The end of The Undertaker’s undefeated WrestleMania streak at the hands of Brock Lesnar is still one of the most debated topics in all of pro wrestling. Fans and wrestlers alike have gone back and forth over whether or not it was a good decision to let Lesnar be the man to end the legendary run, or if the streak ever should have ended at all. In the years that followed The Undertaker never really gave his two cents on the situation since he rarely did out-of-character interviews, but that’s changed recently with the release of his WWE Network documentary series Undertaker: The Last Ride.
In an interview with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani on Wednesday, Taker was asked point blank if he thought ending the streak was a mistake.
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“Internally, and the way this business works, I knew that someday it probably would [end],” he said. “In our industry, you don’t walk away like Floyd (Mayweather) and retire undefeated, like Rocky Marciano. It just doesn’t happen that way in wrestling. It was always in the back of my mind that it would end. Although most of my peers and people I work with thought it was a horrible decision. And I just asked Vince [McMahon] ‘Are you sure? Is this what you want.’ He was like ‘If it’s not Brock, who could beat you?’ From the way the streak was built and by that time obviously [nobody could].”
Undertaker said he could have said no to McMahon’s booking decision, but shrugged and said “What good was that going to do?”
“I’m business, and business comes first before anything personal,” he said.
During the same interview Taker gave some details about his famous interaction with Lesnar at UFC 121 back in 2010. “The Deadman” admitted he was there to try and stir something up with Lesnar that would lead to a match back in WWE.
“I was there to pick a fight. I was sent there personally to pick a fight, and I was unaware that Dana [White] had no clue what was going to happen, which I felt horrible about after the fact,” he said. “I thought there had been some kind of discussion between him and Vince [McMahon]. At that time Brock was so hot in the MMA world, so obviously … I was like, ‘You know what? Why not try it?’ There was no personal animosity really. But it was basically me saying, ‘All right, you left our world, I’m going to come into your world and I’m going to call you out.’” That was it, obviously it was a huge media storm.”
