WWE Raw: The Undertaker Makes a Surprise Appearance, Destroys Elias

The Undertaker may not have made it to WrestleMania 35 on Sunday night, but he managed to make up [...]

By Connor Casey

The Undertaker may not have made it to WrestleMania 35 on Sunday night, but he managed to make up for it the next day when he made a surprise appearance on Monday Night Raw. "The Deadman" interrupted Elias during one of his concerts after "The Drifter" made a comment that the next person to interrupt him would "be a dead man."

Elias quickly ditched his guitar and robe and tried to nail the legend with a a cheap shot, but got a big boot, chokeslam and Tombstone for his troubles. Taker folded Elias' arms over his chest while the Barclays Center crowd counted to three, even though there was never a real match.

Undertaker's status with the WWE had been called into question for months, given that the former world champion was taking appearance bookings outside of the WWE for the first time since he originally signed with the company in 1990. He gave a rare, out-of-character interview with Pastor Ed Young back in February and spoke openly about his time in the WWE.

At one point he revealed how Vince McMahon pitched him the idea for his legendary gimmick.

"I was working for another company, and they actually told me, as I was going in to renegotiate my contract, they sat me down and went 'listen, you're a good athlete, but no one's ever going to pay money to watch you wrestle.' They said that to me. I was like 'really?' OK, that's all I needed to hear. We'll see you guys down the road, and that stuck with me," he said. I eventually get a meeting with Vince, and I was like 'I'm going to walk in here, and I'm going to blow him away. I'll get hired right on the spot.' I go to Connecticut and I meet with Vince, and at the end of it he goes, 'well, we really don't have anything right now. Maybe after Wrestlemania, we might have an opening.' And I was like 'oh wow. I already quit the other place.' I didn't figure that part in (not getting hired)."

Taker admitted that when the promos for the Gobbledy Gooker started airing on television, he was worried that he was about to be booked as some sort of "Eggman" gimmick. Thankfully that didn't happen.

"I'm at home one day and the phone rings, so I pick it up and [the voice says] 'Hello, is this The Undertaker?' So I put the phone down [puzzled] and think to myself 'Undertaker? I'm sure not Eggman or Egghead.' So I say 'yea, this is The Undertaker!' I was probably on the verge of an ulcer," he said. "I was so uptight about this that it took me a second to even process who this was. Vince's voice, you can distinguish it pretty quick, and I was like 'yeah, OK!' He had the character, he just needed somebody big, with no personality. 'I'm your guy!''

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