The Undertaker took one of the bluntest assessments of his career from Vince McMahon, and it had nothing to do with his work in the ring.
During a new Q&A episode of Six Feet Under, the Hall of Famer described an early-career habit of taking his frustration out on enhancement talent. It eventually landed him in a confrontation with McMahon in the Gorilla position.
Vince and I are going back and forth. And that’s when he hit me with it. He says, ‘You know, Mark, let me tell you something. Perception is reality. And the perception is that you’re a giant asshole,'” Undertaker said.
‘Man Up’
McMahon landed a second gut punch years later, during a rough stretch in Undertaker’s personal life.
He looks at me, and with as straight a face as it could be, he goes, ‘You know what, Mark? I really think you need to quit feeling sorry for yourself. Man up,'” Undertaker recalled.
The response was not gracious.
I did tell him, ‘If you were anybody else, we’d probably be fighting right now. No one talks to me like that.’ He said, ‘Well, damn it, somebody needs to.'
The Argument Undertaker Won
Not every disagreement went McMahon’s way. Undertaker described pushing back on a cage spot for the Punjabi Prison match, losing the argument, and being proven right once the match went out.
I said, ‘Fine. It’s gonna suck. And when it sucks, it’s gonna be on you.’ We did it the way he wanted it and it was flat,” he said. “I come back, and he goes, ‘Yeah, I think you were right on that cage spot.’ That was such a victory for me to actually have him admit he was wrong.
Those exchanges shaped how he later handled the locker room.
When I would see [younger wrestlers] heading in that path towards maybe making some bad decisions, I felt like it was my duty to say something,” Undertaker said.
