What's All the Hubbub: Tombstone, the History of the Undertaker, Disc 1

Posted by Aaron Hubbard on 11.21.2008

The Undertaker has offically been wrestling in the WWE for 18 years. To celebrate his anniversary, the Wrestling Bard reviews his 2005 DVD set. Featuring matches with Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Mick Foley and Bret Hart!

Welcome to my first DVD review! These reviews will not be done in a play-by-play style. Instead, I’ll sum up the match, talk about what I liked and disliked about it, and then give my ratings. But unlike most, I will give three ratings.

Match Quality: This rating is an objective view on the quality of the match as compared to other matches. Factors that go into the rating include storytelling, execution, match psychology, character psychology, workrate, difficulty of moves, and crowd heat, in that order.
Personal Enjoyment: This part is a little harder to explain. The best way to describe it is that sometimes, I like a match more than other matches that are technically better. Sometimes, a match that isn’t technically bad, I will hate for whatever reason. Since this is my bias, take this rating as my opinion.
Match Rating: The average of the two ratings, which will hopefully give the most accurate portrayal of how good a match is. It’s hard to measure intangibles (that’s why they are called intangibles), but this should give you a good idea. Average ratings like ***5/8 will be rounded up to ***3/4, etc.

Also, my rating scale is a little different than others:

***** = A True Classic
****1/2 = Amazing
**** = Great
***1/2 = Very Good
*** = Good
**1/2 = Average
** = Solid
*1/2 = Passable
* = Poor
1/2* = Bad
DUD = Terrible
Negative Stars = Insulting

The measuring stick I use for all matches is Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat from Wrestle War 1989.

The 2005 WWE Intro starts the whole thing off.

They hype up the character of Undertaker. Whether or not you like the wrestler or not, it’s hard to argue that the gimmick isn’t the best ever. The Deadman debuted at Survivor Series ’90 and went on a long undefeated streak. Brother Love was the original manager, but soon, Paul Bearer would come into the picture and everything started coming together.

The Undertaker’s legendary Wrestlemania winning streak starts by beating “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka in a four minute squash at Wrestlemania VII. He would align with Jake “The Snake” Roberts and terrorize “Macho Man” Randy Savage and the Ultimate Warrior. Eventually, this earned him a title shot against Hulk Hogan. They show promos from both men hyping up “The Gravest Challenge”. Hogan actually gives one of his better promos here. Undertaker does a below average Taker promo, so you can imagine how much I enjoyed that.

WWE Championship Match: The Undertaker w/Paul Bearer vs. Hulk Hogan ©
Survivor Series, November 27, 1991
Undertaker comes down to the ring with a casket covered in “Hulkamania” stickers. Taker has been over his entire career. Several of the kids are legitimately scared of the guy. Even in these early days, the Deadman has a great ring presence and sells his character the entire time. Unfortunately, being a human zombie does not lend itself to a good match. The storytelling is pretty sound. You have the unstoppable force in Hogan and the immovable object in Taker. The question is, when will Hogan take Taker off of his feet? Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan are on commentary, which is always an added bonus, and they do a get job putting over the characters

The match consists mostly of Undertaker controlling with punches and chokes. It also has a lot of no selling on both sides. It makes sense given the characters, but that doesn’t mean it’s good. Paul Bearer is actually the most entertaining part of this match, choking Hogan from the outside and talking about the power of the urn. Taker eventually takes control with a long Iron Claw that takes up at least a third of the match. Taker “draws power from the urn” whenever Hogan starts to fight back, which is actually good character psychology, but it’s still ridiculous.

The match is mostly average, but it takes a turn for the worse when Hogan makes his comeback and completely no-sells the Tombstone Piledriver. That’s BS, quite frankly, but Paul Bearer’s face is almost worth it. I stress “almost”. Hogan manages to get Taker down on one foot, which the crowd pops for. Ric Flair makes his way down the ring, and Hogan does an unprovoked attack. Bearer prevents the legdrop and Taker finishes with a Tombstone on a chair that Naitch provides. Undertaker wins his first World Title, but he would lose it within a week back to Hogan before Jack Tunney stripped Hogan of the belt and put the WWE Championship up for grabs in the 1992 Royal Rumble, which is famous for Flair going an hour and winning.

