During his Six Feet Under podcast, WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker reminisced about proposing a shift from his iconic “Deadman” character to the “American Badass” persona to Vince McMahon in 2000.

“That was probably what I was most nervous about. Not the night that I’d debut it but actually telling Vince, ‘What do you think about this?’ I was totally expecting him to go, ‘There’s no damn way, you’ll be fine, screw all those guys talking and cutting those great promos.’

I have a meeting with him, and it’s like, ‘Boss, this is what I’m thinking.’ And I explained my reasoning for it, and it was like, ‘God damn that’s good, that’s great.’ I’m thinking it’s a rib, like here comes the punchline, he’s about to pull the rug right out from underneath me.”