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Undertaker Gets Intense Backlash For Calling WWE’s Product ‘Soft’

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The Undertaker’s recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, exclusively on Spotify, did not come without its share of controversy.

The legendary wrestler conducted a rare—albeit increasingly common—post-retirement interview with the popular podcast this past week. The long-form interview spanned his illustrious career, but the big takeaway among the wrestling community was a sharp criticism directed at today’s WWE locker room.

In what is typical for a wrestler from a previous generation, Undertaker lamented the current generation in comparison to his own, correctly predicting his comments would “piss a lot of people off.”

“I try [to watch the current product], it’s tough right now for me,” Taker said.

“The product has changed so much and it’s kind of off. I’ll probably piss a lot of people off but they need to hear it. It is what it is. To the young guys [who think] he’s a bitter old guy, I’m not bitter. I did my time, I walked away when I wanted 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 and not enough substance I think right now.”

“One of the big things that happened was that the generation before, we all got old at the same time so there weren’t enough guys to work with the young guys,” Undertaker continued.

The Undertaker went on to lament the toughness of the current locker room compared to the rough-around-the-edges wrestles he came up with.

“...that era of guys too, those were men. You go into a dressing room nowadays, it’s a lot different. I remember walking into my first real dressing room, and all I saw were some crusty fucking men. Right? Half of ‘em had guns and knives in their bags. Shit got handled back then, you know? Now you walk in, there’s guys playing video games and fucking making sure they look pretty.”

“It’s evolution, I guess. I don’t know what it is, but I just prefer...when men were men.”

Taker’s comments did not sit well with the current generation of talent, some of whom publicly disagreed with the future WWE Hall of Famer in one way or another.

“I don't agree whatsoever,” said WWE champion Drew McIntyre in an interview with Sportskeeda.

“Especially from an in-ring perspective. I've listened to part of it, I've got to listen to the whole thing it's pretty new. But I think he may have been referring to like the kind of storylines and characters etc.”

Xavier Woods, founder of the Up Up Down Down gaming channel on YouTube, hit back at Undertaker’s criticisms about wrestlers playing video games.

The Undertaker does raise some valid points in regard to his generation all moving on at the same time at the expense of the next generation, though his criticisms aren’t without their holes. For example, in talking about The Attitude Era “aging out,” therefore not having the opportunity to wok with today’s talent, those comments appeared to ignore the generation that came right after him.

After Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock and Triple H moved on as full-time performers, the next crop of up-and-comers—in Brock Lesnar, Edge, John Cena, Batista and a veteran Kurt Angle—carried the torch just fine as part of the Ruthless Aggression era. In fact, this era of wrestlers did have the opportunity to work with Attitude Era stars en route to moving WWE into a new frontier. In fact, all the aforementioned names from the Ruthless Aggression era worked memorable programs with The Undertaker in the 2000s and 2010s.

The Undertaker’s comments also conveniently ignore the Achilles heel of WWE’s sharp decline in most major key performance indicators, which is its leadership. Absent from Undertaker’s criticism about the current product is any commentary about Vince McMahon, whom Undertaker is fiercely loyal to.

McMahon has fired one scapegoat after another as a means to deflect blame for historically low ratings quarter after quarter. Q4 2020 once again saw Raw’s viewership dip into the abyss as the December 15 broadcast drew the lowest number of all time with just 1.527 million viewers.

WWE’s lack of continuity, storytelling, failure to develop compelling full-time characters with any consistency and its contentious relationship with an admittedly spoiled fanbase all fall on the lap of the 75-year-old, control-freak of a Chairman, who to this day oversees every aspect of the product.

But The Undertaker wouldn’t dare levy those type of criticisms at his old boss, otherwise the backlash, from a notoriously petty company, could be far more severe.

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