There are times when Hulk Hogan entertains me, and there are times when he pisses me off. This is one of the later. His no-selling of the Tombstone Piledriver really killed Taker’s credibility (no pun intended). Flair’s interference was good booking for the Flair-Hogan feud, but it makes Taker, the new champion, a bit player. Considering nothing came of Flair and Hogan, it’s even more annoying. This was not exactly the best start to the DVD, but it has historical significance. Taker was young and didn’t have much of a moveset, but his dedication to his character is always appreciated.

Match Quality: 3/4*
Personal Enjoyment: DUD
Match Rating: 1/2*

We then get a brief sum-up of the Phenom’s face turn and his win against Jake the Snake at Wrestlemania VIII. We then skip past through 1992 and 1993 and go to his feud with Yokozuna, where Taker builds a huge casket for the big man. By this point, Undertaker was the most over babyface in the company, except for maybe Bret Hart. His character was starting to be fleshed out and big moves like the Chokeslam and Old School gave a little more depth to his moveset.

WWF Championship Casket Match: The Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer vs. Yokozuna © w/Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji
Royal Rumble, January 22, 1994
Oh yes. This match. If you have never seen this match, I recommend it. Why? Because it will make you stop complaining about how ridiculous TNA is. The ending of this match is one of most notorious in wrestling history. The match starts off okay, given the circumstances. Taker’s character was a power wrestler that no-sold everything. Yokozuna was a six hundred pound sumo wrestler that was immovable. What we get is a basic brawl. Yoko sells well for Taker’s moves, but the Phenom can’t do much with him. The Deadman even uses chairs to keep it from being boring, but Yoko uses the heel powder of ultimate cheatery to take over.

Yoko hits a nice belly-to-belly suplex, but Taker does the zombie sit-up and hits the ugliest chokeslam of all time. It’s halfway between Kenzo Suzuki’s Iron Claw STO and Yoko hitting a senton. A running DDT is a little better. Taker dramatically lifts the casket, and starts to roll the Champion in. If the match had ended here, it would be totally forgivable, but it doesn’t. Crush interferes and Taker fights him off. The Great Kabuki and Genichiro Tenryu then run in. Tenryu once had a ***** match with Jumbo Tsuruta in All Japan Pro Wrestling, but here he’s squashed. Bam Bam Bigelow runs down, and I think you know where this is going. Adam Bomb, Jeff Jarrett, Samu and Fatu, and Diesel all come down, but Taker keeps getting power from the urn and fights back. Yoko gets smart and nails Bearer, then clocks Taker with the urn. Green smoke comes out of the urn and Taker becomes powerless. They all take a shot at Taker and Yoko rolls him in the casket and wins.

The heels roll the casket down the aisle, and then the freakiness begins. Green smoke comes from the casket, the lights turn off, and we get a camera “inside” the casket and Taker gives a creepy promo, saying he will never rest in peace. Then lightening flashes and Marty Janetty ascends to the heavens in an Undertaker outfit. Paul does a little dance with the urn and wheels the casket out of there.

Everybody should see this once, just so they have a standard for wrestle-crap. One could argue that you need only watch the post-match shenanigans, but when you see that it could have been a semi-entertaining squash before all the run-ins, it makes it all the more Craptacular.

Match Quality: -*
Personal Enjoyment: -*****
Match Rating: -***

Undertaker would return and beat an imposter at Summer Slam 1994. Apparently, nothing happened in 1995 because we skip to his feud with Diesel (this is actually a good thing). They interfered in each other’s championship matches with Bret Hart, and then Diesel would destroy the casket and attack Paul Bearer. And then Diesel would open up a casket with a look-alike of himself inside. Overall, the build-up was quite good, and the match would deliver too.

The Undertaker w/Paul Bearer vs. Diesel
Wrestlemania XII, March 31, 1996
For those keeping track, Undertaker was now 4-0 at Wrestlemania, having defeated Giant Gonzales in 1993 and King Kong Bundy in 1995. You would think that this would be another typical big man match, but Taker was starting to develop as a worker and Diesel was at his peak. So this match is actually pretty good. They work hard, brawling and doing power moves. They even work outside of their movesets, with Taker hitting a flying crossbody and Diesel hitting a backdrop suplex. Diesel controls the match for the most part, and Taker actually sells for him. The story is nice, as Diesel is not intimidated by Undertaker and just goes full throttle the whole match and dealing big blow after big blow and taunting Taker.

