Chris Jericho On The Undertaker’s Legacy, Brock Lesnar Being Chosen To End Undertaker’s WrestleMania Streak

In a recent interview on Sitting Ringside with David Penzer, Chris Jericho discussed the Undertaker’s legacy, Brock Lesnar being chosen to end the Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak, and much more. You can read his comments below.

Chris Jericho on working with the Undertaker: “It’s unbelievable to think Undertaker and Jericho never had a single match on pay-per-view. I think we only had two singles matches on TV ever, and the first one was after I’d been there maybe 10 years or so. We just never crossed paths – he was always on SmackDown when I was on RAW and vice versa. The matches – the one singles match we had was great, and we had a great Elimination Chamber match and a couple of other multi-team matches. But we never had a great singles match, and it’s one of those things that kind of blows my mind that was never booked. He’s another one of those guys like I mentioned with Frankie [Kazarian] – the first time I ever locked up with him, I’d already been in the business for 20 years and I couldn’t believe how good he was. Obviously, it’s not a secret how good he is, but I never experienced that. I just can’t believe that never led to us doing something more involved.”

On Undertaker’s legacy both in and out of the ring: “Definitely behind the scenes – I call him the Fonz because he’s the epitome of cool. He’s also the epitome of a guy that when the time comes, he can lay the hammer down and get the respect and get things in order like the Fonz. Everybody respects the Undertaker. Guys like to consider themselves locker room leaders, and a lot of guys even claim to be locker room leaders. No real locker room leader says they’re the locker room leader – they just are, and everybody knows it. I don’t care if you’re JBL at the height of being a bully or Brock Lesnar or Triple H or whoever it is, the buck always stops with the Undertaker. He’s just a pleasure to be around. But in the ring, also one of the greatest characters of all time, and I’d put Kane in that category as well because they completely know who their characters are and what their gimmick is.

“It’s one of those things when you’re standing in the ring and you hear what I call the Taco Bell Gong – you hear that and the lights are out, you really do get goosebumps. He comes to the ring very seriously, it’s no joke, and there’s no fucking around. Even to the point to when you watch him walk, he never turns his head – he only turns his whole body. He walks up the steps and then he stops and turns – it’s really committed to everything that he does. For a guy that big to work like he did and incorporate that character – ‘OK, you’re a deadman’ – in lesser hands, it could’ve been a one-and-done gimmick like a Mantaur or something like that. Instead, he ends of being one of the greatest characters – if not the greatest character – in WWE history. All those things are incorporated into what the Undertaker is, and it’s definitely an end of an era when he’s done and retired because you won’t see another guy like that. You can’t see another guy like that because times have changed so much.”

On whether Brock Lesnar should’ve ended Undertaker’s streak at WrestleMania: “It’s hard to say. It was Vince’s decision and Vince obviously had a plan in mind, but in retrospect, it would seem Roman might have been the better guy for it. But also too, Roman was a babyface. Roman now, as a heel, would be the perfect guy. But when they were playing Roman as the babyface, it might have backfired on him too. So, Brock was the guy Vince put all his marbles into for many years. Did he need to beat Undertaker? No, he didn’t need it. But at the time, was there anybody else that made sense? And Vince might’ve thought it was his last one – you never know. Whatever decision Vince made was the one he thought was right at the time, and you can debate it until forever, but I don’t think it would’ve worked with Roman as a babyface. Now, he would be the perfect guy to beat the Undertaker for the streak as a heel.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Sitting Ringside with David Penzer with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.