Wrestlers Who Can’t Stand The Undertaker

For 30 years, The Undertaker was a staple of WWE, racking up championships, marquee matches, and a near-mythological streak of 21 wins at the grandest stage of them all, WrestleMania. From 1990 until his 2020 retirement, Undertaker faced some bona fide legends, including Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Steve Austin, The Rock, John Cena, and Randy Orton. He served WWE throughout the highs and lows of the “Monday Night Wars” with WCW, throughout times of real-life uncertainty around the promotion, and could easily be attributed to the continued success of the company throughout his tenure.

As a result, The Undertaker and the man behind the character, Mark Calaway, ranks among the most respected and revered people in the industry. Even some of those who are now regarded as veterans have taken some form of inspiration or received tutelage from The Undertaker. However, it took a lot of time, turbulence, and tribulations for “The Deadman” to reap the rewards — and the respect — during his fruitful career.

While ‘Taker has plenty of admirers, there are always going to be people who dislike him. Calaway’s journey saw him become the de facto locker room leader, a close friend and confidant of Vince McMahon Jr., and judge of the infamous “Wrestler’s Court” in WWE. These are guaranteed ways to rub some people the wrong way, so without further ado, let’s take a look at the wrestlers who don’t like “The Deadman.”

Chris Kanyon

The tragic struggle that Chris Kanyon suffered both in his life and his wrestling career has been well-documented, chronicled in Vice TV’s “Dark Side of the Ring” docuseries and his posthumous memoir co-authored by Ryan Page, “Wrestling Reality: The Life and Mind of Chris Kanyon.” The former WWE and WCW star took his own life at just 40 years old after struggling with his closeted homosexuality in a sport rooted in masculinity.

Kanyon was said to have been tipped for big things after joining WWE in 2001, but events didn’t transpire that way as he was injured during a dark match in October that year. Struggling with depression and erratic behavior, Kanyon made his eventual return to the company on the February 13, 2003, episode of “WWE SmackDown” in an ill-fated segment with The Undertaker. Kanyon re-emerged from a large present gifted to ‘Taker by the Big Show, dressed as iconic gay singer Boy George with his own rendition of Culture Club’s “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?”

The segment ended with ‘Taker beating Kanyon with audibly stiff chair shots, including one unprotected to the head, and he was released by WWE a year later. In his memoir, he said that be believed the segment to be a joke about his sexuality. He also accused the company of releasing him because he was gay. The Undertaker has since addressed the Kanyon rumors, denying he was even aware of the fact he was gay, while accepting that the chair shots were dangerous.

Tracy Smothers

Former WWE, WCW, and ECW wrestler Tracy Smothers had the unique position of working with Mark Calaway in Memphis before he became The Undertaker. The late veteran had been very vocal about the way he felt the former Mean Mark had changed, going as far to say he and Shawn Michaels had a hand in his and a number of other wrestlers’ departures from WWE.

“Yeah back then, I guess you take it personal, you do, especially when they screw you over,” said Smothers in a 2018 interview with “The Hannibal TV.” “But I guess in that spot, guys think they’ve got to be paranoid, they’ve got to [be in] their spot, insecure, and they’ve got to stay to themselves, and do. But I’ve heard some stuff [Undertaker’s] done, you know. He used to have a smile on his face all the time. But I guess in that spot, in that position, you know they think everybody’s against them… But him and Shawn got me out of there, and not just me — a lot of guys.”

Smothers recalled an incident backstage between an unnamed developmental wrestler and The Undertaker. “It was some kind of meeting, Undertaker was there, something or whatever. His cellphone went off… I guess Undertaker got p***ed about it and I think he tried to make amends with him or something, bought a real nice bourbon or something, [but he] got him fired.”

Paul London

WWE

Paul London worked in WWE throughout the 2000s alongside The Undertaker. London was released in November 2008, and spoke about his time with the company extensively in the “Brian Kendrick and Paul London’s Excellent Adventures” double DVD in 2010. During which, he said that he would catch glimpses of the good that Undertaker could do, but then there would also be stuff he had to shake his head at, like being dragged out of a hotel room in the early hours for “Wrestler’s Court.”