They work in the double big boot spot, which might have been the first time on PPV for that, but don’t quote me. Diesel works a bearhug, which would be a rest hold if it weren’t for the fact that all of Diesel’s power moves target the back. Diesel kicks out of a flying clothesline, and hits the Jackknife Powerbomb. That would logically lead to a Diesel victory, but he’s so confidant that he taunts Taker before hitting a second Jackknife. After Diesel stalls to cost himself the match, Taker makes his comeback and wins after the Chokeslam and the Tombstone Piledriver to go 5-0.

Your ability to enjoy this will largely depend on your tolerance for big men. Some people have a passionate hatred of power wrestling, and that’s fine. I happen to enjoy it when it’s done well, and this is an example of a smartly worked power match. The fact that Diesel is such a cocky heel helps a lot.

Match Quality: ***
Personal Enjoyment: ***1/2
Match Rating: ***1/4

Now we see Mankind attacking Undertaker, and a very creepy promo for their Buried Alive Match. Taker was starting to become less cartoony and actually start to freak me out. This feud really elevated the Undertaker in the eyes of the smart crowd. Taker and Mankind really made each other.

Buried Alive Match: The Undertaker vs. Mankind w/Paul Bearer
In Your House: Buried Alive, October 20, 1996
This match is one of those that you either love or hate. There is no catch-as-can wrestling in this because these guys hate each other. It’s an all out brawl, and they work hard. Taker actually busts out a couple of dives and Mankind bumps like a madman. The thing I really like about this match is that they really use the stipulation. Aside from the various foreign objects allowed due to there being no disqualification, they do some cool stuff with the grave. Taker gets a small package that sends them rolling down the mound, and at one point Mankind throws dirt into the Undertaker’s eyes. Shortly after that, Taker hits a hip block takeover off of the mound and onto the floor. You would think this is all mindless brawling, but these two know how to make everything they do mean something.

Taker takes a few really sick bumps, including a piledriver and the double arm DDT into a steel chair. He retaliates by hitting a legdrop onto a chair. The sickest bump happens when Undertaker reverses a piledriver on the floor and drops Mankind skull first into the ring steps. They both get their finishing moves on each other, but the Phenom Chokeslams Mankind into the grave. Taker wins the match after covering Mankind with dirt, but he doesn’t want to stop. The Executioner shows up and hits Undertaker with a shovel, and then all of the heels get together and bury the Undertaker, including Hunter Hearst Helmsley, who would acquire a taste for that sort of thing. After what seems like an eternity, they finally cover the grave. Lightening strikes the grave and Taker’s hand shows up. This always reminds me of Shredder from “The Secret of the Ooze”.

The match itself was a great brawl. The aftermath, while a bit boring after the first minute or so, was well booked. This was probably Undertaker’s best match up to this point, but he would have a banner year in 1997. These two just had chemistry.

Match Quality: ***1/4
Personal Enjoyment: ****
Match Rating: ***3/4

We see Undertaker go 6-0 by defeating Psycho Sid for the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania XIII. The Deadman’s first PPV challenger would be none other than Mankind, who delivers a promo that is just sickening, promise to leave Taker as “a random pile of body parts”. Nice and happy, eh?

WWE Championship Match: The Undertaker © vs. Mankind w/Paul Bearer
In Your House: Revenge of the Taker, April 20, 1997
First off, the name of this PPV is preposterous. This match is not as good as the Buried Alive match. It’s just a wild brawl, although Taker takes a minute to work the arm to set up Old School. In a cool spot, Mankind escapes the grasp, and Taker hits a diving clothesline from the middle of the rope. Taker’s right eye is bandaged due to Mankind using a fireball in the build-up to this. After some rest holds, Mankind hits Undertaker with a glass of water. Mankind then follows that up with an elbow drop from the second rope to the floor. The referee takes a bump but considering how much the rules have been bent, it’s hard to see the point. Mankind uses the Mandible Claw both on Taker and a second referee.

