Taker Burns Russo

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

WWE.com: When did you hear about Vince Russo and what was your immediate reaction?

 

Undertaker: I found out sometime during the weekend. I don't know. I mean, here's another guy who walked out right before a TV show. Initially, I guess he was going to be a lead writer or something like that. I don't even know what all the background is. But we definitely don't need anything negative at this point. We need people that are going to jump on board and bust their ass to make this the best product that we can make it. We can't have people with ulterior motives or people who are more interested in what people on the Internet say than what happens within the company's confines. If he can be used in a role that's going to help us produce interesting stories, then that's fine. But anything else I don't think is needed.

 

WWE.com: But you can't say you're all that disappointed that sometime between Thursday and Friday his role was changed to consultant from lead writer.

 

Undertaker: No, I can't say that I'm disappointed at all in that.

 

WWE.com: What do you think the backstage environment would be like if he were here today?

 

Undertaker: I don't know. I think there may have been a few, but I don't think there would have been too many people that would have been overly excited about it. But that's just my take on it. Nobody has come to me and said, "I don't like the fact that he's going to be here." I haven't talked to anybody about it. It doesn't matter to me who's here and who's not here, as long as they're with the program and they're here to make this product better. I don't care if Attila the Hun shows up. If it makes our product better, then so be it. I can get by previous mistakes and previous errors in judgment from people. But they have to be focused on trying to make our product better. If they're not, I have no use for them.

 

WWE.com: Now that (Austin is) gone, the Triple Hs and the Undertakers are going to have to step up more than ever, wouldn't you say?

 

Undertaker: Yeah, but not only those types of guys. Those guys are doing everything they can do. We need the stars of the next generation to come to step up. There's never been any better opportunity than right now for the young guys to take the initiative and step forward and make names for themselves. And regardless of what all the people on the Internet say about guys like me holding guys back, that's just not the case. There's no better time for somebody to come in and try to push me off the ladder and take my quote-unquote spot. I want somebody to come up. I want somebody to push me off. There's this big misconception that I have all this juice, and I won't do this for people and I won't do that for people. That's a bunch of bulls***. I do everything in my power in the ring (and) outside the ring, to help these guys. And a lot of them are very appreciative of it and are heeding the advice of myself, Triple H (and) Kurt Angle. It's their opportunity to seize. We're doing e! verything that we can do. We need some guys to step up. And some already have. It's a shame the injury that happened to Kane. And it's a shame what happened to Edge. I thought those two guys were really getting ready to take a step forward. Kane's already a huge star. But I think he's only scratched the surface of where he's going to be. And I think Edge finally turned that corner. His matches with Kurt Angle were phenomenal. And I think he was about to take that turn into superstardom, where Edge would be mentioned in the same breath as The Rock and Kurt Angle and Triple H. But sometime an injury sticks its ugly head in there. But there are guys like Rob Van Dam and Brock Lesnar. These are guys who are right there on the cusp of becoming so huge. We really need them to step forward right now and seize that brass ring.