Could the The Undertaker have saved WCW from it’s untimely demise? What if The Undertaker signed with WCW in 1998 before the promotion went off the rails?
Stories of Taker receiving an offer from WCW then marching into Vince McMahon’s office looking for counteroffer are as old as pro wrestling on the internet itself. Thanks to a new interview with former WCW President Eric Bischoff, tales of The Undertaker jumping ship right in the middle of the Monday Night Wars are resurfacing.
The Taker to WCW rumors regained traction only a few short years ago when Kevin Nash waxed poetic to Sports Illustrated about the potential move.
“We had ‘Taker close,” said Nash. “All of a sudden he wasn’t the Deadman. He became the American Badass for a reason. That Deadman wasn’t going to f---in’ come to WCW. He would have been the biker character and gone by Mark Calaway.
”All along, I was trying to get guys money, I was trying to get guys paid. And what happened was Vince started giving huge guarantees to the Shawns and Undertakers and those guys and said, ‘I can’t lose my core guys.’”
Speaking with Pop Culture, Bischoff pretty much kills Nash’s version of the late 1990s free agent waters.
“See, that’s another one of those internet wrestling rumors that continues to survive, what is it now, 18, 19 years later? Nothing could be further from the truth” he said.
”There was never one syllable of conversation between anybody that mattered,” he illustrated. “Maybe some of the lower level guys on the production, maybe some freelancers said, ‘Wow, wouldn’t it be cool if the Undertaker came over?’”
Bischoff continued
“Or maybe there was some new assignees over at the Power Plant where some other people that really weren’t very significant who had some indirect association with the company that speculated about how cool it would be. There was never any meaningful conversation with anybody that mattered at any level,”
You kind of ruined the ultimate pro wrestling fantasy booking scenario there Eric.
So maybe Biker Taker’s run in the summer of 2000 wasn’t a reaction to Mark Calaway potentially crossing over to WCW?
18 years later and pro wrestling fans are still wondering what The Undertaker’s next move will be. Alright Cagesiders, would The Undertaker jumping ship to WCW be the move that turned the tide in the Monday Night Wars?