The Undertaker Retracts Previous Comments on Wrestling Business Being "Soft"

During a 2020 conversation on Joe Rogan’s podcast, The Undertaker shared his thoughts on the evolution of WWE:

“It’s tough right now, for me, because the product has changed so much. It’s kinda soft. I’ll probably piss a lot of people off but they need to hear it. To the young guys, ‘oh, he’s a bitter old guy.’ I’m not bitter, I did my time. I walked away. I just think the product is a little soft. There are guys here and there who have an edge to them, but there’s too much pretty and not enough edge.”

On his Six Feet Under podcast available on Patreon, The Undertaker spoke about the modern safety measures in wrestling:

“It’s amazing now, all the protocols that are in place. We’re treated, today, like NFL players, NBA players, Major League Baseball guys. There are a list of protocols that you have to clear once you get injured before you get back in the ring. Back in the day, we didn’t have trainers that traveled with us. If somebody had a roll of white athletic tape, that was the trainer because he had something that you could possibly use. Nowadays, we have two or three trainers that travel, we have doctors that travel, concussion protocols. I have to be honest, for me, it was hard to accept that at first because it was ‘ah man, everything is getting soft now.’ I appreciated that badge of honor, as silly as that sounds. It was hard for me to accept that. ‘Man, our business is getting soft.’

It wasn’t getting soft. It was getting smarter. I’m glad that I was part of the generation that led into that because, today, you see the referee and they throw the X up, you know something bad has happened. You’re not going to get a bunch of blood in the ring. If someone is concussed or injured to a point, the match is going to stop and the athletes are going to be treated the way they need to be. Even with all that going on, the wear and tear and the risk of injury is crazy.”