The Undertaker recently did an out of character interview with Pastor Ed Young of Fellowship Church in Texas. During the interview, he ended up explaining why characters are more important than moves in pro-wrestling.
Here is what he had to say (h/t to Sky Sports for the quotes below):
“Wrestling and sports entertainment is not about the moves, it really isn’t. It’s about being able to evoke emotion in one facet or another.
“You either have to make people love you or you have to make them hate you, it doesn’t really matter either way.
“If you can’t bring that emotion out of your audience then you’re not going to have them for long.
“What happens with these young guys is they’re so athletic and so gifted, they’ll do some crazy double backflip off the top rope and land on somebody on the floor and then that’s what the audience takes away from it, that this guy does crazy stuff.
“But you can only see that so many times before you need something new, and then the person has to up that. They have to keep upping the ante and by doing that you increase your potential for injuries.
“So characters like The Rock, (John) Cena, (Ric) Flair, they all had the ability to either make you love them or make you hate them.
“That’s the key. We use wrestling moves to tell a story but it boils down to the character and being able to bring either love or hate out of your crowd.”
Your thoughts on his comments? Let us know in the comment section below.
On a related note, here are the highest-rated matches of the Undertaker’s career.