# @wrestlingnewsco on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DWrnFr8GvoE
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/62370978-wrestlingnewsco-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/d4b2e60797.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-04-03T19:34:16.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Wrestling News - WWE, AEW (@wrestlingnewsco) — https://gondola.cc/wrestlingnewsco

## Caption

Kevin Fertig said on The Velvet Ropes with SoCalValerie that the Mordecai character was originally designed to lead to a WrestleMania feud with The Undertaker.
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"He was a big, big part of the Mordecai character. When all that first got pitched and everything else like that, it was really to wrestle him, eventually, in WrestleMania."
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Fertig pitched the character directly to Vince McMahon in a meeting alongside John Laurinaitis and Stephanie McMahon just before WrestleMania 20.
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"I go and sit down in front of Vince, and he's got his readers on, and he's just staring a hole through me. I know that he's already reached my soul somehow, and he's ripped it out."
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McMahon told Fertig he did not want tag teams and wanted him to go solo. Fertig pitched a character based on the seven deadly sins, inspired by Children of the Corn. Vince approved, and Fertig was paired with writer Dan Madigan to develop the character. The original name Malachi could not be trademarked, so it became Mordecai.

Watch the interview here at youtube.com/wrestlingnewsco
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#KevinFertig #Mordecai #WWE #Undertaker #WrestleMania

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## Tags

undertaker, mordecai, wrestlemania, wwe, kevinfertig

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