In 1999, it had become clear The Undertaker's Deadman character had run its course. The gimmick felt a little out of place in the edgy Attitude Era and it seemed like everything that could be done with the already-iconic pro wrestler had been.
That year, 'Taker took some time off to deal with a series of nagging injuries and later returned at Judgement Day 2000 to take out The Rock and Triple H. However, he did so as a bandana-wearing, motorcycle-driving American Badass.
The gimmick stuck around until 2003, but ironically, it was around that time fans started longing for the Phenom again. Well, after being buried alive by Mr. McMahon at Survivor Series, he showed up at WrestleMania XX the following year to take his revenge and was the Deadman yet again.
The American Badass has since returned and is essentially who the WWE Hall of Famer now portrays during his sporadic TV appearances.
Talking on his Six Feet Under with Mark Calaway podcast, the former WWE Champion shared his take on why that persona would have never had the same sort of longevity as his undead character.
"I don’t think so. I don’t think it has 30 years of legs. It excels pretty fast, but I don’t see 30 years without some kind of...it doesn’t matter what the character is, you have to evolve. With something like the American Badass, there’s not a whole lot of places to evolve to. I’m a big badass biker who gets in fights and talks shit. There’s just not a lot of places to go with that."
"Where, The Undertaker, the original character, there are all kind of different things you can do with that. I don’t think it has 30-year legs. I took more bumps as American Badass than I did as Undertaker. I actually took more bumps at the end of my career than the beginning. It all worked out the way it was supposed to."
He's not wrong but now The Undertaker has dropped kayfabe, there's really no going back to the Deadman. During his final match against AJ Styles, he was the American Badass and ended his in-ring career by driving off into the distance on his iconic Harley.
Of course, there's still nothing quite like hearing that "Gong" when you know the Phenom is in the building!