The Early Years – A Tisket, A Tasket, I Ain’t Going In No Casket (1992-1994)
With
Hogan and
Sid gone, the top level faces in the WWF went
Randy Savage, Ultimate Warrior, Undertaker, and
Bret Hart. The heel side wasn’t as strong though outside of
Ric Flair (
Shawn Michaels wasn’t there yet). To further establish Undertaker’s face turn,
Vince needed heels to feed to him. While Undertaker would beat low level guys like
The Bezerker on house shows, Vince decided to go back to one of the monsters of the 1980s to face off with his new monster babyface. The led to the return of the
Ugandan Giant, Kamala. They would face off at Wembley Stadium for
Summerslam 1992.
Match 14: The Undertaker vs. Kamala
Summerslam 1992 (8/29/92)
Famously,
Undertaker enters with the first of many special entrances as he stands on the back of a hearse. The crowd loses their mind too when the first gong hits.
Taker hits
Kamala with haymakers, then chokes him in the corner. Kamala reverses an Irish whip but crashes into the corner, then Undertaker hits more haymakers. Old school hits and Kamala goes down to one knee. Undertaker decides to go for a second one, but Kamala’s manager
Harvey Wippleman shakes the tope rope and Taker goes flying off. Kamala gets some chops and sends Taker over the top rope. Wippleman and
Kim Chee try to attack Undertaker, but Taker grabs both by the throat. Kamala comes out though to make the save and slams Undertaker into the steps. Kamala beats down Undertaker on the outside before rolling him back in. More chops from Kamala, then a big chop to the head. Kamala misses a clothesline and Undertaker busts out what I think is the first chokeslam. Flying clothesline connects. Taker looks to go for the Tombstone, but Kim Chee runs in and that’s a DQ in less than four minutes. Kamala unleashes a post-match attack and slams Undertaker. Kamala hits a running splash, then heads to the second rope and splashes Undertaker from there. Kamala then goes up to the top rope and splashes Undertaker from there! Undertaker then sits up, which freaks out Kamala. Taker stalks Kamala down the aisle.
Rating: ½* (0.5)
Grade: A+
I mean there’s nothing to the match really, I don’t think anyone watching an
Undertaker vs.
Kamala match is here for the workrate part. It was cool seeing such a smooth chokeslam though, I actually didn’t remember that as part of the match. Undertaker’s entrance, and of course survival of Kamala’s splashes only furthered the dominant babyface presentation, so I’m giving that part an A+. I will say a four minute non-finish at Summerslam is quite the choice, but I guess we do have to get to Survivor Series and fans were gonna get their epic with
Bret Hart and
The British Bulldog anyway.
A random fact about that match is that
Jim Harris, who played
Kamala, claimed he only made $13,000 for the match as opposed to
Undertaker making $500,000.
***
As we head to Survivor Series, the outlook of the WWF had changed even moreso.
Warrior and
Bulldog were gone. In a major shift in direction,
Bret Hart had defeated
Ric Flair to win the WWF Title, and would be defending it against a young
Shawn Michaels at
Survivor Series. There were some newcomers who were expected to contribute immediately, such as
Razor Ramon and
Yokozuna. Before the company was on the shoulders of a lot of the older and newer guys, but soon, other than
Randy Savage, those older guys would be gone, and the company was left on the shoulders of Bret and
Undertaker.
We still had to finish the feud with
Kamala though. The story ended up being that Kamal wasn’t necessarily afraid of
Undertaker, but he was afraid of caskets. That led to what was billed as the first-ever “coffin” match at
Survivor Series.
Match 15: Coffin Match - The Undertaker vs. Kamala
Survivor Series 1992 (11/25/92)
A lot of the build up for this one had
Undertaker building a casket for
Kamala, something that would be very effective a year later (we’ll get to that).
Paul Bearer had been bringing coffins to ringside during Kamala matches, and Kamala would be scared to death each time. We also get the first custom made casket design, as the wooden casket has the same symbols painted on it that are painted on Kamala.
