How Did Ultimate Warrior React To The Undertaker's No Selling?

'Taker has revealed how Warrior reacted to the zombie-like no sell of the early Deadman.

Undertaker Ultimate Warrior Paul Bearer
WWE.com

More and more these days, we’re getting to see a fascinating look at the man behind The Undertaker.

With the real-life Mark Calaway pulling back the curtain for the first time in his legendary career, wrestling fans are getting to see The Phenom in a whole new light. Rather than having to end every single conversation with Rest… In… Peace, we’re instead seeing a more private and personal side of Calaway.

WWE’s The Last Ride series has shone a spotlight firmly on the man behind this most legendary of gimmicks, and Calaway has also been partaking in plentiful interviews.

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Now, whilst joining Corey Graves’ After The Bell podcast, The Undertaker has revealed what famed facepaint-adorned, tassle-shaking, frenetic xenophobe The Ultimate Warrior thought of the no-selling zombie gimmick of the early days of The Deadman.

On Warrior’s reaction to his no selling, ‘Taker explained, “The character was a monster. I didn’t sell that much. I remember one night, Ultimate Warrior, he’d been beating on me and pounding and me and just everything. Knock me down, I’m sitting back up, I’m coming back up. Finally he goes, and I thought I was, but evidently I wasn’t, he goes, ‘Mark, are you going to sell anything tonight?’ It’s like, ‘Okay, Jim. Here we go. Alright, let’s do this. Let’s try that.’”

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Undertaker added, “I blew guys up early on. It’s what made sense. Eventually, you were gonna get me down, and we would work, and it would come about, but it was a process, to say the least, to get that character [Undertaker] compromised.”

During his early WWE tenure, The Phenom became embroiled in a brief rivalry with Ultimate Warrior – a rivalry that was meant to be a bigger deal, but hit problems when Warrior departed the company.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.