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The Undertaker reveals which angle Paul Bearer would have loved this WrestleMania angle

Originally posted on ClutchPoints | By Matty Breisch | Last updated 5/13/24

When Paul Bearer passed away in the spring of 2013, it forever changed the presentation of The Undertaker.

Now granted, it’s not like Bearer and the “Deadman” were inseparable, as the Undertaker had multiple angles without his legendary manager within the WWE Universe, but when most fans think of the WrestleMania stalwart, they imagine the ominous performer bathed in black with a wide-brimmed hat masking his face in shadow and a small, white-faced man holding an urn walking close behind him.

And yet, the final Paul Bearer storyline in WWE wasn’t working alongside Kane after betraying The Undertaker at Hell in a Cell 2010, but instead, a posthumous angle with CM Punk at WrestleMania 29, where the “Best in the World” stole the Hall of Famer’s urn and poured its contents all over the “Deadman” to really fire up their feud.

Discussing this angle on his Six Feet Under podcast, The Undertaker explained that, in his opinion, Bearer would have loved being included in the match, as it felt like a fantastic send-off to his long-time friend and manager.

“Everybody was a little uptight about bringing that to me, thinking it might be disrespectful. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ Paul would love the fact that even after he’s gone, that he’s still part of the story in such a vital way. That was the year I did the appearance at the Hall of Fame and paid honor to him there. They got their hands on the urn,” The Undertaker explained via 411 Mania.

“I just knew, Paul being Paul, he would love still being part of the involvement and the angle. I don’t think he would have felt like it was disrespectful. It was cool, and one of those deals where you motivate yourself. ‘I want to tear this down for him.’ That was my motivation. Paul would have loved to have been a situation standing across from Paul Heyman. I’m proud of that match, I thought it was really good.”

A true student of the game who managed Brian Cage and a young LA Knight in Championship Wrestling from Hollywood when he was away from the WWE, Bearer spent the better part of five decades in the professional wrestling world, managing performers both legendary and forgotten to time. If the roles were reversed and The Undertaker passed first, it’s safe to say Bearer wouldn’t have thought twice about dusting off the urn and running a very similar angle himself.

The Undertaker reveals the challenges of wrestling Giant Gonzalez.

Elsewhere on his Six Feet Under podcast, The Undertaker reflected on working the house show circuit with Giant Gonzalez, the eight-foot-tall former NBA draftee who worked for the promotion in 1993. While it was never easy to work alongside the monstrous performer, on one occasion, Taker simply snapped, as he couldn’t take the Argentinan giant’s repeated misfires.

“He snapped me. He made me crack. In the 90’s, I burned the candle. In 93, I’ve got zero juice. No pull, no stroke. We were still doing double shots. We’re out three to four weeks straight, working every day. It was Indianapolis was the first show. Bell time was noon, and then we went to Cincinnati. I had a late night. I had been telling George [Giant Gonzalez], ‘I don’t care how hard you hit me with the forearm smash, just hit me in the shoulder blades. That’s all I ask. Hit me in the shoulder blades, I’ll sell for you, and we’ll do what we came to do.’ Every time, he’d pull me down, grab me by the back of my head, and I’m expecting the shot across the shoulder blades, and he’d hit me across the back of the neck,” The Undertaker explained on Six Feet Under via 411 Mania.

“I was as patient as long as I could be. We’d go back to the dressing room, ‘George, when you pull me down,’ I would grab another person and show him the shoulder blades. ‘This is your landing zone. Hit me as hard as you want, just hit me here.’ He’d shake his head like he understood. I’d go to Harvey Wippleman, ‘He got it?’ ‘He’s got it.’ Next night, same thing. We get to this double shot. I had a really late night. It was an early day. We were on before intermission. Bell rings, not even five seconds, the whole match is me bumping until the end to make him look like a monster and killer that he was. Five seconds in, he pulls me down and cracks me across the back of the neck. Once I got the feeling back in my fingers, because I’m getting stingers, I flipped. I turned around and started whaling on him. He had no clue. I hit him so fast, so many times, that he couldn’t defend himself. He tried to lean back, and I’m whaling on him. I could see George ‘The Animal’ Steele, who was an agent, he’s yelling, ‘Stop. Stop. Stop.’ I ended up getting out of the ring; it was a countout, and I was waiting for him to come back. He came back, he was lumped up, and they held me back. I had lost it. I felt bad afterward. He was limited to what he could do, and I had enough.”

As crazy as it may sound in hindsight, Gonzalez was only under contract with WWE for 10 months as Harvey Wippleman’s client, joining at the Royal Rumble and leaving in October after only really having that one feud with The Undertaker. And yet, of his 59 matches in WWE, 35 came against The Undertaker, and if he snapped on El Gigante that quickly, the decision not to bring back the man in the air-brushed muscle suit was probably the right one.