The Undertaker explains the origins behind his iconic eye-roll.
The Deadman became known for his terrifying face in the ring. After removing his hat in his entrance, or after hotting a tombstone piledriver, he would roll his eyes back into his head in terrifying fashion. It scarred children all across the world, and helped make his character even more demonic.
You would think that the idea came from some mastermind, looking to take The Undertaker to the next level. In fact, it was a complete accident in a match against Greg “The Hammer” Valentine.
The Undertaker spoke to Chris Van Vliet recently, and was asked about the origin of his eye roll. The WWE Hall of Famer revealed he did it by accident. He went backstage and everyone loved it, so he kept it as part of his character.
“I did it by accident. I had a match. And I want to say it was Greg Valentine. I was working with Greg Valentine, and I was on him. I had him down in the corner, and then I just slapped a choke on him. Because of my hair being long like it was, I put the choke on him, threw my hair back, and when I threw my hair back, my eyes went back. I thought, ‘I wonder if I could hold them back there,’ and I did.”
“I wasn’t consciously thinking, ‘roll your eyes back,’. But I did it. Then I go back and get to the gorilla position. Everybody is looking like, ‘What the hell was that? That was the coolest thing, that was so creepy.’. They ran it back and showed it to me. I was like, ‘Holy crap.’ So that’s how that started. It just happened by accident.”
“And then naturally, I used to have a fairly long tongue. So the eyes and the tongue, those were requested a lot by people you probably wouldn’t think would want to see that.”
RELATED: The Undertaker Reflects On Why His Match With Goldberg Went So Badly
