Interview with the Undertaker
by Phil Speer
PHILADELPHIA -- It's rare that WWF.com gets a chance to sit down with the Undertaker. As we talk about in this interview, the American Bad Ass is a true locker room leader. Backstage, he's often chatting with his fellow superstars, helping them with their matches or with something else. Or, he's playing dominoes. But the conscience of the World Wrestling Federation was conscientious enough to give us a few minutes of his time Monday night before RAW IS WAR. After he was done playing dominoes, of course.
WWF.com: Did you ever think you'd see the day that you'd be wrestling someone from WCW?
Undertaker: Not on World Wrestling Federation television.
WWF.com: What's that like?
UT: It's pretty interesting. It's kind of refreshing for me, actually. As long as I've been here now, I've kind of gone through just about everybody that's on the Federation roster. I've either wrestled or been involved in programs with them. So it's actually good for me because it gives me, for lack of a better term, fresh meat to go out to the ring and give people something new from the Undertaker. Because like I said, I've wrestled just about everybody on the roster, especially all of our top talent. I've been in Pay-Per-Views with all of them. So it's not only good for me, it's good for our fans because they get to see me in different situations.
WWF.com: You've been on the Federation roster longer than anybody. What's the key to career longevity?
UT: Keeping what it is that you're doing fresh. Evolving as a wrestler, evolving your character. I think that's one of the keys to my success -- the Undertaker has evolved from when he first came here in the early 1990s. You have to continue to expand people's minds and expectations of what they're going to get from the Undertaker. I am the same person, I believe in the same thing, I have a lot of the same characteristics, but you have watched through this past decade the evolution that has brought us to where we are today.
WWF.com: Character-wise, are you enjoying what you're doing now?
UT: I'm enjoying it for where I am in my career. I wouldn't take back anything that I've done, but at this point of my career I am enjoying giving the fans what they're seeing. This is the first time in the whole decade that they actually get to see the Undertaker that they know from television crossed with Undertaker in the street. For years, that's what people (wanted to know), "What's the Undertaker like? What's the Undertaker like?" Well, you're going to see quite a bit of what I'm like when I'm not around wrestling arenas. But I also still kept the same characteristics of that old Undertaker.
WWF.com: You mentioned "this point" of your career. What point of your career are you in?