The Undertaker is one of the most legendary wrestlers to ever step into the ring, and for years the man behind the gimmick was a mystery, but recently he’s been opening up a lot more since retiring from in-ring competition.
The former WWE Champion was recently a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience, and he noted that back in his day people in the locker room had “knives and guns in their bags.” He went on to say, “now you walk in and there’s guys playing video games and f**king making sure they look pretty.”
The criticism got a lot of people talking, and current Universal Champion Roman Reigns recently shared his thoughts on Taker’s comments during an interview with Sports Illustrated.
“It’s strange. I really feel like he misspoke. Because Mark is a really good guy. He’s very knowledgable. Obviously, he has a ton of respect for the business. Goldberg is just Goldberg. Who cares? But he’s talking about guns and knives in the locker room. Come on. You guys travel just like we did. Did you really get that stuff through security? TSA was just letting everything happen back then?
I choose to play video games sometimes on my own time. I don’t do it at work. As you can see, some of my character is based around it. I’ve always been one that networked and politicked and tried to communicate and work while I’m at work. Some guys choose to stay in the locker room. And for guys like the New Day who are überly talented, they can get away with that. I hope the younger guys in the locker room don’t fall into that because we’re not all the same. I have to put my whole mind into work as I come to work on a Friday. Sometimes my wife has to tell me to shut it off. She’ll be like, ‘Stop, be at home, be present.’ Because I can’t turn it off sometimes and I think to be at the highest level of anything, you have to be borderline obsessive. So, yeah, I don’t always think there’s room for video games in the locker room, but when we’re running our regular touring system and it’s a live event and there’s nowhere to go, you got kicked out of the hotel because you couldn’t get the late check out, you already hit the gym, you already picked up your food and you’re sitting in the locker room, I’d rather my guys be playing video games than breaking into a bag of some sort.
It’s a different time and I think we’re smarter. I think you’re gonna see that from the financial side of it, from how we save our money, how we prepare for the future, having a life after the business when we can’t fall down anymore to our actual health.
I think it was just like a retired guy trying to sound gangster.”
Roman Reigns will defend the WWE Universal Championship against Kevin Owens this Sunday at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view in a Last Man Standing match. Stay tuned for updates.
