The Undertaker explains why he brought back the “American Badass” gimmick for Boneyard Match

Sep 20, 2020 - by Steve Gerweck

The Undertaker did an interview with Barstool Sports to discuss a wide range of topics.

During the interview, he was asked about bringing back his biker gimmick, “American Badass,” for the Boneyard Match.
He explained that the promos done by Styles leading up to the match made it personal and thus he felt that the biker character needed to come back instead of The Deadman. In fact, there was no talk of bringing that character back until the Boneyard Match.

“No, once I left the American Badass, I think everyone was really content with the hybrid version of The Undertaker.
My style had changed where I kept a lot of the elements of my in-ring work kind of geared to that American Badass character then brought the origins and the mystique of The Undertaker was kind of that outward look.

It didn’t come up until this year and it just kind of dawned on me with the type of promos that AJ was cutting, there’s really no way that I can bring the original Undertaker to this.

It’s become too personal, crossed too many lines, you’re going to have to get the American Badass all grown up and he’s still got that evil side to him. It’s going to be a much more personal approach to delivering that match. So that’s kind of how we ended up American Badass 2.0 if you will.

It was fun, at that point I hadn’t made the decision of whether I was gonna work or what I was going to do post this. It really felt good and I was like thinking to myself ‘I gotta run here if I want it’ and it was cool. We were out as they were setting up, doing the lighting and everything,

I was taking that bike up and down the road. People in the neighborhood, their lights were coming on and I was like, this is fun, it was. Regardless of what I do on camera moving forward, I’m sure that’s the persona that I will continue to move forward.”

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