Kamala bails right away as
Undertaker approaches. Kamala keeps threatening Undertaker, then running when Undertaker doesn’t back down. Kamala gets the advantage in the ring, but a slamming Taker into the turnbuckles has no effect. Old school from Undertaker hits and Kamala goes down. Short arm clothesline takes Kamala down again, and Undertaker goes for the choke. Taker makes a mistake and Kamala gets some punches and kicks. Clothesline sends Taker to the outside, and they do the same exact spot with
Harvey and
Kim Chee going for the attack and getting choked. Kamala goes out to make the save and slams Taker into the steps. Hard chairshot from Kamala to Taker. Kamala slams Undertaker in the ring, but Undertaker sits up immediately. A second slam leads to a second sit up, and I gotta say Kamala’s reactions are great. Kamala hits a splash, and Undertaker stays down. Kamala hits another one and looks to have the match won. Kim Chee even takes out
Paul Bearer, causing Chee to get the urn. Undertaker sits up and Chee throws the urn at Kamala to hit Taker with, but Kamala freaks out. Taker grabs the urn and smashes Kamala with it, pins him, then rolls Kamala into the casket. Undertaker then puts the lid on and hammers nails to trap Kamala in there for the win.
Rating: DUD (0)
Grade: B
First off, that finish was horrendous. Otherwise the match was your standard
Kamala vs.
Undertaker match, which isn’t saying much. The character work from Kamala is great, but I mean, it’s only going to take the match so far. Second, you can tell they needed to work out the Casket Match rules (although they had it down in the dark match in ’91 against the
Warrior). Everyone seemed confused when the referee counted three. And the bell didn’t ring at all after Taker hammered the nails into the coffin lid. Obviously the
WWF fixes this in the future, but it came off awkwardly here. Still fine, still cool and hey, it definitely worked as Undertaker only continued to grow in popularity. That’s 1992 for you.
***
Undertaker would work house shows through the end of 1992 with
Nailz, Razor Ramon, and
Papa Shango. A new TV show would debut on cable for the
WWF in 1993,
RAW. While we know RAW now as the flagship, at the time it was really an overhaul of the
Prime Time Wrestling show. Nonetheless, we’re going to review all matches on the show. Undertaker would be on the debut show.
Match 16: The Undertaker vs. Damien DeMento
Monday Night RAW (1/11/93)
This was the main event of the first RAW.
DeMento was a character…I don’t know how else to describe him. The entrance way for the Manhattan Center is too short for my tastes to get a good
Undertaker entrance. DeMento and Undertaker come face-to-face. DeMento hits some punches, but Undertaker quickly slams him face-first to the canvas (looked like Taker was going for the other way). Old school connects and then we get some choking. DeMento makes a bit of a comeback, hitting Taker with an axhandle smash off the top rope and knocking him down with a flying shoulder block. Undertaker of course sits up from that. Flying clothesline is mistimed, but still connects. Tombstone and that’s it.
Rating: -* (-1)
Grade: B
I thought about even going worse here.
DeMento was out of position for many moves, including his axhandle smash and Taker’s flying clothesline.
Undertaker looked like the big star here which is fine, but DeMento was just bad here and it took me a little out of the match.
***
Match 17: Royal Rumble
1993 Royal Rumble (1/24/93)
Undertaker comes in at #15. From my research (and even according to
Gorilla), Taker is the favorite here.
Samu pounds away on him with headbutts. Taker grabs him by the throat though, and Samu is gone just like that.
Tenryu hits some hard chops, but Taker dumps him with a backdrop.
Undertaker chokes out
Ted Dibiase (where was that PPV match?!).
Terry Taylor comes out next (and lasts like 15 seconds). Undertaker chokeslams Dibiase, then sends him packing. Undertaker and
Bezerker are left…when suddenly
Harvey Wippleman and
Giant Gonzalez make their way out to the ring. Taker dumps Bezerker.
Undertaker sees
Gonzalez and stands toe-to-toe with him.
Damian DeMento is next but he doesn’t get in the ring. It’s amazing how stupid Gonazlez looks even just taking steps. Gonzalez hits Taker with a huge overhead chop, and then two standard chops send Undertaker out of the Rumble (apparently this year you can be eliminated by someone not in the match). Gonzalez hits Taker with punches and headbutts around the ring, then sends Taker into the steel steps. Gonzalez sends Undertaker back in the ring, then chokes him. Chokeslam from Gonzalez, which didn’t look that bad). Gonzalez then bashes Taker’s leg against the ringpost, which is a strange attack for a monster heel of size but whatever. Undertaker can’t sit up for some reason as the Rumble continues with him just lying in the ring.
