The Undertaker has revealed the origins behind the creation of his legendary Deadman persona.

During an appearance on the 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast with Tom Segura, the WWE Hall of Famer discussed how the character came to life and Vince McMahon’s initial concept for it.

The Undertaker recalled meeting with McMahon following his time in WCW, explaining that the WWE Chairman’s first idea was for him to play an actual undertaker from the old west. However, McMahon encouraged him to personalize the character and bring his own ideas to it.

“He (Vince McMahon) brings me up to the office and has these storyboards laid out with the images of The Undertaker, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is really cool!’ Once I saw it, and then he kind of gave me an idea of what he was looking for, and then he kind of handed it over to me and said, ‘Okay, now make it yours.’”

The Undertaker went on to reveal that he studied horror movie icons like Friday the 13th and Halloween to help craft his eerie and intimidating persona.

“So now I’m invested in, I’m watching all of Friday the 13th movies, and you know, the Halloweens, all these things, and I’m trying to take little bits of all of them and incorporate them, and make them my own.”

The Undertaker explained further that while he thought the character could easily come across as corny, it instead connected with fans and became one of the most iconic personas in wrestling history.

“But yeah, it was a little strange at first, because like you don’t want something to be, I mean that really has the potential to be really corny, and I think it was so different at the time that it resonated somehow with people, and then that character, and Undertaker, somehow becomes beloved.

“In a very short amount of time, like, people were just enamored by this character. Everything is babyfaces and heels, there’s nothing babyface about that. By the time that I wrestled Hogan in ’91, like, when we come out, I remember that was in Detroit as well, and we came out, and it was like, obviously, Hogan was the good guy, and it was like 60-40, the crowd was in favor of me. Yeah, I mean, Hulk Hogan! He’s the name!”