Undertaker Reveals Why He Reworked His Tombstone Piledriver

The Undertaker has opened up about how his signature Tombstone Piledriver evolved early in his WWF career, admitting the original version of the move was far riskier than the one fans came to know over his three-decade run.

Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, The Undertaker explained that when he first debuted, opponents weren’t always squared up properly against his shoulders before he dropped to his knees, leaving their bodies hanging off to one side. He chalked it up to simple inexperience.

“I really didn’t know how to do it right the first,” he said. “I’m just dumb, young, and just grabbing guys up, and they’re hanging over here on the side, and eventually I got them squared up, and it was much easier to control their body weight and land safer and land square.”

Asked if any of those early Tombstones went wrong, The Undertaker didn’t hesitate to bring up Koko B. Ware, who took the very first televised Tombstone during The Undertaker’s WWF debut. That moment came at Survivor Series on November 22, 1990, in Hartford, Connecticut, when The Undertaker was unveiled as the mystery member of Ted DiBiase’s Million Dollar Team and eliminated Koko with the move roughly a minute into the match.

“There was some pretty bad tombstones, and it’s crazy because I really pride myself on not hurting people,” The Undertaker said. “But you can go back. Koko B. Ware took a hellacious one that I kind of blew off when it happened. I was like, come on, man, just suck it up. And then I watched it back years later, and I was like, oh, maybe he had a reason to b*tch about that because that looked gnarly.”

Koko has told his own version of that story over the years, recalling that the two had not rehearsed the spot beforehand and that he was legitimately dropped on his head. He’s also said he never held it against The Deadman, and the pair have since discussed the incident directly.

For The Undertaker, refining the move wasn’t just about protecting the person taking it — his own survival on a grueling road schedule was just as big a factor. “We’re on the road 20, 25 days out of the month,” he said. “You have to figure out ways to minimize the trauma, and how to take care of yourself.” Once he mastered lining opponents up before the drop, he found the move became both safer and far easier on his own body. “It was very difficult to not break somebody’s neck,” he added. “When all their body weight is making a hard right… once I figured out how to get them lined up, it was better for them and it was a lot easier for me.”

It’s a small but telling detail from a career built on longevity. The Tombstone became one of wrestling’s most instantly recognizable finishers precisely because The Undertaker treated it as a craft to be perfected rather than a spot to repeat unchanged. Nearly 36 years after that Survivor Series debut, the story behind the move’s evolution is a reminder of how much trial, error, and self-preservation went into building The Deadman’s legend.