There’s a nice character moment where Bearer gives Mankind a chair and Mankind instead goes for the steps. That allows Taker to dropkick the steps into him. After Mankind loses his mask, Taker uses the steps to knock Mankind off of the apron and send him headfirst through the announce table. That one spot really separates this from being good to very good. Mankind is able to kick out of a Chokeslam but not the Tombstone, and Undertaker retains. We get some post match shenanigans which eventually lead to the Deadman using a fireball on Bearer, which would be the catalyst for Bearer to find someone even scarier than Mankind. Who could that be?

At any rate, the match is a typical Undertaker-Mankind match, which means it’s a good brawl. However, the rules were very lightly enforced and there was a ref bump to accommodate the style of match. They tried to do variations on old spots to make this different from the others, and the table bump is extremely memorable. Overall, I applaud the effort, but this kind of fell flat for me.

Match Quality: ***1/2
Personal Enjoyment: ***1/4
Match Rating: ***1/2

After this we move onto to Undertaker’s feud with Bret Hart. Bret promises to win the WWE Championship, so as not to let his Canadian fans down. This was during the whole pro-Canada period of Bret’s career, which from a character standpoint was his best work. That match would have a lot of influence on the coming months.

WWE Championship Match: The Undertaker © vs. Bret Hart, w/Special Guest Referee Shawn Michaels
Summer Slam, August 3, 1997
Bret Hart starts us off with a playing of the Canadian National Anthem, just in case there are any fans who don’t hate him. This match is an example of overbooking that works. If Bret does not win the WWE Championship, then he will never wrestle in the United States again. If Shawn Michaels is biased towards the Undertaker (which he would be due to the well-publicized hatred between Shawn and Bret), then he will never wrestle in the U.S. again. Paul Bearer, Brian Pillman and Owen Hart all make appearances at some point, and the finish is a screwjob. You would think that I would hate all of this, but this is just a showcase of how heavily booking a match can work in context. The match was also highly influential, as we got Shawn’s heel turn, which led to D-Generation X, the Hell in a Cell with Undertaker, Kane and Taker’s legendary feud, the Montreal Screwjob, and the beginning of Vince McMahon as a character. All of these events can trace their beginning back to the match. The booking in the WWE was just superb at this time.

Aside from all of the shenanigans, the match itself is very good. Undertaker is the Samson like unstoppable babyface, and Bret is a great heel, having to use all of the tricks of the trade to try and break Taker down. Bret can’t physically match up with Undertaker, so he has to work over his legs, take cheap shots, and pick his spots. Bret also has some great interaction with Shawn, with the tension building the whole match, and eventually leading to the finish. They even manage to lay the foundation for Shawn and Taker’s feud, as Shawn misses a three count off of a Chokeslam, but only because he was sending Owen and Pillman to the back. They work in several really cool spots throughout the match, including the figure-four around the post, a Sharpshooter around the post, and a chokeslam from the apron to the ring. The best spot in the match occurs when Taker breaks out of the Sharpshooter, which hadn’t been done before. Finally, Bret gives up on the scientific approach, realizing it will not work, and uses a chair for a nearfall. After that, Shawn asks about the chair, but Bret spits in his face. Shawn snaps and tries to blast Bret, but the Hitman ducks and Taker takes a brutal chair shot. Shawn reluctantly counts to three, and Bret is the new champion. Taker ignores Bret and chases after Shawn as he heads to the back, and that’s where the main program for this disc ends.

This is one of my favorite matches under five stars. The dynamic between Bret and the Undertaker is always great, and when you throw the proverbial wrench in the machine with Shawn Michaels, it gets even better. I was literally engrossed in this thing for every second. Hart was just gold around this time, and Taker had reached his first peak, and wouldn’t be as good as he was in 1997 until 2003. When you add in the historical significance of everything, this is a must see match.

