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Bully Ray and Mark Henry recall what The Undertaker was like as a locker room leader

Originally posted on ClutchPoints | By Matty Breisch | Last updated 5/20/24

When fans in the know think about The Undertaker backstage in the WWE Universe, there’s one term that often comes to mind: locker room leader.

From helping to keep the Montreal Screw Job from getting out of hand to telling a younger CM Punk that he needed to dress more professionally – starting a feud that has since come to an end – The Undertaker quickly established himself as a perfect intermediary between the boys in the back and Vince McMahon, and with that great power came a ton of responsibility, as Bully Ray and Mark Henry explained on Busted Open Radio.

Discussing his personal interaction with the “Deadman,” Ray recalled a time he accidentally split Taker’s head open with a chair and the deep fear he felt when he walked back to meet the “Brother of Destruction” face to face.

“I thought I was done. When I got back to the locker room, I was ready to fight The Undertaker — ready to fight him. ‘Listen, I’m gonna get my a** handed to me, but if I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die with my boots on,'” Bully Ray revealed on Busted Open Radio via Wrestling Inc.

“[Undertaker] said, ‘Bubba, sit down. He said, ‘Bubba, in this industry, you don’t want to get a reputation of being reckless or that you can hurt people. What you did tonight was dangerous. You have to make sure you never do what you did tonight again. People won’t want to work with you, and if people don’t want to work with you, you can’t make money. And if you can’t make money, you’re no good to the business.’

“When Matt Cardona broke my nose in a dark match, I laughed it off, and he was terrified. He was terrified I was gonna kick his a**. He was terrified I was gonna tell Vince. I laughed it off. I said, ‘Matt, you just gotta be more careful. That’s all. S**t happens.’ I’ll never forget the lessons that I learned from The Undertaker and how I tried to pass them along.”

Henry weighed in on his experience working with Henry, too, letting fans know that Taker is a “benevolent leader” and a “benevolent king.”

“I’m just happy [for] the fact that it was never me,” Mark Henry added. “But I watched.” Even in follow-up conversations with The Undertaker, Henry never recalled any badmouthing of the offending party. He never said [anything] to me like, ‘I can’t believe that guy.’ That’s who he is, a benevolent leader, a benevolent king.”

On one hand, it’s nice to learn that The Undertaker was able to lead by example in WWE, teaching Ray to work safely and pass that knowledge along to the next generation of Superstars. Then again, when someone is described as a benevolent leader on multiple occasions by his fellow Hall of Famers, it lets fans know that wrestlers really did respect Taker but also feared him too.

Matt Hardy weighs in on locker room leaders like The Undertaker.

Speaking of being a locker room leader in professional wrestling, Matt Hardy explained what it means to serve as the top veteran in 2024 on his Extreme Life podcast and how sometimes even the biggest stars around aren’t cut out to fill that role if they aren’t willing to leave their biases at the door.

“I think a great locker room leader is someone who is not afraid to tell the truth. And they will tell hard truths whenever they have to. But also at the same time, they have to realize that they can’t be biased in whatever you say. If you have a view, that is something, you can’t be biased in. You have to call it straight down the middle. You know, it is sometimes hard for people to do that. Like for instance, I’m sure a lot of you have seen all the buzz that was going around about the Punk interview. And he made some points that were legitimate. But also I mean, there were some points he made that he was very biased on too, you know what I mean?” Matt Hardy explained on his Extreme Life podcast via 411 Mania.

“So that’s what I’m saying, I feel like a real locker room leader has to be down the middle, and you have to be honest. You can’t be afraid to look at yourself in the mirror and admit, ‘Oh, I kind of did this wrong, may have done that wrong.’ You need to just try and speak hard truths, whatever it may be, and like really a**ess things for how they really are. And like don’t necessarily be set on absolutes when it comes to something. Try and deal with everything on a case-by-case basis. Like if you see something going on that’s wrong, and it’s pretty clear that someone may be in the wrong. I mean, that might be the time to say, ‘Hey, can I talk to you.’ And you pull to the side, or whatever it may be? But I feel like defusing stuff is something a locker room leader would do as well. Which is important. And don’t let things get to it. Because there’s a lot of times, there’s tension building up between people or entities, whatever it may be. And you just have to shut that s**t down. You’ve got to nip it in the bud. And that is something that’s very important. I think that’s something a locker room leader does. So I think you try and speak truthful, you try to speak in unbiased ways, you don’t do it for a selfish reason. You know, you don’t have any — you don’t have any skin in the game, so to say. You just do it because it’s the right thing to do.”

Was The Undertaker able to be an umpire in WWE back in the day, or did his pro-Vince bias cloud his ability to be impartial? Either way, it’s interesting to learn why Hardy doesn’t believe CM Punk is really a good locker room leader, which is interesting indeed, considering he was given his own show in AEW to fill that role. Take with that information what you will.