Was the Confrontation Between Undertaker and Brock Lesnar at UFC 121 a Work?

That's one of the biggest questions coming out of this event. So if it was a work then it went over big time. You know how over it went? Bill Simmons, a writer for ESPN, just tweeted this:

Did everyone see Undertaker's interview after Lesnar's loss last night? Phenomenal moment in here.

That's a big name journalist grabbing onto the story. He's not the only one, as the entire ordeal is full of intrigue and raises a lot of questions as to what exactly went down. The short story is that after Lesnar lost and was walking out of the cage, he passed by Undertaker, who was being interviewed by Ariel Helwani. With the cameras rolling, Lesnar looked over at him and Taker sized him up before saying, "You wanna do it?" Brock looked slightly confused and continued walking on. Helwani asked Undertaker what that was all about and Taker simply stated that it was a personal issue. I posted the interview earlier and you can see it by scrolling down or clicking here.

After the interview went up online, speculation immediately began as to how genuine the exchange actually was. Our very own kjh brought us the news that Dave Meltzer believes it to be a work orchestrated by Vince McMahon in his hopes to set up a match between Undertaker and Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 27. There are obvious reasons for Vince to do this, none of which need to be pointed out. The sheer volume of articles and tweets generated from what amounted to about a 5 second confrontation has given the WWE, which is running a PPV of their own tonight, a ton of publicity.

Ariel Helwani, the man conducting the interview with Undertaker at the time, claims he was not in on any work and he felt the whole thing was genuine. From his Twitter:

Just want to note that if anyone thinks I was in on some kind of angle last night, they are HIGHLY mistaken. Seriously now, haven't watched WWE in a couple of years, don't know about storylines. All we were doing was intv. som1 who I thought was there to support Brock. I am still confused by it, to be honest. Nothing was planned in advance and I would NEVER, EVER, be a part of something like that. Anyhow, as far as I know, the whole thing was genuine. Same as when we talked to the guys after UFC 116, The Rock, Booker, etc.

Everyone was quick to run to Helwani to ask if he was in on it and that, in and of itself, is part of the genius of it. By not bringing him in on anything, they force him to acknowledge the fact that he wasn't in on it, which brings more attention to it. Now, we have to acknowledge that it is entirely possible that this was totally real and there is an issue between Lesnar and Taker. If you remember, Undertaker did quite a few jobs for Brock while he was in WWE and if I recall correctly, Lesnar never really returned the favor, something a veteran like Taker would definitely get upset over.

For what it's worth, this is what Dana White had to say when he was asked about it:

"I don't know.....The Undertaker's been coming for a long time, he's a fan of mixed martial arts and Brock is one of his guys. Those guys wrestled together... If those guys were going back and forth, it's because they're friends."

I wonder what this means for current WWE talent coming to UFC events in the future. Again, we don't know if it was a work or not but if it was, it was orchestrated beautifully and it's definitely got us talking about it.