“Undertaker acted as Judge Judy at four in the morning,” he recalled, adding another swipe. “I’m not a fan of people who put ‘Deadman’ on their license plate. I’m not a fan of people who wear their own merchandise.”

Both Kendrick and London said that people would act differently around Undertaker backstage, with those thought to be friends turning and reporting back in an attempt to get ahead — a position Undertaker seemed to relish. London has since expanded upon Undertaker’s backstage presence during a 2023 interview with “Wrestling Then and Now,” iterating a sense of professional respect while remaining cognizant of the politics of the person.

“[He’s] kind of like the Don Corleone of the locker room,” he said. “There’s nobody more respected in the locker room than him. But you know, he’s got his people that’ll do his bidding and try to teach people lessons, and he’ll keep his hands clean… A lot of people look at him like he was the locker room leader, but I looked at more so like Eddie Guerrero as like the locker room leader, in my estimation. ‘Taker was just kind of, like I guess everyone just kind of feared him, and with good reason.”

Chris Jericho

AEW star Chris Jericho worked with The Undertaker in WWE before eventually departing in 2018. While ‘Taker and Jericho shared plenty of matches over the years, with “The Deadman” even losing the World Heavyweight Championship to Jericho in 2010, they never met in singles action on WWE PPV, and Jericho’s recollection of a promo cut in 1999 maybe lent some insight as to why that was.

“I did a promo on Undertaker,” he started during “Talk is Jericho” (H/T Fightful). “My idea at the time was I was just going to bury all the top stars and tell them how boring they are. I told Undertaker how boring he was after he just delivered a 10-minute super boring promo. I got so much heat for that. I remember Shawn Michaels said, ‘Word of advice, something you might not want to do on the second night in the company is tell the top star in the company how boring he is.'”

Jericho conceded that Michaels had been right for his part, but felt that he also hadn’t been wrong in saying ‘Taker was boring. He said he felt he hit the nail on the head, recounting the “The Deadman’s” own promo cut toward The Big show before. He spoke of ‘Taker’s response, saying, “He gave me the line of, ‘I’ve had more shower time than you’ve had ring time,'” and said while it may have been funny, it wasn’t entirely accurate. Jericho was nine years into his career, compared to Undertaker’s 13 years in wrestling at that time.

For his part, Jericho’s animus toward Undertaker appears to have been mostly levied toward the character as opposed to the man behind it. In 2020, Jericho was effusive in his praise for ‘Taker at his 30th anniversary celebration.

Hulk Hogan

The Undertaker defeated Hulk Hogan to capture his first WWE Championship reign at Survivor Series 1991, only to later drop the belt back days later at Tuesday In Texas. Undertaker himself addressed the situation with ESPN in 2020, recalling that Hogan had made some untruthful claims about being hurt by his Tombstone Piledriver.

“Hogan claims that I hurt him on the Tombstone during the PPV,” he started. “I kind of figured maybe it’s ’cause he’s telling everybody that I hurt him, Hulk was still the golden goose at the time. So I’m thinking they’re gonna take this off of me because they can’t trust me or whatnot; it really wasn’t explained to me what the reasoning was behind it”

‘Taker said he was devastated, but recognized that it was a set up from the get-go. Undertaker emphasized that he had held Hogan securely for the finish, but the “Hulkster” claimed that he had injured his neck, going as far as to tell medics to call his family. Upon reviewing the spot, ‘Taker noticed that Hogan had not made contact with the mat, and knowing it could come at the detriment of his career, he confronted Hogan on his claims.

“He’s like, ‘Well brother, what it was you had me so tight that when we came down I had nowhere to move and that’s what jammed my neck because I couldn’t move at all.’ At that point, then I was like, ‘Okay… I know what you’re all about and that’s all I needed to know.”

‘Taker iterated that they maintained a professional relationship for the time they shared the locker room, but there was no personal one beyond that moment. It can be reasoned that Hogan felt a degree of backstage competition with the at-time burgeoning star.