Yokozuna would eventually win the Rumble.
Rating: * (1)
Grade: C
Undertaker beating down midcarders was fun to watch for a few minutes which is there the star comes from, but once
Gonzalez gets involved just ugh. I don’t even find Gonzalez’s attack all that awful, but it didn’t look nearly good enough to make me believe that he took Undertaker out. Sadly, this would be the peak quality wise of the feud too. I’ll talk more about Gonazlez when we get to
Wrestlemania.
***
One more
RAW match before we get to
Wrestlemania.
Match 18: The Undertaker vs. Skinner
Monday Night RAW (2/22/93)
For whatever reason the entrance way feels longer, but I’m still not completely feeling it in the Manhattan Center. Maybe
WWF should experiment with having the lights off for his entrance?
We don’t even get to see the full match as we get a commercial break. We come back and see
Skinner clothesline
Undertaker over the top rope, then we get a
Randy Savage Slim Jim commercial. Way to prioritize. We come back and Skinner is actually dominating the Undertaker. Skinner chokes Undertaker with some kind of weapon as we’re told we’ll get the conclusion of this match next week on
RAW. CAN SKINNER PULL OFF THE UPSET?!
Well, I went through RAW the next week, and there’s no mention of the epic conclusion to this one. I mean what the fuck was this shit? One of your biggest stars gets beat down by a lower card guy on what’s clearly an important show (there was a
Hulk Hogan interview that probably caused all the timing issues) and we don’t see what happened? How embarrassing.
Rating: N/A
Grade: F
Can’t rate it as I didn’t see much of it. And the presentation of
Undertaker here was embarrassing, especially in the lead up to
Wrestlemania. It’s really not a big deal in the long run, but if a new fan was watching that wouldn’t be a good look at all.
***
Wrestlemania IX is up next. The feud came about as revenge by
Harvey Wippleman, who managed
Kamala. After
Undertaker took him out, Wippleman brought in
Giant Gonazlez for revenge. It looked like Taker and Gonzalez had two practice shots at this match before Mania, one in a dark match and one on USWA TV.
Match 19: The Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez
Wrestlemania IX (4/4/93)
Undertaker gets another cool custom entrance as he’s carried to the ring on a chariot with a vulture.
It’s also, I guess I’ll use the word amazing, that
Giant Gonzalez is almost 8 feet tall, yet somehow doesn’t remotely look intimidating.
Undertaker and Gonzalez come face-to-face. Gonzalez pounds on Undertaker, but Undertaker keeps coming back. Taker hits some hard haytmakers and even Gonzalez’s selling expressions are unintentionally hilarious. Gonzalez and Taker have a choke off before Gonzalez gets a low blow. Undertaker dodges Gonzalez and gets old school. Undertaker keeps beating on Gonzalez until Gonzalez gets a big boot, then knocks Undertaker down with a tackle. Gonzalez throws Undertaker around the ring. Sleeper from Gonzalez, because that’s what this match needed. Even his sleeper looks weak. Undertaker uses the power of the urn to power out of the sleeper, but Gonzalez shoves Taker out of the ring (or really Gonzalez touched Taker’s head and Taker just took a dive out of the ring).
Gonzalez slams
Undertaker face-first into the steps, and then gives a very un-monster like “wooo” like he’s
Owen Hart. He slams Undertaker back into the steps again, but Undertaker keeps coming. Headbutt knocks Undertaker down, but Taker sits up. Another headbutt, another sit up. Undertaker regains the advantage as he fires away at Gonzalez. Gonzalez starts hilariously selling again before he drops to a knee.
Wippleman gets on the apron and throws something in the ring. Taker takes out Wippleman as Gonazlez headbutts
Paul Bearer off the apron. Gonzalez takes what Wippleman threw in the ring, a cloth, and commentary tells us that it’s chloroform. Bell rings for the DQ as Gonzalez chokes Taker out with the chloroform-soaked rag.
