Through The Last Ride, The Undertaker has peeled back the curtain on his character, showing that he's not actually a Deadman. The out-of-character experience has surprised a lot of older fans who thought The Undertaker would always remain as The Undertaker.
The Undertaker has become the most iconic characters in WWE history as the lasting power is rarely seen for a supernatural character like that today. And Seth Rollins isn't sure the character would work on the same level if dropped into WWE today.
"The smart thing about this with Taker is, he did it at the right time in his career," Rollins said on WWE After The Bell when discussing The Last Ride. "12-year-old you, if you had seen The Last Ride, it would have ruined everything. But we didn't have that and he wasn't in the prime of his career. His character doesn't work today. There are some weird exceptions, Bray Wyatt comes to mind from an ultra-character perspective who sort of slides by a little bit or gets a pass. The Undertaker character is so supernatural, so now that he's at this point in his life where he is comfortable transitioning out of the character and into Mark Calaway, it makes it okay for me to watch it and see him being a human being. In the long run, I think it will help him transition into being himself and retirement and whatever the next phase of The Undertaker looks like."
He ended by saying, "He did it cleverly. It wasn't, one day he's The Deadman; the next day, here's The Last Ride. He used the story with AJ Styles to lead him into this place where he's at and he can be The Undertaker on social media too."
The Last Ride is a five-part documentary highlighting The Undertaker's career since WrestleMania 33 and his struggles with retirement. New episodes premiere Sundays on WWE Network.
You can check out Fightful's review of episode three by clicking here.
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