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The Undertaker wishes he wrestled this performer instead of Giant Gonzalez at WrestleMania IX

Originally posted on ClutchPoints | By Matty Breisch | Last updated 5/15/24

The Undertaker has wrestled some of the most important matches in WrestleMania history, with his efforts against Shawn Michaels widely considered some of the best efforts not only in the event’s history but in WWE history, period.

And The Undertaker has also wrestled some of the… shall we say, not best matches in WrestleMania history, with his efforts against Giant Gonzalez only earning a .74 rating on Cagematch, making it one of the worst matches of all time according to the website.

Discussing what went wrong in Las Vegas on his Six Feet Under podcast, The Undertaker wished he wrestled Yoko Zuna at the event instead, as Gonzalez might have just been one of the word opponents he’s ever wrestled over his in-ring career.

“I should have been in the ring with Yoko. Instead, I’m riding out on a chariot with a big black vulture. That big black vulture was there to pick the bones of that sorry match. It’s amazing I survived the early years of my career. The opponents…I’m not going to name names, but I’ll name that one because I’ve talked about it a lot, and he’s deceased anyway. Giant Gonzalez, wow. He made Khali look like Lou Thesz,” The Undertaker explained on Six Feet Under via Fightful.

“It was such a struggle. It wasn’t his fault. It was what it was. You can only do what you can do. On paper, what a viable threat to the Undertaker. He’s a foot taller than me. He was d**n near 7 foot 8 and had the muscle suit with the fur. Once I was done, I was done. ‘I need to have some cold beverages and try to wash this out of my memory.’ They were awful. I don’t think I had one good match with him. I tried. I tried hard. I was trying to make chicken salad out of chicken s**t. I was killing myself. He was so limited in what he could do. ‘Just grab me throw me around.’ That was no sell Taker where it was all about the character. I was having to reach the outer banks of (what I could do). ‘Maybe he kicks the s**t out of me for five or six minutes, and we figure a way out of this.'”

Unfortunately for The Undertaker, things didn’t exactly turn out fantastically for Yokozuna on the show either, as he had a just okay effort against Bret Hart – which was pretty hard to do during his prime – and then lost his belt in 21 seconds to Hulk Hogan on one of the most questionable decisions in WWE history. The real match “Mean” Mark should have fought for was Undertaker-Bret Hart, as WWE ran that match successfully three times on Pay-Per-View and likely could have been a much better main event minus the whole Hogan thing.

The Undertaker has no love lost for Giant Gonzalez.

Speaking of The Undertaker’s year-long feud with Giant Gonzalez, which took up the vast majority of the latter’s 10-month career in WWE back in 1993, the “Deadman” had very little positive to say about working with the former WCW Giant, noting that he absolutely unloaded on the 7-foot-8 Argentinan former NBA Draftee for his repeated inability to follow directions in the ring.

“He snapped me. He made me crack. In the 90’s, I burned the candle. In 93, I’ve got zero juice. No pull, no stroke. We were still doing double shots. We’re out three to four weeks straight, working every day. It was Indianapolis was the first show. Bell time was noon, and then we went to Cincinnati. I had a late night. I had been telling George [Giant Gonzalez], ‘I don’t care how hard you hit me with the forearm smash, just hit me in the shoulder blades. That’s all I ask. Hit me in the shoulder blades, I’ll sell for you, and we’ll do what we came to do.’ Every time, he’d pull me down, grab me by the back of my head, and I’m expecting the shot across the shoulder blades, and he’d hit me across the back of the neck,” The Undertaker explained on Six Feet Under via 411 Mania.

“I was as patient as long as I could be. We’d go back to the dressing room, ‘George, when you pull me down,’ I would grab another person and show him the shoulder blades. ‘This is your landing zone. Hit me as hard as you want, just hit me here.’ He’d shake his head like he understood. I’d go to Harvey Wippleman, ‘He got it?’ ‘He’s got it.’ Next night, same thing. We get to this double shot. I had a really late night. It was an early day. We were on before intermission. Bell rings, not even five seconds, the whole match is me bumping until the end to make him look like a monster and killer that he was. Five seconds in, he pulls me down and cracks me across the back of the neck. Once I got the feeling back in my fingers, because I’m getting stingers, I flipped. I turned around and started whaling on him. He had no clue. I hit him so fast, so many times, that he couldn’t defend himself. He tried to lean back, and I’m whaling on him. I could see George ‘The Animal’ Steele, who was an agent, he’s yelling, ‘Stop. Stop. Stop.’ I ended up getting out of the ring; it was a countout, and I was waiting for him to come back. He came back, he was lumped up, and they held me back. I had lost it. I felt bad afterward. He was limited to what he could do, and I had enough.”

Could Gonzalez have worked out in WWE? Maybe so, but considering how unpopular he was in WWE and how little he wrestled after leaving the promotion, it’s safe to say the promotion cut ties at the right time, especially considering The Undertaker might have straight-up quit if he had to wrestle Gonzalez more.