Undertaker feels he had better chemistry with Shawn Michaels than Bret Hart
It’s difficult to choose between the two, but The Undertaker feels like he probably had better in-ring chemistry with Shawn Michaels than Bret Hart.
Undertaker, Michaels, and Hart were three of WWE’s defining stars of the 1990s. On a new episode of “What Do You Wanna Talk About?,” Cody Rhodes asked Undertaker which of the two he liked facing more. Undertaker called it basically a tossup and spoke highly of both. He thinks his very best matches were with Michaels, but Undertaker will always be grateful for how Hart helped him become a better wrestler.
“They were both great. They were both so good in the ring. I probably had the very best chemistry with Shawn,” Undertaker said. “But I tell you what, I’ve said this a few times about Bret, because talking about living this and believing everything, Bret did. And I respect that. When Bret was the champion, he was the champion. And he conducted himself as a champion, from top to bottom. When I started working with Bret, like I was real, real heavy, even in my ring work with the character, right? I was still trying to establish all of that. And there was only so far Bret was going to go with, as he called it, the Frankenstein gimmick, right? There was only so far he was going to go to put me over with that. Obviously, he was a more tenured guy. He was higher up than me, so not a lot I could do about it. And I wanted to have great matches, and I wanted to work with guys like Bret.
“So being able to work against Bret forced me to learn how to work within the gimmick and have not just a gimmick match, but to have really, really good matches. Bret forced me to get out of the comfort zone of the Jason Voorhees, the Michael Myers stuff, and actually put on a wrestling match. So for that, I’ll always be grateful to Bret because he pushed me and made me become better.”
The last match between Undertaker and Hart took place in 1997. Undertaker and Michaels’ rivalry continued past the 1990s and into the 2000s/2010s, including two well-regarded WrestleMania matches.
“Shawn may be the only guy I’ve ever known that could have a five-star match with a broomstick,” Undertaker said. “I mean, he’s just that talented.”
Both Undertaker and Michaels work behind the scenes in WWE now, with Undertaker helping out with Lucha Libre AAA and Michaels leading NXT.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.