The Undertaker has long vowed he’s done and dusted in the wrestling ring, but one veteran insists the Deadman may yet rise again.
Undertaker was, for 30 years, an icon of WWE.
From the moment he walked to the ring flanked by Brother Love at Survivor Series 1990, to the end of the cinematic Boneyard Match against AJ Styles in 2020, few characters have been as protected, respected, or fearsome.
His WrestleMania streak became a pillar of WWE’s modern storytelling. He ruled as locker room leader during the Attitude Era, guided generations from behind the curtain, and evolved his style as the years wore on, trading caskets and urns for MMA gloves and Last Rides.
But by 2020, his body was telling him what his heart had long resisted. In his Last Ride docuseries, Undertaker admitted: “If Vince [McMahon] was in a pinch, would I come back? I guess time will only tell there. In case of emergency, break glass, you pull out The Undertaker. I would have to consider that.”
He followed that with firmer words during his Hall of Fame speech in 2022: “Never say never—but I’m telling you, never.”
McMahon, of course, has also long departed the WWE scene, so Taker’s in-ring days have likely never felt further behind him.
Since closing the door on that part of his career with his WrestleMania classic with Styles, the Deadman’s presence has, nonetheless, remained felt in WWE.
He regularly works backstage with talent, his Six Feet Under podcast has just moved under the WWE umbrella, and he helps nurture new stars as a coach in the company’s LFG try-out series.
The Phenom’s One DeadMan Tour has offered fans a look behind the curtain, peppered with tales from a remarkable career. But while he’s no longer haunting the ring, JBL believes the story may not be quite over yet.
A former in-ring rival of the seven-footer, John Bradshaw Layfield told Something to Wrestle With: “I would think it’d be a possibility,” in reference to an in-ring comeback for the icon.
“He looks great. I mean, he looks great and he’s in terrific shape. And I know the type of training—he’s doing a lot of functional training.
“He’s not just training like going and doing some bench press, some squats. He’s working out very hard. I feel like he probably could still move or move as well as he’s done for 20 years.
“I think that’d be great. I’d love to see him come back for something.”
JBL is one of the few men who can speak on the subject with first-hand experience.
His WWE Title run from 2004 to 2005 included several brutal run-ins with Undertaker, including a blood-soaked SummerSlam encounter that ended with JBL being chokeslammed through the roof of his own limo.
So if Taker did decide to roll his eyes back one more time, who would be the right opponent? JBL had no hesitation – WWE’s World Heavyweight Champion, Gunther.
“It would be awesome,” he said. “Gunther is an easy choice. He’d be my choice, because he’s a heel. You need a big, tough guy that can wrestle, that knows his way around, and you need a guy that can get heat on Undertaker.
“Taker looks great now, and he’s still a really big guy. You need a guy like Gunther. It makes perfect sense that Gunther would be the guy if Taker was looking for somebody to come back.”
The Ring General has made a career of breaking records and destroying legends.
He demolished the Honky Tonk Man’s Intercontinental Title reign, smashed through Jey Uso to win back his title gold, and tossed aside the challenge of Pat McAfee in the wrestling ring earlier this year.
Most recently, he retired Goldberg after a bruising 14-minute clash at Saturday Night’s Main Event.
But if the lights go out one more time, the Undertaker may not prove quite so easy to finish off.