10 Times WWE Babyfaces Were Heels Backstage

6. The Undertaker

Bradshaw Shawn Michaels Randy Orton
WWE.com

A fetishised favourite for reasons quite complicated to parse, The Undertaker's early 'American Bad A*s' persona allowed Mark Calaway to play an exaggerated version of himself for the first time in his ten year WWE run. At the height of the Attitude Era, all the major stars were "themselves with the volume up", so it was only fair 'Taker got his turn.

He'd also had quite enough of losing (or even selling), thanks very much, and realised the only way to reestablish himself as one of the company cornerstones during a white hot 2000 was to take a leaf from his old character's book and bury the f*ck out of a hot prospect.

Kurt Angle had already embarrassed himself for the good of the cause, engaging in some side-splitting skits to do with 'The Deadman's beloved Titan bike (and a moped of his own), but that wasn't the only reason he deserved more than the 7:34 extended squash he was handed in what was supposed to be another coming out party at July's Fully Loaded.

The placement of the card in the company calendar was important; the Olympian had won King Of The Ring just a month earlier in keeping with his continued - and well-deserved - push. Bigger than he'd ever been and not even troubling himself to spit his tobacco out before a promo at the time, Angle's trajectory was just another aspect of Sports Entertainment Undertaker gave less than a single f*ck about at the time.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett