The Undertaker reveals some behind-the-scenes details about his WWE WrestleMania XL cameo.
The Deadman appeared during the main event of WrestleMania XL, where Cody Rhodes finally “Finished The Story” by defeating Roman Reigns to become the Undisputed WWE Champion. The Undertaker intervened by taking out The Rock, who was trying to prevent Cody’s victory, as well as Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa.
In an interview with Busted Open Radio, The Undertaker shared when he was first approached to make the appearance. He emphasized his enthusiasm for participating but was mindful not to overshadow Cody’s story.
I had just got home from doing something and the phone rings, it was a phone call from Paul [Leveque]. Paul called me and he goes, ‘Hey, what do you think about getting involved in this? This may be like a Dusty kind of finish.’ I was like, hm, that’s interesting. I said, look man, I’m there. The first thing I asked was is everybody on board with that because you run the risk of being a huge distraction to something that’s been two years in the building. That was my first question. He was like, ‘Yeah, I think everybody is on board, we’re gonna sit down and talk about it.’ I said, look, if you guys need me, I’m gonna be in Philadelphia. Whatever you need, you got it. He goes, ‘You sure?’ I said, yeah. Why wouldn’t I be? I just don’t wanna be a distraction to what the final story is. If anybody has any qualms about it, my feelings are not gonna be hurt, I’ve got plenty of stuff to do at Mania, no big deal.
He continued, mentioning that they didn’t finalize the plans until the day of the show. He added that he even ignored a few phone calls from Paul Heyman during that time.
So then I don’t hear anything for a couple of days. I pack up the family, everybody goes to Philadelphia. I think it was Thursday, I was about to do my OneDeadMan show. I text Micheal Hayes, I hadn’t heard anything in a couple of days, im talking radio silence. I text Michael Hayes and I say, Mike, do you know anything? What’s the thought? He said, ‘We’re meeting later today, I’ll let you know.’ So I get to the OneDeadMan show, I’m about 15 or 20 minutes from going on and I get a text from Heyman. I was like, nope, ain’t doing this one. The first 45 minutes of my show is completely written and it’s in my head, there’s no way I’m taking a call from Paul Heyman at this point. Then, Paul texts somebody else, as Paul would do. Somebody comes into the dressing room, ‘Hey, Paul Heyman would like for you to call or text him back.’ I was like, ‘I bet he would.’ [laughs] So, I blew Paul off that night and then I saw him a little bit on Friday and nothing was really said. We get to Saturday, now it’s a possibility. We’re thinking, will you be there at such and such time and we can talk. Sunday, I’m up in the suite, I’m having a great time with my family and I get a text that says, ‘Hey, we’re meeting downstairs in 20 minutes.’ So I go downstairs and bang, it’s all laid out. That’s how it all happened.”
The Undertaker’s appearance received critical acclaim. Some in the WWE Universe were expecting a run-in by Stone Cold Steve Austin. Regardless, you can check out his full interview below.
