Hitting Below The Beltway 10.28.07: Saying goodbye to the Undertaker
Posted by Alex Barcham on 10.28.2007
The legendary career of the Undertaker is nearing its end. In this week's column I take a look at the history and the legacy of the Undertaker and give my plan for how he should say goodbye to WWE.
At Cyber Sunday, the Undertaker will challenge Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship and I'm going to be in attendance. This may be my last chance to ever see the Undertaker in person and one of his last shots to ever win the belt. With that in mind let's take a look at the career of the Undertaker: how he got here, his legacy and how he should go out.
History: After a brief and highly forgettable run in WCW as Mean Mark Callous, the Undertaker debuted in the WWE at Survivor Series 1990 as the mystery partner for the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase's team. The Undertaker was immediately booked as an invincible and unbeatable monster, and has rarely strayed from that image. At the time, the Undertaker's dark and mysterious character was something that hadn't been seen before in pro wrestling and he quickly gained popularity. At Wrestlemania VII, the Undertaker began his legendary undefeated streak by squashing Superfly Jimmy Snuka. Only one year after his debut, the Undertaker won his first WWE title, defeating Hulk Hogan at Survivor Series 1991. He lost the title back to Hogan six days later at This Tuesday in Texas .After that Undertaker turned face, battling Jake Roberts, Yokozuna, Ted DiBiase's fake Undertaker, Bret Hart and Diesel.
From 1996 to 1998 the Undertaker had the best run of his career, engaging in brilliant and brutal feuds with Shawn Michaels, Mankind and Kane. These beautifully intertwined feuds led to numerous epic matches. The feuds began with Mankind repeatedly ambushing the Undertaker. In their Boiler Room Brawl at Summerslam 1996 Mankind defeated the Undertaker after he was betrayed by his manager Paul Bearer. Undertaker, however, put some temporary closure on his feud with Mankind by defeating him in the first ever Buried Alive match at In Your House 11: Buried Alive. After Undertaker defeated Mankind, Paul Bearer announced that he had a new opponent for the Undertaker, his long lost brother Kane. Undertaker began feuding with Shawn Michaels after Michaels cost him the WWE title with an inadvertent chair shot. This feud featured the first and best Hell in a Cell match at In Your House: Badd Blood. This match was some of both men's finest work and was rated 5 stars by the Wrestling Observer, the only WWE match to ever earn this distinction. This match also featured the debut of Kane, as he cost the Undertaker the match. Undertaker's feud with HBK ended at Royal Rumble 1998 when Kane once again interfered to cost his brother the match. The Undertaker finally agreed to face Kane at Wrestlemania XIV, ultimately defeating him after kicking out of the tombstone piledriver. They faced each other again at In Your House: Unforgiven in the first ever inferno match, with the Undertaker once again emerging victorious. The Undertaker resumed his feud with Mankind after Mankind cost him a shot at the number one contender's spot. Their feud finally ended with their incredibly brutal Hell in a Cell match at King of the Ring 1998. This match will be forever remembered for the insane bumps Foley took, being thrown off the side of the cell through a table and then chokeslammed through the cage to the ring below.
Not long after defeating Mankind, the Undertaker turned heel, forming the Ministry of Darkness. The newly heel Undertaker became more satanic and demonic, including the mock crucifiction of Stone Cold Steve Austin. The Ministry eventually joined with Shane McMahon's Corporation to from the Corporate Ministry. In a true wrestlecrap moment, it was revealed that the "Higher Power" behind the Undertaker's dark turn was in fact Vince McMahon. The McMahon's helped the Undertaker briefly win the WWE title from Stone Cold. After Stone Cold regained the title, the Corporate Ministry disbanded.
A groin injury forced the Deadman to go on hiatus following the disbanding of the Ministry. Undertaker returned to WWE with his American Bad Ass gimmick. This gimmick strayed away his previous supernatural character towards a more realistic biker character. This change is character was heavily criticized by hard-core fans of the Undertaker, who missed the darker, more supernatural elements of his character. While I'm not a big fan of the Undertaker's American Bad Ass character, particularly his use of Limp Bizkit as entrance music, but he did put on some of his better matches with his revised gimmick. Upon his return he feuded with Triple H, ultimately defeating him at Wrestlemania X-7 in a highly underrated match. He was involved in the Invasion feud, which I have neither the time nor the interest to explain. At Vengence 2001 he won the Hardcore Championship from Rob Van Dam in an absolutely insane match that gets overlooked being on the same card as Chris Jericho winning the Undisputed Championship. In 2002, the Undertaker feuded with Brock Lesnar. This lead to another brutal Hell in a Cell at No Mercy 2002 with Lesnar defeating the Deadman. Lesnar defeated the Undertaker once again at No Mercy 2003 in a Biker Chain Match, thanks to the interference of Vince McMahon. The era of the American Bad Ass came to a close at Survivor Series 2003, when the Undertaker lost a Buried Alive match to Vince thanks to the interference of Kane.