The referees look to get help for
Undertaker and he gets carried out on a stretcher as
Gonzalez chokeslams a referee (after dropping him, great save on commentary by
Bobby Heenan though). Fans start chanting for
Hogan…but the fans go crazy when
Undertaker makes his way back. Taker gets some good punches and kicks, then knocks Gonzalez down with a flying choke shove.
Paul Bearer holds Undertaker back as
Harvey Wippleman and security escort Gonzalez to the back.
Rating: -**** (-4)
Grade: B-
Okay. Now, the match was awful as clearly
Giant Gonzalez just didn’t have the ability to be a good or even decent professional wrestler. Now I thought in some spots it was okay, but then any “goodwill” given gets taken away with this finish. Look, if you are 8 feet tall and you have to resort to using chloroform to take out your opponent, you’re not doing your job well. What’s the point of being an 8 foot monster then? Now,
Undertaker looked pretty great in his spots. His entrance and his comeback at the end are awesome moments, and that’s why I give it the grade that I have. At least Undertaker was protected here. Unfortunately, this means we get another match, and we’ll get to that, but somehow this disaster only ended up as a positive for the Undertaker’s legacy. As
Bret hart wrote in his book, Taker made a silk purse out of a sow’s ear here.
***
Undertaker would take on
Giant Gonzalez on the house show circuit in mostly DQ finishes, then switch over to
Mr. Hughes. We were counting down to
Summerslam where Taker and Gonzalez would meet again, but we have a
RAW match first.
Match 20: The Undertaker vs. Samu
Monday Night RAW (7/5/93)
For the first time, the lights go out for the
Undertaker’s entrance and it’s of course freakin’ awesome. The way
Vince and
Savage sell it on commentary it makes it seem like this is the first time the lights have went out as well.
Paul Bearer isn’t at ringside, so
Bobby Heenan makes a big deal on commentary that Undertaker may be lost without it. Samu fires away at Taker but there’s no effect. Samu holds his own for a little bit. Undertaker tries some new things, like a dropdown and a leapfrog, but he doesn’t get enough on the leapfrog. Drop toehold from Undertaker! Dropkick from Undertaker! It’s like he’s making a statement that he’s tired of fighting all these immobile monsters and wants to show he can actually wrestle a bit!
Undertaker hits Old School, then takes
Samu down with a clothesline. Undertaker misses the flying clothesline though.
Afa distracts Undertaker and Samu gets an axhandle smash to the outside. Undertaker sits up as we go to commercial. We come back and Samu tosses Taker into the post and then the steps. Samu beats down Undertaker for a bit before getting a powerslam. Undertaker sits up from all of Samu’s offense. A clothesline to the outside just results in Undertaker landing on his feet. Undertake grabs Samu by the throat before tossing Samu into the corner. Taker tosses Samu into the other corner, but throws him hard enough so that Samu’s head hits the post. The big elbow drop misses though (as it usually does!). Sidewalk slam and falling headbutt from Samu. Samu heads to the top rope and hits the diving headbutt. Samu goes for another one, but this time Undertaker sits up! Chokeslam then Tombstone, and that’s good for three.
Rating: **1/2 (2.5)
Grade: A+
I really liked this one! Undertaker busted out some new moves (if the leapfrog wasn’t botched I may have given this a solid three stars) and
Bobby Heenan established the story that Undertaker may be weaker without the urn. Samu got some good offense in too. We also got the debut of the lights out entrance (to my knowledge). Fun little match!
Match 21: Rest In Peace Match - The Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez
Summerslam 1993 (8/30/93)
It’s not even clear what a
Rest In Peace match is coming in, but it turns out to be a no DQ match. At some point
Harvey Wippleman gained possession of the urn so I’m sure that’ll play a factor into this match.
Undertaker’s entrance is really cool again, and we also have no
Paul Bearer again.
