There's a million reasons to love The Undertaker; The bloke's been playing an undead cowboy for around 30 years now, with a brief three year interlude to be a pissed off biker. He once suffered second and third degree burns BEFORE a match due to malfunctioning pyrotechnics and still went onto wrestle for 45 MINUTES and, as if that wasn't enough, in his spare time he's the most badass (it's acceptable to use that word when describing The Undertaker) estate agent in the world.



However, a story The Big Show shared with us tops anything The Phenom has ever achieved in his Hall of Fame career and it's the perfect way for us to celebrate his 54th birthday.

We sat down with 'The World's Largest Athlete' and during our 20 minute chat, The Undertaker's name naturally cropped up. Given that Show, real name Paul Wight, spent much of his rookie year in the WWE by 'Taker's side, with the pair winning the WWE Tag Team titles together in 1999 as well as being involved in a match in which Show chokeslammed 'The Deadman' clean through the ring, it's natural that he has a few stories about 'Taker to share.

Advert

Fortunately he saved the best story for us.

When we touched upon how The Undertaker mentored Show during his early WWE days, a look of pain shot across the giant's face as he recalled all the bollockings 'Taker dished out to him on a regular basis. "Yeah, thanks for bringing up that pain," winces Show, "I was the young boy, he was the master and he used to crack the whip on me every single day.

"Undertaker is one of the greatest and smartest guys in the history of the business. He understands his character so well and he's an expert in psychology. I was lucky enough to come in at a time and have him as my mentor when there wasn't a lot of mentors around. It was extremely competitive and no one gave a crap if you succeeded or not. As long as you could put asses in seats, that's all anyone cared about.

"I had a lot of potential but I was green as grass. Hogan always took care of me in WCW. Flair told me what to do and so did Randy[Savage] and Arn[Anderson]. I just got in the ring and did what I was told. When I got to the WWE I had to do my own thing because no one was thinking for me.

Advert

"During that time period, 'Taker took me under his wing and man, it was old school. He would chew my ass out every night for something. I remember every night driving in my car thinking, 'Well I'm a fat piece of trash'."

Big Show Undertaker

Image credit: WWE



However, despite Show's initial difficulties at adjusting to life under The Undertaker's wing, he would go onto become one of the finest big men the business has ever seen, accumulating a number of world titles in what is sure to be a career that lands him in the WWE Hall Of Fame. The pair would go onto engage in feuds over the next few years and have a number of memorable matches. One of which Show was particularly proud of, yet 'Taker, perhaps less so.

Advert

"We had a great match many years later, one of my favourite matches I've ever had. I sent him a text a bit later and said 'hey man, thanks for such a great match, I appreciate everything you've done for me, you're the man.



"He sends me a text back and it's a picture of his balls and he's flipping me the bird! I didn't know how to reply to that!

"I didn't see him for about a month afterwards and when I did he just went red and started laughing. I said 'yeah thanks for that' and he asked 'well, did you get the message?'. Yeah, loud and clear!"

Advert