WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker spoke with Nightcap about various topics, emphasizing the significance of engaging the audience with a story instead of relying solely on a sequence of high spots without a narrative to support it.
Undertaker said, “Again, it goes back to that connection that I was talking about. If they’re invested in you and they care about — one of the things that a lot of the guys, it takes them a while to figure out, because they’re so athletic now, right? That’s what they want to display. They want to display their athleticism.”
He continued, “That’s great, right? But at the end of the day, your audience will get desensitized, or you have to continue to push the boundary right, like, Okay, I’ve seen you do a double back flip off the top rope onto the floor to somebody, and I’ve seen that a couple times. Now, what do you got for me, right? But if you can get them invested in the character, and if somebody does that character wrong, now you’ve got them, because that’s what it’s all about. If you love somebody, you’re gonna pay money to see that dude kick the other dude’s ass, right? Or, if you don’t like that guy, for a reason, I want this guy to whoop his ass. That’s the gist of what we do. We storytell, and we try to get people invested in the characters.”
Undertaker added, “I tell people this a lot, especially the young guys, wrestling isn’t about wrestling moves. Wrestling is about telling stories. We use the moves to help tell the story, but it’s all on a connection. That’s the biggest thing, once that light bulb goes off, then you’ve got a good chance of doing well.”
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(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
