The Undertaker Bemoans Lack Of "Grit" In Modern Wrestling
14 months on from saying he missed when "men were men", The Undertaker takes aim again...
The Undertaker has bemoaned the lack of "grit" in modern wrestling, referencing Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, and Randy Orton as examples of what the current crop of talent is missing.
The WWE legend unpacked his thoughts in an interview with True Geordie. 'Taker believes that his generation (who seemingly possessed that "grit") has "aged out", though the aforementioned names are still able to pull people in (h/t WrestleTalk):-
“I feel like there is a level of grit that is missing from today’s product. I don’t know that it’s anybody’s fault, we all aged out and that new group has come up. When you watch Brock (Lesnar) wrestle, you’re interested because you know, he’s got this background not only as an amateur wrestler, professional wrestler, mixed martial artist. Brock doesn’t do a bunch of crazy moves, Brock manhandles your ass. You get in there and you get thrown around and you get smashed. You know, and Roman (Reigns) has a little bit of that to him, and when he wants to Randy (Orton) has that to him when he wants to."
Continuing, Undertaker attributed this to younger wrestlers being more into comic books and superheroes than "busting heads in bars":-
"... a lot of the younger talent, it’s that, the evolution of that comic book era, the superhero era, and I think that’s their motivation, and that’s what their inspiration is, and they didn’t have to come up and bust heads in bars and figure out how they were gonna eat and things like that.”
The 56-year-old has been retired since Survivor Series 2020, when he was granted a formal "farewell" that closed the show, featuring Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, Kane, and other guests, including a Paul Bearer hologram. His latest comments reflect those made during a January 2021 appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, when, amongst other things, he claimed modern wrestling had gotten "soft":-
"I'll probably piss a lot of people off, but they need to hear it. It is what it is. To the young guys, 'Oh, he's a bitter old guy'. I'm not bitter. I did my time, I'm good. I walked away when I learned to walk away. I just think the product is a little soft. There's guys here and there that have an edge to them, but there's too much pretty, not enough substance right now. They're trying to put something out for everybody. Some guys are into the comedy s**t, there's other guys that want to see the more hardcore-type fighting. I think one of the biggest things that happened, we all got old at the same time, so there weren't enough guys to work with the young guys."
Undertaker will enter the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the 2022 induction ceremony on Friday 1 April.