Why Did The Undertaker Change His Character from ‘The Deadman’ to ‘American Badass?’

The Undertaker surely had one of the most legendary careers in WWE. Even though he was a WWE superstar during the entirety of his career, his moves and name were popular all around the wrestling universe.

Over the years, The Undertaker went through major variations of his gimmick. However, he made sure never to hinder the base character of The Deadman. Even while he was playing American Badass, he behaved like a Deadman.

While The Undertaker was towards the end of his in-ring career, he started appearing for various interviews. The fans saw The Phenom breaking his kayfabe and sharing the backstage stories he never got to tell all those years.

He appeared in an interview where he shared the reason why he turned into The American Badass. A YouTube channel WrestlingRamble89 shared the part of the quotes from that interview.

The Undertaker in that interview stated, “I mean that had some type of retort that The Undertaker could give. So it was a period for me to take a deep breath and do something different for a minute.”

He added, “So basically Undertaker felt that with all the rising stars such as The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin taking all these wild catchphrases and turning their already charismatic characters and personalities upto number 10. In a way he was limited as the unfeeling Deadman, whereas the American Badass The Undertaker is often stated in the past that was more like his real life personality.”

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The Deadman claims he would not have thrived in WWE’s attitude era if he had not changed his character. It was hard for The Deadman version to cut promos when the crowd at the time was wild and wanted edgier content.

A sneak peek into The Badass American version of The Undertaker

The Undertaker debuted as a Mortician in 1990, and by the late 90s, he was the Deadman. In the year 1999, he was out for the entire year because of an injury. The Attitude Era started, and he returned as The American Badass. This gave him the freedom to act in his actual nature more than the Deadman.

The American Badass gimmick was a smack-talking, redneck biker identity. Especially known for motorcycle riding, and donning a sporty appearance and manner. He adopted a new in-ring style to throw quick punches like a street boxer. 

As his character was now granted more freedom, he started to wrestle on the mid-card, too. During this tenure, he won the WWE Tag Team Championship, WCW Championship, Hardcore Championship, and also WWE the Undisputed title.

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He had some memorable feuds with the likes of Kane, Ric Flair, Kurt Angle, Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Maven, and a major one with Brock Lesnar. This variation of his character ended in 2004 after he lost the Buried Alive Match to Vince McMahon with the assistance of Kane. This set a match at WrestleMania 20 against Kane where he returned as The Deadman.