Everyone is still sort of coming to terms with The Undertaker being retired. We’re pretty sure he’s retired, anyway. The tributes have been flowing ever since WrestleMania 33, and now the latest man to sing the praises of The Dead Man is none other than Hall of Famer Bret “The Hitman” Hart.
Most people who know anything about Undertaker know his nearly two-decade reputation as being a locker room leader and someone everyone looks up to. (All the way up to being the person who calls “wrestlers’ court” to order, if needed.) He’s been the top boy in the back since the Attitude Era, and it has contributed not just to his influence and staying power in WWE, but how much he is looked up to by every one of his contemporaries.
Hart had nothing but good things to say about The Undertaker and his legacy when he spoke with Sports Illustrated, but he also shared a neat little tidbit: he’s the one who requested that the Dead Man step up and take charge of the locker room after the Montreal Screwjob.
“I punched out Vince McMahon in the locker room, but the only reason Vince was in the locker room was because of Undertaker,” explained Hart. “Undertaker pounded on Vince’s door after the ‘Screwjob.’ He said, ‘Get your ass down to that dressing room and explain yourself’, and Vince wouldn’t have listened to anybody else [ … ]
“I wrote ’Taker a letter when I left,” revealed Hart. “I said, ‘You have to be the voice of the dressing room and the leader now that I’m gone.’
“I always felt that I was the leader of the dressing room and looked after everything. If guys had a problem, they could come to me and I’d go to Vince and say, ‘This guy has a problem, maybe you can help him.’
“Then ’Taker stepped in and became that guy. A lot of times he had to straighten out guys like Shawn Michaels and stand up for the other wrestlers. Undertaker was always a force in the dressing room.”
It’s open to debate just how much Bret was actually the locker room leader before he departed for WCW, but given how Shawn Michaels and Triple H’s Kliq was reportedly rubbing everyone the wrong way at the time, I’d say that probably tracks.
So there you have it: it’s possible that we have Bret Hart to thank for Undertaker being Lord of the Boys. So maybe Taker has a bone to pick with Bret, since these actions led to his “Bone Street Krew” tummy tattoo. Remember kids: nothing is scarier than a tattoo on your tum-tum.
