The Undertaker says a single concussion at WrestleMania planted a seed of self-doubt so deep that it shadowed the rest of his legendary WWE career. The Deadman, real name Mark Calaway, revealed that even decades of experience could not stop him from feeling like a nervous rookie before his match with Bray Wyatt.
Speaking on the Six Feet Under podcast, the WWE Hall of Famer opened up about the physical and mental toll of his final years in the ring. He recalled the concussion vividly but could not pinpoint the exact moment it happened.
“The problem was when I stood up, and there were three of you,” he said. “I was like, I’m just gonna go for the one in the middle, and hopefully I can catch you.”
Wrestling fewer matches each year only fed his anxiety. He constantly questioned whether his body was ready and whether he had enough left to meet the standard fans expected.
“At the end, especially because I worked so few times a year, I would go into matches like, did I train hard enough? Did I get my conditioning good enough? Do I have enough in the tank?” he said.
The Concussion That Made Him Feel Like A Rookie
Undertaker said the WrestleMania concussion was especially difficult because his body was no longer used to that kind of trauma. The doubt carried into his later matches, including his bout with Wyatt.
“After the big concussion that I got at WrestleMania, man, it was so difficult,” he said. “I think it was just my body wasn’t used to the trauma. Once the self doubt gets in there, then it becomes, man. I remember I was wound tight the next year when I worked with Bray. It was like I was a rookie.”
Triple H tried to remind him who he was, but the reassurance did not land at the time.
“Triple H was like, ‘Dude, you’re the FN Undertaker.’ I couldn’t hear it. It took me a while and I don’t know that it ever really went away for the rest of my career. It was always in the back of my brain. People are like, dude, you had this incredible career, but it’s still, what did I do last? That was always the thought.”
Undertaker explained that wrestlers hold themselves to brutal standards, even when their bodies no longer move like they once did. He admitted he struggled to give himself grace.
“We have such high expectations and high standards for ourselves as performers. You don’t give yourself grace. I should be that same guy that I was when I was 28, 30. I couldn’t do it. I can do it now, but I couldn’t then.”
Hips And Knees Held Together By Surgery
The doubt was not just mental. Undertaker revealed he had both hips worked on while still active, clarifying they were not full replacements but Birmingham resurfacing procedures.
“I had both hips done while I was still working. I don’t have full hip replacements. I have what they call Birmingham Resurfaces. They took the head of my femur, cleaned it all off, then they put a titanium cap over the bone. That’s why I was able to continue to keep working.”
One hip was done in 2010 and the other a few years later. After more than a decade of chronic pain, the relief was immediate, and he said his bad hips threw off his walk and damaged his knees.
“They were bad. They were awful. Both of them are really, really, really bad. And I think my knees were direct from my hips because the way I would walk, it kind of threw everything off.”
The knees were long overdue for treatment, but he waited until retirement because he did not believe he could keep wrestling after knee surgery. The comments add fresh context to his reflections on the moment he knew he was done, as well as the physical risks of his final run against AJ Styles.
