WWE Rumors: Here’s Why The Undertaker Returned To ‘Raw’ So Soon After ‘Super ShowDown,’ Per Booker T
On this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw, Roman Reigns got an unexpected assist as he found himself in danger of losing to Drew McIntyre and Shane McMahon in their scheduled handicap match. As recapped by Give Me Sport, McMahon was preparing to hit his Coast to Coast finishing move on Reigns when the lights went out and a gong hit was heard in the background. This heralded The Undertaker’s surprise return to the ring, just slightly more than two weeks removed from his victory against Goldberg at Super ShowDown in Saudi Arabia.
Given how soon it was between Undertaker’s Super ShowDown match and his appearance on this week’s Raw, WWE Hall of Famer Booker T recently explained why he believes “The Deadman” didn’t take as long as he usually does to show up again on the company’s programming. On this week’s edition of The Hall of Fame with Booker T & Brad Gilmore — as quoted by WrestlingNews.co — Booker said that The Undertaker was likely motivated by the poor reception to his match at Super ShowDown.
“No one thought that they would see The Undertaker this soon after Super ShowDown, in what we would call, ‘the incident,'” Booker said.
“No one thought we would see him this soon, but me personally, I think Undertaker was thinking, ‘Man, I gotta go get this bad taste out of my mouth. I gotta get rid of it and do something to make me forget.'”
Fear the reaper. #RAW #Undertaker pic.twitter.com/nU5rPK01px
— WWE (@WWE) June 25, 2019
Later on in the podcast, Booker speculated that The Undertaker probably didn’t want people to think that his lackluster match versus Goldberg would be his last before retiring. As further cited by WrestlingNews.co, he said that the 54-year-old wrestling icon likely wants to “go out there and do a re-do” instead of potentially tarnishing his legacy by bowing out with a match that was heavily panned by ordinary fans and wrestling journalists alike.
Per WWE‘s official website, The Undertaker will be getting the aforementioned “re-do” in a form of a tag team match where he and Reigns will pair up against the heel duo of McMahon and McIntyre at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view next month. This match, however, has already received its share of criticism since its announcement. On Wednesday, Forbes‘ Blake Oestriecher wrote that it “certainly stands to reason” that WWE is bringing back Undertaker in another attempt to revitalize sagging ratings, given how his feud against McMahon was seen by some as “the biggest draw on the card” three years ago at WrestleMania 32.
