WWE News: The Undertaker And Vince McMahon’s Relationship May Be Irreparable
From the archive: published Jun 1, 2016, 10 years ago. Details may have changed since.
Vince McMahon’s job never stops. His own business model doesn’t allow it to. Day-to-day, he has to deal with plunging ratings, network executives, talent evaluations, and more weekly content than most production companies would know what to do with. And now, the chairman of the WWE has to deal with an upset Undertaker. The roster is in the midst of a massive overhaul, following a mini-purge last month, and an impending influx that Vince himself promised in what will apparently result in the company’s biggest roster ever. And, the ever-looming presence of the Undertaker casts a bigger shadow than them all.
Just this past weekend, the Inquisitr reported that the Undertaker and Vince McMahon were at odds, and a resolution was far from happening. It all stems from Vince asking the Undertaker to lose to Shane McMahon in their Hell in a Cell match at WrestleMania this past April. The report went as far as to say that the Deadman might be done with the WWE for good. Regardless of whether that notion seems dramatic or not, a relationship that spans nearly 26 years is clearly frayed.
There appears to be a missing piece in the situation, however. While Daily Wrestling News is reporting that the Undertaker is not returning any of Vince’s phone calls, two separate phone calls have put this entire situation in motion. Shane McMahon revealed on his “tell-all” podcast with Mick Foley that two calls convinced him to return to the WWE. One was from his father, and the other came from the Undertaker. Now, Vince may not have gotten to that point in his creative process where he was deciding on who was going to go over in the match at that point. But, at least the Undertaker felt compelled enough about the idea that he reached out to Shane, who had been absent from the company for seven years.
Now, sources close to the Undertaker are saying that not only does he not want to appear on the grandest stage of them all, but he doesn’t want to wrestle in WWE again. Vince had recently asked the Deadman to compete in his second straight SummerSlam, but Undertaker has reportedly turned him down and is giving the boss the silent treatment.
If you recall, the Undertaker was originally booked for dates on WWE’s post- Mania European tour, but pulled out abruptly. At the time, it was reported that he withdrew from the dates over concerns with terrorism. It’s not clear whether that was the actual reason, or if his frustrations with Vince were the true catalyst.