Joey Janela

Since retiring from the ring in 2020, The Undertaker has given several interviews and started his own podcast, providing commentary on contemporary wrestling as well as recalling the days of yore. One contemporary wrestler to have subsequently taken issue with ‘Taker’s more controversial remarks has been former AEW star Joey Janela, who’s thrown several degrees of shade toward the WWE Hall of Famer on social media.

In 2021, Janela took to X (formerly known as Twitter) and riffed on remarks made by “The Deadman” about video games being played in the locker room, writing, “I’m gonna buy a PlayStation 5, and immediately bury it in the dirt to show my allegiance to the BSK and legends of locker room past…”

Janela would continue in that vein in 2022, responding to ‘Taker’s comments that today’s wrestlers lack the grit of before. Janela wrote, “I 100% agree Mark! Lots of lame Marvel geek talk in these locker rooms! If I ever open up a wrestling school before you have your first match you’re gonna have to get in at least two bar fights with PROOF! By the Avengers movies suck.”

Janela would further bring The Undertaker into the circle of online debate in April last year, albeit more to demonstrate a double standard, as he asked what the difference was between Komander’s divisive rope-walk signature compared to Undertaker’s staple Old School. Janela later revealed that former AEW colleague and now-WWE Champion Cody Rhodes reached out to reprimand him for the comments toward Undertaker, but he assured “The American Nightmare” that he was just keeping it jovial for a reaction. For his part, Janela has mostly used Undertaker as a device for arguing against a double standard, and specifically clapped back at “The Deadman’s” stance on the wrestling pool he belongs to.

Doug Gilbert

Doug Gilbert’s one and only WWE pay-per-view appearance came during Royal Rumble 1996, headlined by Bret Hart defending his WWE Championship against The Undertaker. Gilbert and Undertaker had worked for the Memphis-based United States Wrestling Association together before the latter moved on. The story, as Gilbert told in a compilation about Undertaker by “Title Match Wrestling,” is that before he became “The Deadman” of WWE, Mark Calaway hitched rides with him as he couldn’t afford new tires.

“I carried Mark around, Mark rode with me — The Undertaker — when he was in Memphis and we hung out together. We made trips — I mean four days a week together — and we’d ride in my car because he didn’t have enough money to put tires on his car,” he said.

On January 3 1996, Gilbert won a battle royal to earn himself a spot in the WWE Royal Rumble match later that month. Gilbert said that, considering they had rode together before, he assumed he would have some form of friendly reunion with Calaway. But he was met with a gruff and dismissive reply, which Gilbert reasoned was potentially due to Undertaker feeling like he didn’t belong in the Rumble match.

“But now here’s a guy that was in Memphis that didn’t have enough money to put tires on his car, that was driving around in an Escort with bald tires, that rode with me every night,” he continued. “It’s all about what have you done for me lately, I guess. He sure didn’t remember that he didn’t have enough money to get to the towns without me.”

Gilbert recalled further trying to provoke conversation with ‘Taker. “I said, ‘You been doing okay, Mark?’ He said, ‘Yeah.’ I thought, ‘Man f**k you.'” So it’s fair to say there was no love lost there.

Rene Dupree

Rene Dupree spent time with WWE throughout the 2000s, and he has since been open about his time with the company. One particular story he has told speaks to the wider role Undertaker had backstage as a judge of the “Wrestler’s Court,” a system of peer assessment and reprimand in a less official capacity — one which others have simply called hazing. Dupree recalled a time where he had upset the balance backstage during “That 90s Wrestling Podcast” (H/T The Sun)

“They took my $500 shoes and $1000 suit and ruined it in the shower because I didn’t go out drinking at a bar the night before, because nobody invited me,” he said. “That’s just materialistic sh**, you can replace that, that doesn’t bother me. What really bothered me is when in Italy the next night they took my French flag — my heritage — they shoved it in a toilet and p***ed and sh** all over it.”

He continued, “I don’t know what bullsh** world you live in but in my world that’s called racial discrimination. That was really hurtful.”

Dupree said he first went to Arn Anderson, who advised him not to sell it, and then he went to The Undertaker. He surmised after a conversation between them that it had been ‘Taker behind the whole thing because he had declined to go out with them the night before. Dupree left WWE at his own request on July 26, 2007.

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