During a recent interview with Loudwire, The Undertaker revealed who the most “metal” pro wrestler is, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On changing his entrance them to Kid Rock for American Bad-Ass gimmick: “Well, it was a shock. It was very interesting, especially the first night that we did it. We played a little bit of a tease, but then we rolled into that. [We were] a little bit nervous, obviously, to have such a big change, but that song ‘American Bad Ass’ fit perfectly; the lyrics, the energy. It was right there where we wanted to be. That was a home run for us.”
On the change to Limp Bizkit’s “Rollin’”: “‘Rollin” and being on the bike all tied in together. Again, another high-energy song, a song that a lot of people recognized and identified with. A wrestling match, in my eyes, doesn’t start at the bell. It starts when the music plays. As soon as that music kicks in, your match has started. It sets the tone for the entire match. It was a such a high-energy, fun song and still kind of bad ass and got people going, got them excited. The lyrics, obviously, weren’t quite the same, but the energy level was still where we wanted it to be. It was really cool in Seattle at Wrestlemania when Limp Bizkit played me in. Came in, American flag off the back of my bike… one of my favorite entrances, actually.”
On coming out to Johnny Cash’s “Ain’t No Grave”: “That was [cool]. Once again, storyline-wise, it just fit perfectly for where we were at. ‘Ain’t no grave gonna hold this body down.” Once again, a perfect song. Johnny Cash’s voice alone, it’s so rich and his delivery just fit my character perfectly. I was real excited that they let us get the rights to that for that Mania.”
On what music he listens to when preparing for WrestleMania: “Obviously, it depends on the day, but I think a mainstay is always Metallica. There’s certain days like sparring days, hard grinding days when I love to put in Rage Against the Machine. Even in training, Johnny Cash songs… my trainer has different music for different parts of my workouts. There’s those certain days when I might be draggin’ and not feeling it completely, he’d put in Johnny Cash, ‘The Man Comes Around.’ I’m really eclectic when it comes to music, but I would say Rage and Metallica were probably my mainstays. Ozzy’s there, Guns N’ Roses… all that stuff with a pulse to… [Laughs] get my mind off the grind and into the music.”
On his favorite Metallica album or era: “They’ve been so good for so long, it’s hard to separate them all. They may not have played quite as hard later on, but James Hetfield’s voice quality and everything else matured. That whole era around Master of Puppets… that was some good stuff back then.”
On the Boneyard Match proving that he still had plenty to offer: “Yeah. We were really fortunate in a sense that we got to go off-site and do that match. It’s hard after 30 years to be involved in something new and fresh. I think the match — the way it was shot, the execution of the story, everything — was really unique and I’m very proud of what we were able to accomplish. It was not what we expected, not what we set out to do when I first agreed to work at Mania. Obviously, you think you’re gonna be in front of 80,000 people in a wrestling ring, but regardless of that, it would’ve been the right call even if COVID hadn’t hit. That match felt like it’s where it needed to be. After the buildup and all the trash that AJ Styles talked about not only me, but my wife, it needed to be rough and it needed to be a non-typical wrestling match. It needed to be a fight. Where better to have a fight than in a boneyard, man? [Laughs] I couldn’t be more proud of what we did, what the camera crews did, all the techs that were there. It was a huge effort to pull that off and I think you’ll see more and more of that in the future.”
On who the most metal pro wrestler in history is: “Hmmmm. You know what? I’m gonna go with… which a lot of people probably don’t get… but I’m gonna go with Triple H. Especially now that he’s Mr. Corporate and all that, you kind of lose that, but he’s a big metalhead. Funny enough, we’d always talk a little bit about music. He’d always have really good stories about Lemmy [Kilmister, Motorhead] that I’d just laugh at. We’ve been friends for a long time, we’ve had lots of discussions about ring music and entrances and things of that nature. When it comes to metal, he’s definitely my go-to guy.”
