. He was known as Texas Red being managed by Percy Pringle. Austin says that you knew he would be someone when you met him.

-Foley first met him in WCW and he was there the night Taker was given the name Mean Mark. We see video of Mean Mark doing Old School. I remember Mean Mark and the rope walk was the sweetest thing. Flair met him in WCW and says he was a big, athletic guy with a good look. WCW Taker footage is great! Flair says the potential was there but they needed to find a niche.

-Bruce Prichard says that they knew Mark’s contract was coming up in WCW, so Paul Heyman called and asked if Bruce and the WWE were interested. Bruce says he was drooling over the idea as they knew that he was a big, athletic man they could do something with. Shane was in his freshman year of college and Vince told him to have a conversation with Mark while Vince was in another meeting. They hit it off from there. Bruce met him for the first time when he was getting fitted for his Undertaker gear.

-Survivor Series 1990: The Undertaker is born. Foley says he knows Mark, but that person may as well never existed once The Undertaker was born.

-Hall crossed paths with him in New Japan in the late 80s. When he came to WWF, Taker was already a big star. Taker used to have parties in his hotel back in the day. He would fill his tub with ice and beer and sit back and watch everyone party. Hall always called him Big Smooth.

-HHH came to the WWE in 1995 and Taker already had an aura and it was legit. They worked together a few times and then Taker made HHH come over one night and poured 2 shots of Jack. He told HHH he was good with him and that was the icebreaker between them.

-Bray Wyatt’s first meeting was when he was a little kid. Taker came up to him and his brother and rolled his eyes. Bo got so freaked out he kicked Taker in the shin and ran. AWESOME! A few year later they went to a show and Taker asked “which one of you assholes kicked me in the shin?” Fantastic!

-Jeff Hardy was brought in as a job guy in 1994 and at first saw the Fake Taker and thought he was the real deal until he saw the tats were fake. He then met the real Taker and he became a mentor to him.

-Edge started developing a relationship when he and Christian were handpicked to be in The Ministry. We get some sweet backstage footage of Taker talking wrestling gear with Edge and Christian. Jump to Mania 24 and Taker let Edge have the last entrance and Edge says his hands went numb walking down the aisle and seeing Taker in the ring. He knows there are guys like Flair, Rock, Austin, Hogan, but that was Taker with the Streak at WrestleMania in the Main Event for the World Title.

-Big Show would not be the Superstar he is today without Taker. He was very green when he came into WWE even with his run in WCW. They show The Giant trying to carry Savage in the ring on his shoulders and dropping him on the steps. Damn! That had to suck. A year before he even came to WWE, Taker called Show to chew him out about something he did on TV. We see Nash powerbomb The Giant at Souled Out and nearly break his neck on the drop. That was nasty and even Hogan had to turn his head. Just sick! Taker bitched him out for letting someone do that to him. He says he is a better talent now than he would be if he hadn’t met Mark.

-Michael Cole started in 1997 and Taker was already the leader. Everyone told him he would need to meet Taker at some point. Taker came up to him and Cole offered a handshake and Taker told him he would have to earn that handshake, laughed and walked away. Cole is proud that he has earned many handshakes from him.

-The Rock discusses his first match with Taker and it was on RAW. He was throwing punches and could only think “I’m throwing punches at the fucking Undertaker.” He tells the story of the word getting around about Rock getting his first WWF Title run. It seems some were annoyed by it and Taker said not to worry about it and that he was going to be a megastar. Rock will always be grateful for everything Taker has done for him.

-Batista saw him for the first time in Louisville as he saw Taker riding around the arena on a motorcycle. This is also the first place Orton saw him as they were both in OVW. Orton saw Taker backstage just taking everything in with the young talent. Batista says Taker asked to meet him and to Batista it was like meeting God. They have cam footage of Taker shooting a promo on him from OVW. Orton was shaking when he introduced himself to him and looked at him like he was still a fan watching on TV. Some you meet you realize they are just a normal human being, but with Taker he is everything you think.

-Woods was one of The Druids that was involved in Taker’s Mania 29 entrance. The one with the zombies reaching up to touch him. That’s awesome! It was a great come-up story for him.

-Reigns talks about Taker being around his family and see pictures of Reigns as a child with Hogan. Taker always rode around with Yokozuna. The first time they talked, Reigns used tattoos as a way to break the ice.

-AJ Styles met him for the first time when they were on vacation. AJ had a friend that vacationed the same place as Taker so they became friends. So they had a mutual friends and became friends from there.

-Corbin met him when Taker came down to work with the kids at NXT. Taker grabbed Corbin to help him work on his entrance and how to carry himself. Taker watched his live match at Takeover and yelled at him after the match for mistakes he made. Corbin says Taker’s word is gospel.

-March 19, 2010: Drew vs Taker on SmackDown. Drew met him though during his tryout. He introduced himself to Taker and could hear Taker laughing at what he was doing. He talks about Extreme Rules 2019 and how he, Shane, and Reigns wanted to give Taker a great match and they were able to do that.

-Taker himself talks about all the incredible people he has met and how he works to help grow this industry. He is very lucky to have all these people.

-That ends this special and again, it was a fun show. Some of the stories were good and others were ones you have properly heard. Everything flew by as the kept the stories short and got in as many people as they could. Again, not a bad way to spend 23 spare minutes you may have. See you tomorrow night for RAW Talk!