RIYADH: Survivor Series 2020 will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the debut of WWE legend the Undertaker.
His career has featured many matches that were the first of their kind in the world of sports entertainment.
“Well, you know, you have to prepare mentally,” the Undertaker told Arab News. “When you’re thinking about your match, you have to look at everything that you’ve done, that led up to that particular match, because obviously if you’re going to have a Buried Alive match, there’s had to have been some serious things happen along the way to get to the point where you want to bury somebody alive,” the WWE legend said.
Setting the tone and motivation in the lead-up to the match was key. “Because with me, it’s always about storytelling. It’s not so much about the moves and all that, it’s always about the story. So, you take that into consideration first and then you figure out.”
In addition, the prop stipulations of the event needed to be thought through, he said.
“So if it’s a Casket match, you know, for preparation, how many different ways can I use a casket to hurt somebody, hurt them bad enough to, you know, incapacitate them enough to place their body in that casket.”
Planning was also important to work out how the match would play out in front of the fans, he said.
“You know, if there’s a lot of those matches like Buried Alive and Hell in a Cell, and the Inferno match, that one was interesting. There wasn’t any rehearsing anything on that one, believe me that was just out there doing it and hoping that I wasn’t one that got caught on fire. As morbid as that sounds, I guess it fits with what I do.”
The Undertaker made his debut on Nov. 22, 1990 at the Survivor Series, as the mystery partner for WWE Hall of Fame Ted DiBiase’s Million Dollar Team.
About one minute into the match, the Undertaker made the elimination for his team in a four versus four traditional Survivor Series match. Since then he has participated in every marquee match — such as Hell in a Cell, Casket, and Punjabi Prison — for the WWE and has won many of them.
During his 30-year run in the WWE, the Undertaker has become widely regarded as one of the greatest attractions in sports entertainment. Luke Winkie of Sports Illustrated listed the Undertaker as the fifth-greatest wrestler of all time.
Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition recognized the Undertaker as having the most consecutive victories at WrestleMania in 2016.
This year’s Survivor Series, which will be broadcast live from WWE’s ThunderDome at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida on Nov. 22, fittingly has the tag lines Best of the Best, Undertaker 30, and the Undertaker’s Final Farewell.
