Up until the past few years, The Undertaker was infamous for upholding kayfabe, committing to always appearing in character. In a recent interview on WWE’s The Bump, Taker, out of character, said he doesn’t think he could pull that off today.
“It would be virtually impossible in this day and age to maintain the mystique of the character,” The Undertaker, who is currently the subject of a documentary series on the WWE Network, told the hosts. He explained that had to work hard to protect the character back then, and he thinks that would be even more difficult with the amount of cameras backstage at WWE today.
I never wanted anybody to see Undertaker not being Undertaker. I didn’t do a lot of outside projects because I didn’t feel like, ‘Okay, I can go and do this and then come back and then be Undertaker.’ It just didn’t work for me. So I put all my eggs in that one basket and this is the way it was going to be. I dressed in black everywhere I went. When they would book us on Regis and Kathie Lee and all these shows, Paul did most of the interacting. I sat there and stayed in character.
Taker doesn’t think he could do the same today with the increased amount of cameras not just in WWE, but in everyday life. “Everybody’s got a cellphone everywhere you go. It would be virtually impossible to do it and be able to maintain the mystique of that character.”