Undertaker wastes no time and goes right after
Giant Gonzalez. Taker chokes Gonzalez, but Gonzalez gets Taker with a boot to the face. Gonzalez hits some headbutts. Undertaker comes off the ropes and hits a couple of clotheslines, but Gonzalez stays on his feet and knocks Undertaker down. Undertaker sits up, but Gonzalez throws him to the outside. They trade blows before Gonzalez tosses Taker into the steps. Gonzalez grabs a chair and smashes Undertaker with it in what was a pretty solid shot to the back. Taker gets sent into the steps again as Gonzalez is in full control. Undertaker struggles to get back to his feet, and Gonzalez comes back outside to deliver more punishment.
Undertaker crawls towards the urn, but Gonzalez keeps up the beatdown. Undertaker fires some punches, leading to comical selling from Gonzalez again. Gonzalez sets Taker into the corner hard. Suddenly we hear Undertaker’s bell…and
Paul Bearer makes his way out to the ring to a huge pop. Bearer has a wreath to the ring as Gonzalez chokes Taker in the corner. On the outside, Bearer clothesline
Wippleman in what ended up being the best bump in the match. Bearer regains the urn as Gonzalez messes up a bodyslam. In a funny bit if you know what you are looking for, when Paul Bearer raises the urn, referee
Bill Alfonso runs over to tell Undertaker to sit up. Undertaker makes his comeback with some clotheslines and shots to the face. Undertaker heads to the top rope and knocks Gonzalez down with a top rope clothesline (I think that’s the first time for that one). That finishes Gonzalez. Vince then says “now we know what a Rest In Peace Match is”, which was too funny not to include here.
Rating: -* (-1)
Grade: A
This was much better than the
Wrestlemania match and it had a decisive finish. It was still pretty bad as again,
Giant Gonzalez just isn’t a good pro wrestler. But there was a story here with the urn, it was told well and there was nothing too embarrassing in the ring.
Bobby Heenan again makes
Undertaker seem like an actual dead guy, and with the urn and the entrance, everything was clicking. Once again, Undertaker makes a disaster of a feud with Giant Gonzalez work and looks like a bigger star as a result.
***
Moving on, the next program for
Undertaker was hinted on house shows as he began challenging
Yokozuna for the
WWF Title all over the country. Now the set-up for this is one of my favorites.
Lex Luger had been feuding with Yoko since he slammed him on the US Intrepid in the summer. This was going to lead to an All-American vs. Foreign Fanatics main event at
Survivor Series. The Fanatics though would injure
Tatanka weeks before the match, allowing Luger to make one of the biggest upgrades to a team in
WWF history. I love
Jerry Lawler’s disgust with the situation too, because even he realizes going from Tatanka to Undertaker is absolutely ridiculous. Lawler is on his game with the one-liners here too (“he’s not American he isn’t even alive!)
Match 22: Survivor Series – The All-Americans (The Undertaker, Lex Luger, and the Steiner Brothers) vs. The Foreign Fanatics (Yokozuna, Jacques, Crush, and Ludvig Borga)
1993 Survivor Series (11/24/93)
There’s an interesting dynamic in this match. While
Lex Luger and
Yokozuna were the main participants for their team, the fans sounded way more interested in
Undertaker getting his hands on Yoko. Taker and Yoko have a staredown before the match starts. We’ll go through what happens in the match before Undertaker gets involved.
Borga eliminates
Rick Steiner in a weird crossbody spot where Rick seemed legitimately injured.
Crush gets counted out a few minutes later when
Randy Savage makes his way out to the ring. Crush had recently turned on Savage. Luger hits
Jacques with a forearm off the second rope to eliminate him.
Scott Steiner misses a dropkick on Yoko and gets hit with a huge legdrop, making it two vs. two. Yoko and Luger go at it, but Yoko misses a splash. Yoko regains control with a clothesline before tagging in Borga. Borga and Yoko alternate beating down Luger, but Luger misses a splash in the corner, and Luger crawls to his corner…
At the 17-minute mark
Undertaker makes his first appearance in the match and the crowd goes bonkers. Undertaker drops
Yoko with an awesome DDT! Taker punches and clotheslines Yoko.
