I have many favorite memories of the Undertaker & it isn't easy narrowing it down to ten. It isn't easy to then take those ten & put them into chronological order. It's such a long illustrious career full of an assortment of highlights. Thirty years & while it wasn't all gold, it was never anything less than silver.
I'll start off with a couple of honorable mentions before I get into my top ten.
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| Honorable Mention Match Vs Papa Shango |
This is a match that could've & in my opinion should've developed into a huge feud. Papa Shango was such a neat, eerie character that could have easily have been used as the evil to offset the good that was the Undertaker. Speaking in terms of religion I always thought of the Undertaker as the Holy Ghost of the World Wrestling Federation. Hulk Hogan was God, The Ultimate Warrior was Jesus and Taker was the mysterious, mystical holy spirit. Papa Shango could have easily have came off as the Devil. Yet neither Charles Wright who played Shango nor Pat Patterson who did most of the booking cared for the character. So instead we got a one off throw away match on television as Papa Shango soon lost all of his luster becoming enhancement talent and Undertaker went on to bigger and better things.
I have to tell you that years later when Undertaker began feuding with Kama (Another character that Wright portrayed) it outright ticked me off. Kama was such a lame, forgettable character. Laughable compared to Papa Shango. Always hated those series of matches were against Kama & not against Shango.
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| Honorable Mention The Creatures of the Night |
God I loved Paul Bearer & I'm tickled pink that he gets all of the recognition and love that he does from both the fans & those that worked with him in the business, but I hate how few remember the Undertaker's Creatures of the Night. I have no idea who these people are or whatever became of them, but I friggin' loved them. I thought they were so cool. I remember going to a show in Des Moines, Iowa at Veteran's auditorium & wanting to go up to them so bad. I got within about twenty feet of them & I tell you what they stayed in character the entire time. People yelled at them and tried to break them all night but they never did. I'm not sure why this idea was abandoned as quickly as it was. Perhaps because no one else thought it freakin' ruled the way I did.
Without further adieu.....my top 10!
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| #10 Vs Jake "The Snake" Roberts Wrestlemania 8 |
I can't necessarily say I understood the Undertaker's face turn but I can say that I accepted it with welcome arms. It puzzled me as to why he suddenly went from being Jake Roberts ally to being his enemy. All I could figure is that when Jake went to hit Elizabeth with a chair & Undertaker prevented him from doing so, that it simply meant this emotionless character dead to the world had principles. He stood up for women. Good enough for me.
I can't say the match itself was a 5 out of 5 star, but the build up to it & the aftermath of it is what made it great. I was always sad that Warrior took off the way he did & we didn't get to see Warrior & Jake go at it, but in a way I'm glad because it led to Taker's face turn. I don't know if anyone else could have helped Taker's credibility as a good guy more than Roberts did. He was such a sinister, callous individual that anyone who ended his reign of terror was going to be instantly loved by the fans.
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| #9 Vs Diesel Wrestlemania 12 |
I liked everything about this match. It had great build up and excellent psychology. Diesel was this arrogant, cocky, fearless bully who acted like nothing could phase him. When the feud first began, he played it off nonchalant & cool. A lot of people give Kevin Nash a lot of crap for not being that talented but here he did a great job of slowly transitioning his fear. Each little thing the Undertaker would do slowly began to creep underneath his skin. He began to get more and more paranoid until it was clear that the Undertaker scared him. When Paul Bearer wheeled out the casket & it had a wax model of Diesel laying inside of it, Diesel's reaction was perfect. The match at WM 12 was again not a 5 out of 5, but still very solid.
| #8 Feud Vs Giant Gonzalez |
Slap yourself a few times if you need to. Go get a glass of water and pour it over the top of your head. No, you are not dreaming & no I am not joking. You are seriously seeing me put his feud with Giant Gonzalez on this list. What gets me is that whenever anyone mentions Undertaker & Giant Gonzalez they always refer to their match at Wrestlemania IX & how awful it was. Yes, it was awful! As Ole Anderson would say, "It was the shits." But it wasn't the only match they had! They had another match at Summerslam 1993 & that match was good! That match was fun! Again it wasn't a 5 out of 5. Hell it wasn't even as good as Taker vs Roberts or Taker vs Diesel, but what it was, was a match that built upon the Undertaker's legacy. That cemented him as the hero that WWE needed during that time. Bret Hart was the working class hero that related to the more mature audience but WWE still needed that comic book character to fill the void that Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior left. Undertaker filled it.
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| #7 Undertaker Vs Fake Undertaker Summerslam 1994 |
This was a fun, unique and very clever way to end Undertaker's feud with the Million Dollar Man's corporation. The long build up to the match & how the WWE kept fans interested in the Undertaker while he was healing up from injuries. I loved the late Leslie Neilsen's involvement as the detective looking for him & the vignettes involving Paul Bearer. I have to hand it to "Prime-Time" Brian Lee for pulling it off & learning Undertaker's mannerisms & maneuvers as well as he did. It was a Hell of a task to try and pull it off & he does't get anywhere near the credit he deserves for as good of a job as he did. I know when I first saw this match, I noticed the good undertaker wore purple & the evil undertaker wore grey. It gave me an idea for a storyline I would have loved to have booked. Undertaker battling duality. An inner struggle with good & evil. To where he comes out and his left side is decked in purple and his right side with grey. Within his matches he switches back & forth between the two personalities. It's up to Paul Bearer to help him make sure that the Purple side wins.
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| #6 Vs Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 25 |
First off, My God, what a match! WHAT A MATCH! 5 out of 5 stars? How about 6 out of 5 stars? Hell 10 out of 5 stars. These guys put on one of the best matches in the last 15 years I've ever seen at a Wrestlemania. They went out of their way to show the wrestling world why they deserve to be called two of the best entertainers of all time.
With that said, it was rewarding to see Undertaker finally get a win over that little selfish pip squeak. They had so many matches & all of them seemed to end with either Shawn winning or some sort of absolute bullshit shenanigans. Getting Shawn to do anyone a favor back in the day was like pulling teeth on a Nile Crocodile. He just wouldn't do it. So when Taker caught him in that moonsault & then drilled his head into the mat with the tombstone piledriver you better believe I marked the F out. I stood up out of my chair, pumped my fist in the air & counted that one, two, three.
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| #5 Undertaker's Debut Survivor Series 1990 |
You gotta remember, I was a little kid when this happened. Scared, impressionable, Hell I still believed in Santa Claus & used to wonder which of the bunnies I saw out in the yard left the chocolate eggs. When Undertaker's music blared & he came down to the ring, he had my undivided attention. I was outright scared for Dusty Rhodes, Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart & Ko Ko B Ware. This guy looked like something out of one of the horror film previews that would sometimes advertise on the TV. It was extremely effective.
Looking back now, I think WWE is lucky that no one laughed at Brother Love tagging along in the background. That could have easily backfired, yet Undertaker had such a presence and did such a good job of keeping the focus on himself that you didn't even realize Brother Love was there. A part of me hates how Dusty Rhodes was completely buried here but I now understand why it was vital to have Taker go over someone as established & monumental as "The American Dream."
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| #4 Feud vs Mankind (In Particularly King of the Ring 1998 Hell in a Cell) |
The feud between Undertaker and Mankind seemed to be never ending. As if the two were going to have matches until the Earth finally got close enough to the sun & exploded in a ball of flames. