10 Exact Moments Wrestlers Told WWE Creative “Enough Is Enough”
3. The Undertaker Visibly Needs A Break
By late-1999, The Undertaker didn’t feel like his longstanding supernatural ‘Deadman’ persona was working any longer. So, in a bid to shake things up, Mark Calaway planned to become a more realistic character. Reportedly (and perhaps understandably), Vince McMahon was hesitant to pull the trigger on change, but ‘Taker wasn’t taking no for an answer.
The loyal-but-wounded soldier needed some time off to heal up injuries anyway.
Being brutally honest, Calaway was rather fed up with how things had been going. His tag-team with Big Show had been middle of the road, and his in-ring performances first decreased in quality then evaporated in favour of promos when injuries got on top of him.
Before his time off and grand return in May 2000 as the biker, it's possible to see 'Taker looking proper p*ssed off on countless episodes of Raw. The one pictured above shows him mid-rant about motorcycles in the desert, or something. He probs didn't even know what he was rambling on about.
Dude was going through creative burnout.