Undertaker returned to his original gimmick, coming back to get vengeance on his brother at Wrestlemania XX. Taker went on to feud with JBL, Randy Orton, Heidenreich, Mark Henry and the Great Khali before winning the 2007 Royal Rumble match. Expectations were low for the Undertaker's match with Batista at Wrestlemania 23, but the two put on a very good match which saw the Deadman win the World Heavyweight Title. His title reign was cut short due to a muscle tear in his arm. In kayfabe, this injury was attributed to Mark Henry, who the Undertaker returned to defeat at Unforgiven 2007. This weekend the Undertaker will challenge Batista at Cyber Sunday for the WWE title.
Present Status: Even after 17 years, the Undertaker remains one of the most popular stars in WWE. There are still huge pops when his trademark gong hits. However, Taker's status as a top guy has been hurt over the past few years by the tolls of age and injury. He's simply no longer at a point in his career where he can work the schedule required of a WWE main eventer. He almost never works house shows and rarely wrestles on Smackdown in order to save him for PPV's. Appearances by the Undertaker have become something of a special attraction.
The WWE has been hesitant to give the Undertaker the title the past few years, because of his limited schedule. A WWE champion is required to headline almost every show they run. A house show loses a good deal of its appeal if the champion isn't going to wrestle or even appear. After having kept the belt off of the Undertaker for several years the WWE gave him the belt at Wrestlemania 23. Unfortunately, the WWE's prior resistance to giving the Undertaker the title proved wise as he was forced to cut his title reign short due to injury. It will be interesting to see if WWE takes another gamble and tries putting the belt on Taker for one last run.
The Undertaker doesn't have too many matches left in him. He's stated publicly that when he retires he will need to have both of his hips replaced. In spite of his age and injuries, the Undertaker can still put on a great match with the right opponent as he proved at No Mercy 2006 against Kurt Angle and at Wrestlemania 23 and Backlash 2007 with Batista. If he could manage to stay healthy he could still have a strong title reign. I don't see Undertaker winning the title on Sunday, but that doesn't mean he couldn't still win in sometime between now and Wrestlemania 24. This will likely be the final Wrestlemania for the Undertaker, so it's now or never if someone is actually going to put a stop to his unbeaten streak.
Legacy: The Deadman will be remembered for having one of the best gimmicks to ever come out of pro wrestling. It's a tremendous credit to Mark Calloway that he was able to take such a seemingly ridiculous premise for a character, and turn it into one of the most enduring and popular figures in wrestling history. The Undertaker is one of the very few guys who has had sustained success with such a gimmicky character.
The Undertaker will be remembered more for his character than for his matches, even though he has had some great ones. People don't really pay to see the Undertaker wrestle, but rather for all the other things that surround his character. People come in anticipation of hearing the gong and ceremonial music. They come to see him emerge from behind a wall of smoke or appear from nowhere to exact revenge on his enemies. The Undertaker has done a tremendous job of protecting his character. The extent he's gone to keep up the illusion of the Undertaker in the post-kayfabe era is truly remarkable.
The Undertaker doesn't rank quite as high as a worker as he does as an overall character. He's not going to make any top ten workers lists, but workrate was never really what the Undertaker was all about. He's still put on some tremendous matches. His Hell in a Cell match with Shawn Michaels deserves all of the hype it gets; its truly exceptional work by both men. His series of matches with Mankind was consistently excellent. He's also managed to pull solid matches out of less well-regarded workers like Diesel, Psycho Sid and Batista. Even his matches with truly awful wrestlers like Giant Gonzalez, the Fake Undertaker, Heidenreich and the Great Khali were somewhat entertaining just because of the spectacle surrounding them. The Undertaker should go down as the top big man of all-time edging out Andre the Giant, Kane and Vader. He displayed incredible athleticism for a man his size. Not many guys who are 6'10" could walk the top rope or do a no hands dive out to the floor.