Borga takes a shot at him, and Taker knocks him off the apron. That allows Yoko to get a belly-to-belly suplex, but Undertaker sits up. Yoko puts down Undertaker and drops the big legdrop on him. Yoko then drags Taker to the corner and hits the Banzai Drop! Yoko goes for a second one, but Undertaker sits up! Flying clothesline sends Yoko retreating. Taker goes after him but Yoko slams him into the steps. Undertaker immediately stands up straight after being slammed into the steps, and as an Undertaker fan it’s freakin’ awesome! Both Undertaker and Yoko get counted out as Undertaker continues to deliver punishment. Yokozuna’s facial expressions are great here too.
Luger would eventually beat Borga to win the match.
Rating: ***1/4 (3.25)
Grade: S
Your milage may vary here, but
Undertaker and
Yokozuna always had a special kind of chemistry. A big difference between Yoko and
Giant Gonzalez or
Kamala is that Yoko’s stuff looks like it hurts. And that only makes Undertaker look better when he survives everything. I’m telling you, Undertaker as a hot tag guy would have been huge. He’s not in there long, but when he’s in there with Yoko it’s really good. I wonder too what
Vince thought. While at this point I assume he still had
Lex Luger winning the title at
Wrestlemania, not only was
Bret Hart arguably (and, based on how the
Royal Rumble went, not arguably) more popular than Luger, but as I wrote earlier it sure looked like fans wanted Undertaker vs. Yoko more than a Luger vs. Yoko rematch. Well someone had to get Yoko “ready” for Wrestlemania, and that would end up being Undertaker in what was also one of my favorite build-ups for a PPV title match.
***
We have one jobber match to take care of first before I go into the build for
Royal Rumble.
Match 23: The Undertaker vs. Ray Hudson
Monday Night RAW (1/10/94)
Undertaker terrifies referee
Earl Hebner early on when he’s holding the urn in a funny spot. There’s not much to say about this one. Undertaker does do something new by putting
Hudson in the tree of woe and kicking him. Hudson takes a low chokeslam and gets dropped with the Tombstone in a complete jobber squash.
Rating: DUD (0)
Grade: A
We’re still seeing some new things here, like this is the first time I recall seeing
Undertaker get down on one knee to pay tribute to the urn (in what would become a signature spot in his entire career). This was just a jobber squash so I can’t go higher than DUD, but the presentation was excellent.
***
Jim Cornette,
Yokozuna’s manager, was able to sneak in the contract for the upcoming Yoko vs.
Undertaker title match that this would be Undertaker’s only title match.
Paul Bearer snuck in a stipulation too: that the match would be a Casket Match. Like the feud with
Kamala, Undertaker would build the casket, customized for Yokozuna. Also like Kamala, Yokozuna wasn’t afraid of Undertaker necessarily, but he WAS afraid of caskets. Normally this rehash wouldn’t be as interesting, but this is something I think people can relate to and frankly, it’s done way better here. These are three of my favorite Undertaker videos probably ever. Undertaker wishing Yokozuna Merry Christmas still gives me chills to this day.
Match 24: WWF Championship: Casket Match - The Undertaker vs. Yokozuna ©
1994 Royal Rumble (1/22/94)
We hear
Vince call
Undertaker a phenom for the first time during the entrances. Just a note,
Ted Dibiase is not a good color commentator. Undertaker’s entrance again is fantastic, as you can’t even see him following
Paul Bearer, making you wonder if he’s in the casket. But then he appears as a shadowy figure, slowly marching to the ring.
Yoko looks ready for
Undertaker. The staredown gets a pop. Undertaker slams Yoko into the corner then hits him with a barrage of clotheslines. Yoko stumbles to the outside and posts himself. Yoko gains control though and slams Undertaker into the steps, but like at
Survivor Series Undertaker just stands up straight and once again it’s awesome. Taker hits Old School, but misses the flying clothesline. Yoko grabs a chair, but Undertaker blocks then smashes Yoko right across the back. Headshot takes Yoko down and this is all Undertaker so far. Yoko finally slows Undertaker down by throwing some of
Mr. Fuji’s salt in his eyes. Yoko then pounds away at Taker, rams him into the steps and smashes him over the back with a chair. Shot to the back of the head downs Taker. Yoko slams Taker’s head into the steps over and over. Yoko runs over Taker in the ring and tries to roll him into the casket. He gets Taker in, but Taker grabs Yoko’s leg. Undertaker and Yoko slug away at one another and Yoko squashes Undertaker with a belly-to-belly suplex. Sit up from Undertaker and Yoko is shocked! Chokeslam from Undertaker! Yoko reverses the Irish whip but gets planted with a flying DDT. Undertaker sits up and calls for the end. Taker asks for the casket to be opened and he rolls Yoko in.
