Why Vince McMahon And The Undertaker Disagreed On The American Badass Character

The Undertaker is a legend in the world of professional wrestling, and The Deadman character is considered to be iconic. But back in the year 2000, Undertaker switched things up and introduced a biker character known as the American Badass.

American Badass ended up being a hit, and Bruce Prichard recently discussed the character change during an episode of Something Else To Wrestle with Bruce Prichard on the WWE Network.

“He wanted to be the biker, he wanted to be the guy that he is in everyday life. Of course, with the volume turned up quite a bit. So there really wasn’t a whole lot of ‘what if we did this? What if we did that?’ It was, if we’re gonna change that was something he was immediately comfortable with.”

Bruce went on to say that he and Vince McMahon always intended for The Deadman character to return, but in Taker’s mind he had decided that The Deadman had to be put to rest if he moved forward with the American Badass.

“Yeah, I think everybody was nervous. But it was also viewed upon as a whole brand new character, and introducing somebody. Now in the back of Vince McMahon’s mind, and the back of my mind, it was ‘we’re always going to go back to the original Deadman. We are always going to go back to the original Undertaker.’ In Taker’s mind it was ‘if we make this change, we can never go back.’ He felt that going to the American Badass that’s a new direction, and you can move forward, but you can never go back. We agreed to disagree at that point because we needed to make the American Badass character work. At this point in time it was, ‘let’s make this character the most that we can make it.'”

Which character do you like better, The Deadman or the American Badass? Sound off in the comments below.

If you use any of the quotes from this article please credit Something Else To Wrestle with Bruce Prichard with a H/T to Still Real To Us for the transcription.