WWE Legend Details Why High-Risk Spots By Current Pro Wrestling Stars Have Desensitized Fans

Pro wrestling is experiencing a major boom in the current decade thanks to WWE and All Elite Wrestling (AEW), but well-respected industry icon The Undertaker is advising them to hold off on the high-risk stunts every now and then.

Speaking to professional skateboarding legends Jason Ellis and Tony Hawk on the "Hawk vs Wolf" podcast, Undertaker (real name Mark Calaway) credited them for being more creative than he was in the ring, while also noting that holding back moves from the fans makes such stunts more impactful.

"The things that the guys do today they're like video games…It's just incredible… My creativity wasn't even close to what they're actually performing in the ring," Undertaker said to open up his sentiments.

"As great as they are athletically, I think they need to pull back a little bit on it. Just for their own longevity. Because you rely on that athleticism and our audience, you know what our audience is like. You're pushing the limits. That's exactly what a lot of the guys do."

Hawk then noted that performers "have to repeatedly outdo themselves" from their past highlight-making moves because he has done the same thing during his skateboarding career.

As a side of context, the "Birdman" completed the first documented "900" trick in 1999, with it being a two-and-a-half aerial spin that made him a pop culture icon seemingly overnight and spawned the widely popular and beloved "Tony Hawk's" games.

While he did not point out any specific names of who are guilty of doing so, Undertaker's comments are certainly true with how performers continue to put themselves in such dangerous positions.

Daredevils like Jeff Hardy, Darby Allin, John Morrison, Montez Ford and Ricochet among a legion of others have kept fans at the edge of their seats with their seemingly unthinkable acrobatics inside the ring.

While such moments look nice every once in a while, Undertaker, Hawk and Ellis agreed that continuously raising the bar for themselves does put them in exponentially increasing danger.

"'I've seen you do that', so what do you have to do? Now, you gotta do a twist–two flips and a twist. And now that you've raised the degree of difficulty exponentially… you're only a couple of inches away from something really catastrophic happening," Undertaker later mentioned.

As a recent example, Ford's Spider-Man-esque stunt during the recently concluded Elimination Chamber thankfully happened with no injuries.

It cannot be denied that the impact of such a move was great to increase his stock as a solo competitor, but it also incentivizes other stars to take the same amount of risk in the hopes of bettering their standing among the fans.

Undertaker lamented that because of the rise of high-risk, high-reward maneuvers inside the ring, fans have become desensitized to the storytelling side of pro wrestling.

"Wrestling to me is not about wrestling moves. We use the wrestling moves to help tell the story. Now, there's kind of a switch where it's all about the moves and being able to do these things. What happens is, with our audience, they get so desensitized," he grimly stated.

Pro wrestling fans know how much Undertaker has sacrificed to build his star like his ill-fated dive over the top rope during his highly acclaimed WrestleMania 25 match with Shawn Michaels that ended up giving him a concussion, fractured pinky, and ring fingers plus a fractured collarbone.

The number of risks that performers take to entertain the crowd may come at the risk of ending their careers earlier than expected and Undertaker, who revealed to Hawk and Ellis about his many lingering injuries like seeing double, is only hoping for them to take the safe route every once in a while.

The insightful hour-long interview with the WWE legend can be viewed here.