In an industry that is infested with backstage politicking and power-mongering, it takes an imposing character to command the universal respect of everyone. The Undertaker, however, managed to do just that. Not only is he the longest-tenured performer in the WWE today (assuming that he hasn't retired) but he is also the unofficial judge of the Wrestler’s court – a setup that allows Superstars to settle their differences amongst themselves.
However, between stealing the show at WrestleMania and his gavel-slamming exploits behind the scenes, the Phenom has managed to earn the ire of certain Superstars over the years. While some of these misunderstandings were largely one-sided and later resolved, they did nonetheless lead to a situation where the Superstar in question ended up acting out against the Undertaker.
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On that note, here are 5 WWE Superstars that intentionally ticked the Undertaker off at some point during their careers.
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#1 CM Punk
CM Punk’s name still gets chanted by the WWE crowd today and with good reason. He was a trailblazer in the company and in many ways, he catalysed the end of the PG era by laying the groundwork for the more realistic hue of programming that we enjoy today.
But as much as the fans adored Punk, all was not well between him and his co-workers behind the scenes. Rumours of him falling out with his colleagues quite frequently made the rounds and amongst them, one particularly infamous instance of a run-in with the Undertaker.
Apparently, CM Punk was the Heavyweight Champion and reported to duty dressed in casuals, during a European tour in 2009. When Undertaker questioned him about the same, Punk – who obviously didn’t have a very high opinion of the Deadman – shot him down, saying that John Cena gets away with worse transgressions.
The next day, CM Punk lost the Title to the Undertaker.
This obviously didn’t sit well with Punk, and to compound the situation, the Undertaker later refused wish of breaking the streak at WrestleMania too. All in all, it smacks of quite an unsavoury relationship between the two.
#2 Vince Russo
For a man who was considered as the ‘mastermind’ behind the attitude era, Vince Russo managed to get on the wrong side of many of the Superstars that worked for the WWE. And from his own admission, he didn’t hold too many of them in high regard either.
Russo has always come across as a character with a massive chip on his shoulder, and perhaps because he was never a wrestler himself, he usually went out of his way to let the performers know who they worked for.
And who better than the Undertaker to make an example of?
Apparently, Russo made him wrestle for days on end in physically gruelling and demanding matches, despite knowing that Taker was carrying a number of niggling injuries that needed a less intense workload to heal up fully.
Being the consummate professional that he was, Taker never brought it up directly to Russo then but when the cat was finally let out of the bag years later, Russo denied any wrongdoing on his part, professing that he wasn’t aware of the injuries and that he held nothing but respect for the Deadman.
Like all of his other excuses, though, this one fell flat too.
#3 DDP
This one is a little blurred between the lines as we’re not exactly sure who had heat with who.
Obviously, tensions were running high during the Monday night wars and even when WCW was finally put to bed, there was still no small amount of bad blood between the two companies.
So when DDP came to the WWE, we aren’t sure if it was in an attempt to prove himself or because he didn’t respect Undertaker as a worker that he tried to force through his ideas in a match that they were scheduled to work.
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Contrarily, it may have well have been WWE’s custodian trying to throw his weight around in attempting to show DDP the lay of the land, that he shot down most of his approaches and had him portray the role of a creepy stalker to his ex-wife, Sara.
This one didn’t get resolved for a while, and DDP’s run in the WWE petered out into nothingness eventually.
#4 Brock Lesnar
This one was sparked off when Brock Lesnar – on the way to the locker room from the Octagon after a handy defeat at the hands of Cain Velasquez at UFC 121 – walked past famous MMA journalist Ariel Helwani as he was interviewing the Undertaker, who was in attendance.
Both Lesnar and Undertaker eyeballed each other as he walked past, with the Phenom even asking him if he “want(ed) to do it”. Naturally, Helwani immediately followed up on the remark, asking the Undertaker if all was cool between the two of them, to which the phenom replied ‘it’s personal’.
In hindsight, some say that it was a genius shoot angle that was planted there by the WWE but in those moments where the two leviathans stared down each other, the beef seemed as real as it gets.
Brock Lesnar has always been uncooperative, surly and rude to his co-workers and despite the Undertaker agreeing to put him over strongly during his first WWE run, he was reportedly no different towards him.
Although they sorted out their differences eventually and Lesnar was allowed to break the streak at WrestleMania, the respect that they developed towards each other later on did stem from a relationship that had it pretty rough initially.
#5 Chris Jericho
Chris Jericho seems to have developed somewhat of a reputation for picking a bone with men that out-size him – recall his legendary taming of Goldberg with a headlock in a shoot fight behind the scenes.
But his propensity to piss off the big men of the WWE didn’t end there, as he had no qualms about doing something that everyone was petrified of even contemplating. He criticised the Undertaker publicly.
In his earlier days, when WWE had just snapped up WCW, Jericho was widely viewed as trouble as he had a tendency to go too far with his promos. But on the back of what was essentially a hostile takeover, can you blame Jericho for going after the biggest fish in the pond?
As the story goes, The Undertaker was cutting a long, drony promo on Big Show when Jericho interrupted them and laid waste to the whole segment, referring to the Undertaker as 'boring'. While Taker did know that Jericho was scripted to interfere, he didn't expect the promo to cut quite as close to the bone because...well...he was quite damn boring then.
This ballsy move by Jericho may have earned him the ire of the Deadman but considering that he’s one of the biggest legends in the industry today, it did serve him well in putting his name out there in the long term.
All’s well that ends well, right?
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