The Undertaker: 10 Awesome Backstage Stories

One widely-known trait of the Undertaker is his unwavering loyalty to Vince McMahon. 'Taker never abandoned Vince during the 'greener pastures' period of WCW, and Vince seemingly pays 'Taker a great deal of money on time (once again, the Undertaker is a former collections agent).

So one could reasonably infer that 'Taker, upon seeing his money train being sat on by a burly Olympian, might take steps to protect that train in a swift and efficient fashion.

Some context: McMahon had managed to take down Kurt Angle as part of a storyline. Like a sloppy drunk convinced he can take on two club bouncers, Vince decided the most sensible thing to do would be to taunt Angle into another, less staged confrontation.

Angle – an Olympic gold medallist – attacked. Vince – not an Olympic anything – lost.

As Angle pinned down his boss in the aisle of a transatlantic flight, the commotion awoke 'Taker. Groggy, confused, and quite possibly in the end stages of an acid trip, the Deadman came to the quite reasonable conclusion that his employer was being accosted by some maniac.

So he came up behind Angle and choked him unconscious.