Undertaker discusses his match with John Cena at WWE WrestleMania 34.
Fans were very excited when the idea of a WrestleMania match between John Cena and The Undertaker started to come to fruition. Unfortunately, after weeks of build from Cena on television, the match between Cena and Undertaker ended up lasting a total of two minutes and 45 seconds, as Undertaker virtually squashed Cena.
Fans were seemingly disappointed with this outcome, as was The Undertaker himself. In a new interview with Chris Van Vliet, Undertaker noted that he didn't find out about the match length until the day of the show. 'The Deadman' also recalled training for the match to be a 45 minute war, which was apparently joke material for then head of creative Vince McMahon.
"Yeah, I didn't know it was gonna be short till I got there that day. So, I've trained for a 45-minute war, right, and all right, here's redemption. I'm gonna, man, I am going to light this place on fire, I felt good. And Vince calls me into his office and he goes okay, he says it’s just gonna be about five minutes, you know, you’re gonna squash him. I’m like, what? What? And, you know, Vince, he just thought that was the funniest [thing], because he knew how hard I'd been training. I mean, he, and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I said, I'm going. I said, I'm doing 30 or I'm not going out. And he's like, Mark, that's not what we need."
Undertaker also recalled that Cena agreed with McMahon's argument that the match should be short.
"And I’m like no Vince, I was like, Where's John? Where's he at? So John comes in he goes, Oh no. He goes I talked mad smack about you dude. Yeah, you need to beat me quick and get this over with. I'm like are you kidding me? It's like we've never worked on pay-per-view are you [serious]? And this is WrestleMania, give me a break here. And they both, they ganged up on me. I was finally, I threw my hands up. I was like, I can't believe [it], and Vince just thought that was the funniest thing because like I said, I trained like an animal, I was so unbearable at home. I mean, as far as my diet and the training and just all my protocols of you know recoup, rehab, I was a nightmare. I get there and yeah, five minutes. And it was like that was it.”
Undertaker's match with Cena would be his last match at a WrestleMania event with a live crowd. Taker faced AJ Styles at WrestleMania 36 in a Boneyard Match, which took place during the pandemic.
In a separate recent interview, Undertaker said that Vince McMahon would still have him out there choke slamming people if it was up to him. Fans can learn more by clicking here.
Special thanks to Chris Van Vliet for the quote(s).