The Undertaker Talks "Nearly Catastrophic" Bump He Took During Match With Goldberg
"The Last Ride" docuseries has given fans an in-depth glimpse at The Undertaker that has not been seen that often. The Undertaker has been doing the media rounds to help promote the documentary, and he was on Pardon My Take podcast where the hosts asked Undertaker how many surgeries he's had throughout his career so far.
"I think it's 17-18 probably," The Undertaker revealed. "Yeah."
The Undertaker has taken many steps to help preserve his body, and as shown in a bonus scene, he uses cryotherapy to keep his body in the best condition possible. He was asked about the worst bump that he has ever taken. He pointed to a match with Yokozuna and his Saudi Arabia match against Goldberg.
"Years ago, I was working Yokozuna," The Undertaker said. "I give him a flying DDT. Yoko, at the time, was closing in at about 600 lbs., his body weight. He hit like a half second before I did on the mat, and it drove up a piece of wood that caught me in the ribs and snapped two of my ribs. That was pretty painful.
"Obviously, I've had a few recently. The bump that I had in Saudi when I was working with Goldberg, I think that one was a couple of inches from being catastrophic. The way I hit on that one, it kind of set out nerve impulses to all of my injuries at once. It was like an electrical charge went through my body."
The Undertaker has been involved in various types of matches. However, he says he's never objected to any match type trusting WWE to plan things out before-hand. However, he did have some concerns when it came to the Inferno Match against Kane, but the two have shared a strong connection with one other, so he knew that the match would be a success.
"When you're young, you think you're invincible, and so anything that they throw at you, you look at like, OK how are we gonna do it? WWE doesn't leave anything to chance. It's well thought out," The Undertaker said. "The one match I guess I lifted an eyebrow a little bit to was the Inferno Match. I was just like wait a minute. How are we gonna work and do our stuff with the ropes on fire? So that one I lifted a brow on, but they told me how they were going to do it.
"Of course, I was in there with Kane, who I had the utmost confidence in, so it turned out to be really good. Fortunately, he got lit up, and I didn't."
The next episode of The Last Ride will be available on Sunday, June 14th with the fifth and final episode airing the week after that.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Pardon My Take with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.