The New York Post caught up with the wife of the Undertaker, Michelle McCool, ahead of the debut episode of “Undertaker: The Last Ride.”
She discussed her husband’s career, the streak getting broken, and much more. Here are some highlights:
Why was this the right time for a documentary where we finally really pull back the curtain on The Undertaker and get to see Mark Calaway?
I think it’s something that’s always intriguing to the fans because he has protected his character for so many years and as you’ll see in ‘The Last Ride’ when you get a few episodes in, you never know when your last match is going to be. It’s kind of the internal struggle of his. So he kind of wanted to pull back the curtain and let the fans get a peek to who the man behind the character is.
What do you want people to take away from watching this?
I think one of things that I want people to see is his passion for the business is undeniable and people see that, but I don’t think they quite understand the capacity of not just Mark but what all of the wrestlers put their bodies through. With Mark doing this for 30-plus years at this point, having 15-plus surgeries, both of his hips replaced, I don’t think they truly understand what it takes for him to get prepared to go out and wrestle a match and he does it all for the love of the business.
No one knows when his last match will be, but it feels like he’s waiting for the perfect moment, maybe not a perfect match, but that moment to say, “That’s how I want to go out”, maybe not even knowing it’s his last match going in?
I think that’s what all the performers do. You want to go out with something you’re proud of and he’s no different. He wants to go out … he is a perfectionist. I don’t think any match will get as close to perfection as both years at WrestleMania between he and Shawn Michaels, but you can only look back and say what if or should I have ended there? The reality is he didn’t, so we can’t even look at that. But he does want to go out feeling worthy of what he put on and that’s just coming from expectations from himself.
He is harder on himself. I tell him your legacy is going to live on forever and it’s not going to be tarnished by one match, one missed move, one missed step. But he wants to go out proud. He wants to go out with the closure that I gave it all I got, I put on a good show for the fans and I’m good walking away.
When the streak from broken, did you know it was gonna happen?
I did know late in that afternoon that was gonna happen. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t think it needed to happen. But, Mark was fine with it. People don’t understand he’s gonna do business. He understands that business is business.
Actually I remember a few years prior that WrestleMania (24) versus Edge they talked about Edge breaking the streak and it was Edge that was actually like, ‘That makes zero sense. I don’t want to do that. Why would I do that? The fans already love him. What’s it gonna do for Edge?’ It was Edge that went to bat for the streak. I know they had talked about it prior to the match with Brock, but you know it happened. It’s fine, it’s not like it’s an end-all, be-all for Mark by any stretch of the imagination.
One of the matches referenced in that first episode is the one with Goldberg in Saudi Arabia. It felt like it really struck some fear in Mark. What was the emotion for him and you as a family after that match?
That was really scary for me. Obviously knowing the business, as soon as I saw that I texted our doctors. I was like, ‘Is he OK?’ Because it looked bad. You’re centimeters away from doing some real damage. So I knew it was bad. Mark has literally been caught on fire, stood in a pod for 40 minutes and wrestled another 40 minutes. He’s busted up both eye sockets in matches. He normally responds with, ‘I’m good, babe, I’m good.’ So after that match when I talked to him and I think his exact words were, ‘My back is jacked up. My neck is jacked up.’ I was like for him to put that into words and verbally tell me truly how he’s feeling, it was just I couldn’t imagine the pain.
So that was scary, knowing now he’s got to fly so many hours across the world and he had an appearance the next morning when he landed in the States in Boston or somewhere that he’s not gonna say no to. He does that and standing with fans for four to five hours. It was bad. It was scary. I don’t think he realized until this documentary when he saw it again just how close he was to, yeah, yeah.
How much of Mark Calaway the father and husband are we going to see in this documentary?
More than anybody’s ever seen before. You’ll definitely see some real vulnerability in the next few episodes. A side that really gets seen by me. I mean there are some emotional parts that are really touching. I think people will be surprised. I think they will be grateful that they were let in on that.
Lately he’s been a lot more open about talking about things and showing himself on social media. What has the process been like for him? Has it been kind of refreshing for him to not be Undertaker 24/7 in the public eye?
I think just how the world is evolved and him not knowing when he was gonna be finished, but still wanting to do a few appearances here and there, to be with the fans, I think the transition kind of makes sense. So he kind of started showing bits and pieces here and there on social media and not anything crazy obviously because The Undertaker character is still really alive in a lot of ways in Mark Calaway. It was just kind of a natural transition. Obviously you saw the Boneyard match, obviously kind of going to the more American Badass character versus Undertaker.
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