Of course, the Undertaker will always be remembered for his incredible undefeated streak at Wrestlemania. It's absolutely amazing testament to his staying power that he always managed to stay in a spot where he could walk away a winner at the biggest show of the year and the fans would walk away happy. Some might attribute that to him refusing to put younger guys over, but the Undertaker has earned his spot at the top of the WWE through his hard work and outstanding performances.
How he should go out: The most popular answer for this question is that he should go out at Wrestlemania, finally ending his undefeated streak against an up and coming star. However, with the lack of star on the WWE roster right now, I really find it hard see any circumstances right now under which this would be a satisfying final match for Taker. He could go out losing to a young babyface, but who? Cena is injured and the fans would probably hate him for ending the streak anyways. Batista doesn't deserve it. I love Matt Hardy, CM Punk and Rey Mysterio, but I'm not buying any of them being able to beat the Deadman at Wrestlemania.
So if a face can't do it then it would have to be a heel. The best candidates right now are Randy Orton, Mr. Kennedy and Edge. I'd rule out Orton, because of his attitude. He's having a very good run right now, but you never know when he's going to screw up majorly and get himself suspended or fired. Kennedy is a future superstar, but right now he lacks the credibility to beat the Undertaker on this big of a stage.
I'm kind of surprised to hear myself say this, but Edge should be the guy to end the Undertaker's undefeated streak at Wrestlemania. He's the only guy I trust to take that achievement and really run with it. You know Edge would use that ammo to draw himself tons of heat and get himself even more over. Beating the Undertaker at Wrestlemania could be the thing that catapults Edge in that truly elite status in WWE. The issue with having Edge beat the Undertaker is that he would have to cheat to beat him. I doubt people would buy the heel Edge beating the face Undertaker clean at Wrestlemania. Beating him clean wouldn't help ingratiate him further as heel. Edge would have to win through devious tactics. There's no way the Undertaker is just going to walk away after having been screwed out of his streak.
So here's how I would book the Undertaker's farewell. At the Royal Rumble the Undertaker defeats Batista to win the World Heavyweight Championship, while Edge wins the Royal Rumble match. At No Mercy the Undertaker retains the title against Batista or Rey Mysterio. This would lead to Edge challenging the Deadman at Wrestlemania. As usual, Edge does whatever it takes to win. After the ref is taken out, Taker receives a couple of spears and numerous chairs shots to the head before finally staying down for the count. Edge is your new champion.
Like I said, there's no way the Undertaker would let Edge get away with that. This would lead to one final feud for the Undertaker; getting vengeance before riding off into the sunset. After Edge steals Taker's undefeated streak he comes out every week talking about how great he is and how ended the most important streak in wrestling history. The Undertaker interrupts his promos to say that he cannot rest in peace until he has vengeance. In his quest for revenge Undertaker would pull all his old stunts, stalking Edge and driving him towards the brink of insanity. Still, at their rematch at Backlash Edge would manage to weasel his way out of getting his comeuppance, getting himself DQ'd. Batista would be the next person to challenge Edge for the title, though Undertaker would continue to stalk Edge. In the match, Edge would be on the verge of once again retaining the title when the Undertaker would emerge to even the odds, allowing Big Dave to hit the Batista Bomb for the win and the title. At the Great American Bash it would be Batista vs. Edge vs. the Undertaker in a triple threat match for the title. Edge would use the stipulation to avoid getting beat down by the Undertaker, letting Batista and Undertaker beat each other down and coming in to pick up the scraps. Undertaker would nail Batista with a chokeslam before being knocked out of the ring by a spear from Edge. As Edge taunts the fallen Undertaker on the outside, Batista is able to recover long enough to hit the distracted Edge with the Batista Bomb for the win.
The feud and the Undertaker's career finally comes to an end at Summerslam. Tired of Edge ducking him at every turn the Undertaker is finally able to get him in match where he can't run anymore, the match he debuted, Hell in a Cell. The match would be extremely competitive and extremely bloody with Edge coming close to winning both through clean and dirty tactics several times. Edge would shockingly kick out of the tombstone, but not a second one as the Undertaker finally gets his just revenge. After his victory the Undertaker leaves in one of his grandest spectacles ever, never to be seen again.
That's how I'd have the Undertaker go out. Think you've got a better idea? Then email it to me and next week I'll post the best ones along with my thoughts from Cyber Sunday and the Undertaker's battle with Batista.
