The Undertaker has put away many foes across multiple decades with the tombstone piledriver, but no tombstone made him prouder than when he was able to catch Mark Henry with it.
Undertaker and Henry battled in high profile matches throughout their career, including at WrestleMania, and Undertaker wasn't positive he would be able to get the big man up for the tombstone.
When asked by Ryan Satin on Out of Character about his most memorable Tombstone, Undertaker replied, "Mark Henry. Just his sheer size. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do it or not. My number one goal, always, is to protect my opponent. I think the world of Mark and I knew at that time I was strong and healthy, but he was a big dude, a really big dude when I tombstoned him. I was so proud of myself that I had him, I tombstoned him, I didn't hurt him and we had a fairly decent match a long with it."
Of all the victims Undertaker claimed with the tombstone, he said no one took the move better than Shawn Michaels, pointing to his jumping Tombstone on Michaels at WrestleMania 26.
"I'm gonna go with Shawn Michaels. He probably received one of the most emphatic tombstones of all time. I don't know if it was [WrestleMania] 25 or 26, he kicked out of one, and I caught him again in another one. We went airborne and instead me dropping to my knee, he went airborne. Shawn was so good. One of the all time greats in the ring. He's one of those guys who could have had a five star match with a broomstick. He's so good. He's always money. He's my favorite guy to tombstone. Maybe it's because he's obviously involved in some of my favorite matches," he said.
Being The Undertaker, naming the move The Tombstone seemed like a natural fit.
Asked who came up with the name, Undertaker said, "It was kind of a collaboration. It's been so long, honestly, I can't tell you. I don't think I'm going to take credit for it. There was a group of us; Bruce Prichard, Pat Patterson, myself, Michael Hayes was probably there. We were trying to figure out what we were going to name this thing and someone visualized putting a tombstone on a grave, how heavy it would be, what it would look like, and from that the name came up."
Undertaker is set to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2022 during WrestleMania weekend. Vince McMahon will do the induction.
Undertaker retired following his victory over AJ Styles in a Boneyard match at WrestleMania 36.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