Match Quality: ****1/4
Personal Enjoyment: ****1/2
Match Rating: ****1/2

Extras:

Undertaker attacks Hulk Hogan at the Funeral Parlor: Remember when every manager had their own talk show? This is Paul Bearer’s show. Hogan is the guest and gets a look at the Hulkamania Casket, but Ric Flair shows up and they have a war of words. Taker sneak attacks Hogan with the urn (shocking), and Randy Savage and Roddy Piper make the save. Taker then removes Hogan’s crucifix from his necklace. This was actually more entertaining than the match it led up to, and any time you have five of the biggest stars in wrestling history in one segment, its gold.

Undertaker builds a casket for Yokozuna: This is just Paul Bearer rambles on about the “double-wide, double deep” casket for Yokozuna, and then Undertaker says “Rest in peace”. This was simple, to the point, and effective.

Undertaker in the graveyard talking about Diesel: Undertaker talks about getting revenge on Diesel, promising to send his soul to eternal darkness. This promo is notable because we only see Taker and Bearer’s shadows, and then Taker’s hand.

Undertaker in the graveyard talking about Mankind: No, it’s not Taker having a philosophical discussion on humanity’s place in the world. But it is the promo highlight of the disc. Undertaker talks about the betrayal of Bearer, and says that he will bury Mankind alive, and that he will “never rest in peace”. This is pretty notable for the fact that Taker usually says his opponents will rest in peace, so this feud is definitely the most personal on the disc.

Undertaker interrupts Mankind’s promo: This is not a promo highlight. It’s a very typical, clichéd Undertaker promo. Something something something dark side.

WWE Championship Match: The Undertaker vs. Bret Hart ©
One Night Only, September 20, 1997
Thankfully, we forego the entrances. It’s only the first disc and I’m starting to get tired of Taker’s entrance. I never get tired of this match though. As I mentioned earlier, these two were both in high points in their career, and they just have a great chemistry. This was Undertaker’s best “wrestling” match until he discovered MMA and started wrestling Kurt Angle. Bret and Taker are famous for never having a clean finish to their matches. The reason is that Bret is conditioned enough to handle Taker’s big bomb offense, technically skilled enough to break his vertical base, and crafty enough to take cheap shots. But Undertaker is, well, the Undertaker, and none of Bret’s technical skill is going to work. Still, it’s an interesting story, because you never know who will break first. Jim Ross actually sums it up nicely by saying “Bret Hart wrestling with finesse, the Undertaker wrestling with fury.”

Despite the fact that Taker isn’t as technically sound, he actually uses some nice psychology in this, working over Bret’s chest after Bret takes his signature bump into an exposed turnbuckle. He even busts out a grounded crucifix. This is largely the same match as the Summer Slam one, but instead of all the interference, we get more great wrestling. There’s a spot early on where Taker slips on the bearhug ram into the post, and hits a spinebuster on the floor. Despite it being a botch, it’s a spot that I really love. Once Bret takes control, he works the legs with all of his signature offense, including the ring post figure four. I know he did it practically every big match at this point, but it’s still one of the best spots in wrestling. Taker gets a nice counter by kicking Bret over the ring when Bret tries one of his banzai drops to the leg. Unfortunately, for all of the great wrestling, we get a lame finish as Bret slips out of a Tombstone and gets hung in the ropes. Taker keeps assaulting Bret while he’s in that predicament and gets disqualified. After the match, Undertaker hits the Chokeslam on the referee, and another official. The Hart Foundation come down to save Bret, and Taker chases after them, but after the ring announcer declares Bret the winner, Taker goes after him. He smartly escapes.

These guys always had good matches with each other and this was their best. There were no shenanigans to distract from the in-ring work, and even though the finish leaves a bad taste in the mouth, it’s hard not to enjoy this match. One of the reasons these guys always had good matches is that they have a similar approach. They don’t waste any motion and everything they do means something. Despite the fact that they are wrestling with completely different styles, their sense of storytelling is the same. I love this match and I’m glad that they included it on the set.

Match Quality: ****1/2
Personal Enjoyment: ****1/2
Match Rating: ****1/2

The 411: This disc is hard to rate. On one side of the coin, you have the abomination that is the Yokozuna vs. Undertaker, and on the other hand, you have a pair of great matches with Mankind and a couple of near classics with Bret Hart. The bad is really bad and the good is really good. Still, if you are an Undertaker fan, this is a must buy, and Yoko vs. Taker is fun in a car wreck sort of way.

Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]