WWE's The Undertaker Explains Why He Confronted Brock Lesnar At UFC 121
One of wrestling's biggest mysteries is finally solved...
May 14, 2020
Back in October 2010, The Undertaker confronted Brock Lesnar at UFC 121 moments after The Beast Incarnate lost the UFC Heavyweight Championship to Cain Velasquez. As Lesnar headed backstage, he walked past The Phenom who said: "Do you want to do it?"
The incident has become one of wrestling's biggest mysteries as nobody has revealed whether it was a work or a shoot, until now.
The Undertaker recently sat down for an interview with Ariel Helwani at ESPN and said there was no personal animosity between him and Brock and that he called him out to set up a match in WWE. 'Taker then revealed he only called out the former UFC fighter because he was under the impression that Dana White had okayed the confrontation.
The Deadman said: "I was there to pick a fight. I was sent there personally to pick a fight. And, you know, I was unaware that Dana had no clue what was going to happen, which I felt horrible about after the fact. I thought there had been some kind of discussion between him and Vince but, you know, at that time Brock was so hot in the MMA world so, obviously, it's like, 'You know what, why not try it.' And there was no personal animosity really but it was me basically saying, 'You left our world. I'm going to come into your world and I'm going to call you out.' That was it and, obviously, it was a huge media storm and it's all your fault."
He later added: "Like a wrestling fight. I was trying to get him back in my world."
Dave Meltzer shed more light on the incident on Wrestling Observer Radio. He explained it was designed to begin a program with Lesnar and The Undertaker where they would have faced off in the main event of WrestleMania 27. Meltzer noted that both 'Taker and McMahon thought Dana White knew about what was going to happen, only to later discover that Brock was just "trying to work his own angle."
Meltzer said: "Did a little searching and found out what was going on, that, you know, they were doing an angle for WrestleMania which didn't happen but that was the idea… It was a top-secret angle in the sense that Vince knew and Undertaker knew… Vince McMahon was under the impression that Dana White okayed it. The interesting thing was that Undertaker must have thought that too because Undertaker actually called Dana White personally and that's how he got the front row ticket from Dana White. But Dana White didn't know any of this was going to happen… It was Brock basically trying to work his own angle."