Undertaker: The Last Ride Chapter 2 provided a story of redemption for the man known as The Undertaker, showing Mark Calaway’s hard-fought journey not just back to WrestleMania but also to feeling like the legend he truly is. In Undertaker: The Last Ride Chapter 3 we see a spark reignited, and while Calaway feels great in the ring once more, he knows it can’t last forever, and now the search for an ending really begins. This was a revealing look at Calaway’s search for an ending like the one he gave Shawn Michaels, and there was quite a bit to process throughout the episode. That’s why we’ve collected the 7 biggest things we learned right here, and you can check those out starting on the next slide.
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From his frustrations with the Cena match and his friendship with Triple H to his four favorite matches, we get a lot of insight into who Calaway trusts and what he values in a great match and opponent.
We also see how much of a presence he is behind the scenes, as just about everyone has something good to say about working with him or receiving advice from him.
The episode also shines a light on how promising a start the recent program with Undertaker and Triple H got off to, though you also see how and why it all fell completely apart in their match at Crown Jewel, which turned out not to be the storybook ending Undertaker wanted and was not what Michaels, Triple H, or Kane hoped for either.
You can check out everything we learned from the episode starting on the next slide, and you can also find the official description for Undertaker: The Last Ride Chapter 3 below.
“Fresh off his stellar performance at WrestleMania 34 against John Cena, The Undertaker seeks closure on his 30-year career in a series of matches with the men he respects the most – Triple H, Shawn Michaels and Kane. With a dream scenario involving all four Legends at WWE Crown Jewel, the stage was set for The Phenom to ride off into the night.”
You can check out everything we learned from Undertaker: The Last Ride Chapter 3 starting on the next slide, and let us know what you thought about the episode in the comments or by giving me a shout on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!
The Cause
The beginning of the episode brings us to Undertaker’s match with Cena, and you tell he hasn’t felt this good in quite some time. That’s also what leads to his frustration with the fact that they only get about 3 to 5 minutes to actually throw down in the ring.ย
“Professionally it was fine. Personally, it left me a little empty,” Undertaker says. He would add “I was prepared to do a 20 minute, 30-minute match.”
The lack of time and fulfillment of the Cena match was a big part of the reason he took on Rusev at the Greatest Royal Rumble.
Ice Breaker
Early on Triple H describes the moment when he and Undertaker sort of broke the ice.
“When I first came into the company, 95, man The Undertaker had an aura. That Undertaker persona was legit. We had a few opportunities to be in the ring. Maybe that changed his respect level for me. One night we were all out, everybody was out, and he kind of motioned for me to come over and poured out two shots of Jack kind of sat there looking at me for a little bit, and we sta there talking and finally he said ‘you’re alright with me’.ย
We did a shot of Jack and I don’t drink, and he knew it, and I think it was kind of the ice breaker for me and him.
Advice on Stephanie
Triple H also talks about Calaway’s leadership backstage, and when it came time for a big change in Triple H’s life, Taker was the one he asked advice from. That change happened to be his relationship with Stephanie McMahon, and Taker was 100% supportive.
“He was a locker room leader,” Triple H said. “He was sort of a sounding board for things. When Steph and I got together and were starting to have a relationship, the guy that I talked to about it was Taker. He was one of the most supportive guys of it. He was like ‘screw everybody else and their opinions, you know what you bring to the table and so do I. If anyone else doesn’t like it that’s their problem.’
Best Matches
Undertaker has some absolute classic matches on his resume, but there are four that stand out above the rest.
“I’ve got a lot of moments in my career that I hold very near and dear to my heart that are very special to me with a lot of different guys. And you know, no disrespect to anybody, but you know, I think overall what I’m most proud of as far as matches, storylines, and all that, are the four matches that I had. The two with Shawn and the two with Triple H.
Shawn Michaels Moment
ย Taker ended up being a part of Michaels’ย legendary ending, and as we learn in the documentary, a lot of what has fueled Taker ever since is finding that legendary ending for himself.
“The first one was off the charts, and the second one is the way that I’m going to leave a line of work that’s been a part of my life since I was 19,” Michaels said. “Everybody’s still sort of amazed that I’ve been able to stay retired, and that speaks to the closure that we were able to have with one another in that match.”
Taker wants that kind of clarity too, something Michaels had before the match even began.
I’m so envious of Shawn because he was able to walk away and be (breaths peacefully) okay with it,”Calaway said. “Do I wish I had that kind of clarity? Absolutely. I absolutely wish I had that kind of clarity. He had the clarity before going into that match and hopefully when I have the match that I’m looking for one way or another I have that clarity to know, okay, that’s it.”
A Train Wreck
While the leadup to the match between DX and the Brothers of Destruction was pretty solid, the actual match was anything but, and we get an honest critique of the match from Triple H and Taker. Triple H even admits they thought it was going to be a walk in the park.
“It’s with Kane and Taker, dude it’s a night off, right? You’ll come in there, we’ll do a couple of crotch chops, throw some glow sticks out, couple of superkicks, drop an elbow, it will all be great,” Triple H said. “No problems. Easy. Except, me and Taker doing the once in a while thing. Shawn hasn’t wrestled in however many years. Kane’s the Mayor. It was like a bad comedy movie. It really is.”
We then see the quick conversation between Shawn and Triple H after he tore his pectoral muscle early on in the match, where Shawn was pretty stunned by the news despite not losing his cool very often.
Triple H also then goes over Kane losing his mask, adding “it couldn’t have gone any worse.”
“It was a total trainwreck. A disaster” Calaway said.
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The Blame
Michaels follows the match with an “it totally blew”, and then we see him and Triple H head to the back. Michaels then jokes “missed it by that much”, and for Taker, he blames himself a lot for how the match went.
“We’re all humans and things even happen to people that you don’t think things like that happen to,” Calaway said. “I take a lot of responsibility in that because my mind, I wasn’t there. I mean I was there physically but mentally I wasn’t there, and Michelle and I had some personal things going on with other parts of the family, so you know I had that drama going on in my head and was all consumed with.”
Taker also admits that this match could’ve been the one to go out on if it had gone as planned.
“If that match would’ve came off the way it was intended and the way we wanted it to, that may have been enough for me,” Calaway said.
