The Undertaker is a WWE lifer, as his loyalty to Vince McMahon stood the test of time. Through it all, the Deadman never left WWE, but there was a time when that was a serious possibility.
During a conversation with Ariel Helwani of BT Sport, The Undertaker was asked whether he ever had an offer from WCW and if he ever got close to leaving Vince McMahon’s company. The Deadman then admitted that he actually did come a bit closer than many believe, and he spoke to Kevin Nash about making it happen.
“Yeah, kind of through Kevin Nash. We were in this period of time where we had, and this kind of funny for me to say, but we had all these ridiculous characters. WCW was doing all this cutting-edge stuff, but I think, to answer in the short, no. But did I think about it? Yeah. Did I have an opportunity to? Yeah.”
WCW’s product was appealing to younger audiences at the time, as WWE had grown a bit stale. When asked about this situation, The Undertaker was quite blunt as he remembered the time in his career when he grew frustrated with WWE’s creative direction.
“My deal would have been coming up, but it was more frustration with what we were currently doing, and just feeling like we were stale and behind the times, and we were so kid-driven. Our demographic was nine-to-twelve year olds, and their demographic down in WCW was 18-34, 18-36 demographic, doing so much more cutting edge stuff. That was appealing, but there was never… even though it was completely different people, it was WCW that told me that I’d never draw a dime in this business.”
“As much as I used that for fuel, as open-minded as I think I am and as I’ve matured, you would think like, ‘Okay, don’t be stupid. Take the money.’ But that always hung out there. ‘You’re a great athlete. No one will ever pay money to see you wrestle.’ Thank goodness [they were wrong]. That was fuel, man. That was fuel for me to give everything I had to what I probably thought was my last real go at something. I’ve had a few doors slammed in my face, but that one really stung because that’s where I wanted to be. I wanted to be in WCW when I went there as Mean Mark, and then to be told, ‘Nah.’ Okay. Next step.'”
The thought of The Undertaker leaving WWE for WCW was squashed many times throughout the years. Now, it seems that The Undertaker himself is re-opening that discussion. It only makes us wonder what could have been, because you never know what can happen in pro wrestling.
The Undertaker is retired now, and under a stellar contract with WWE as a legend. So, he’s not going to AEW, no matter what Tony Khan tries. Still, that won’t stop Tony Khan from wishing that he had The Undertaker around to flex on WWE.
What’s your take on The Undertaker leaving WWE? Are you surprised to hear that he considered leaving? Sound off in the comments!