10 Awesome WWE Promos You Probably Don't Remember
9. This Is Why They Called Him The American BADASS
RAW September 18th 2000
As a rule, the Undertaker isn’t well known for his promo ability. If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all: speaks in an artificially deep baritone, takes five minutes of mangled syntax to get a threatening sentence out, works in a long, drawn out REST IN PEEEEEACE at the end, no jokes, job done.
It’s a shame, because Mark Calaway - the man behind the Dead Man - actually can talk. He’s been stuck inside a grandiose, cod-operatic ‘supernatural’ persona for the best part of quarter of a century. Since he joined the WWF back in late 1990, the only chance he’s had to deliver anything like a normal promo was when he dialled back the demon to play a very human Undertaker between May 2000 and November 2003.
As the so-called American Badass - a giant leatherclad biker with a take-no-prisoners attitude and a preoccupation with respect - and later Big Evil, Undertaker was usually able to hold his own on the mic with pretty much anyone else on the roster.
In this promo, he’s face to face with The Rock after the WWF Champion calls him out, and tears him a new one over it… although I could have done without the Full Metal Jacket reference to ‘Mary Jane Rottencrotch’.