Taker seems to have the match won, but
Crush comes out to attack Undertaker. Taker takes him out, but now here comes the
Great Kabuki.
Tenryu is here too, but Taker knocks them both down with a double clothesline.
Bam Bam Bigelow comes in and Crush is back in too, and they double team Undertaker. It quickly turns into a four-on-one while
Mr. Fuji steals the urn from
Paul Bearer. Bearer attacks Fuji and
Jim Cornette to get the urn back and Undertaker comes to life. Undertaker takes out everyone around him until
Adam Bomb runs in. Taker takes him out too, but here comes
Jeff Jarrett. Taker takes him out. The
Headshrinkers knock Taker down with a double superkick and all the wrestlers in the ring pound away on him, but Undertaker sits up!
Diesel shows up and Undertaker can’t fight them all off. They get Taker in the casket, but Taker fights out. Yoko grabs the urn from Paul Bearer and knocks him off the apron, and he blasts Taker with it. Yoko then opens the urn and green smoke gets let out.
Vince McMahon actually says on commentary that “the power of the Undertaker” is escaping. The heels all hit big moves on Undertaker, roll him into the casket, and Bigelow jumps onto the top of the casket, closing the Undertaker inside to give the victory to Yokozuna.
So that’s the match, but we aren’t done yet. The lights start to flicker when the heels wheel
Undertaker down the aisle. Suddenly we get a casket cam, Undertaker says some words about how the rebirth of the Undertaker is imminent (although imagine it being written by chatgpt), and then he or his spirit levitates through the ceiling of the arena.
Rating: DUD (0)
Grade: C
Ok, we need to do this in pieces. The match before
Crush shows up I thought was a lot of fun.
Undertaker vs.
Yokozuna is not for everyone for sure, but both seemed to understand their character’s strengths and weaknesses. Yoko does a great job using his size to even up situations where he’s at a disadvantage while Undertaker does all his Undertaker stuff, and unlike with
Kamala and
Giant Gonzalez, Yoko can sell it without unintentionally being comical. It’s definitely a bit one-one sided, but Yoko was going over so it all makes sense to me. I would have given that part of the match 2.75 or even 3 stars.
You need to be able to suspend your disbelief with professional wrestling. One of those things you have to ignore is the idea of “what if I just get 10 of my friends to interfere on my behalf every match”. Obviously, if that was possible, wrestling wouldn’t be enjoyable. But when you do decide to use that as a finish for a big championship match, the question becomes why don’t you ALWAYS do that? Second, if we’re gonna book one guy in
Undertaker so strongly that it takes 10 guys to beat him, how can this guy ever lose. I get that the Undertaker character is supposed to be nearly unbeatable and maybe even supernatural. But some natural things should still beat him, no matter how ridiculous it is. Now, there was an out here in the story the
WWF told us, the urn makes the Undertaker more powerful. So all they had to do was have someone steal the urn and have
Yokozuna drop 10 Banzai Drops or something. This finish here did no favors to Yoko (heck that DDT had him knocked out so badly I thought he was
Booker T against
Triple H). Sure, it made the Undertaker look immortal, but almost to a jump the shark point. So the finish really killed the match here. Yokozuna was a talented enough monster and Undertaker was such an established character that this didn’t hurt either in the long run.
The post-match stuff is the first time we do jump the shark with the
Undertaker character. I know there are some who love the Western Mortician version of the character as opposed to the zombie purple gloves version, and I’ll give my opinion on that later, but this easily could have went wrong. Luckily, Undertaker was so good at the character people seemed to accept this bs with little issue. I only gave the whole thing a C because the entrance was great and the crowd was into it. But it could have (and with
Underfaker, arguably did) been so much worse. Anyway, we’ll stop here as this is the end of the grey glove Western Mortician version of the character.
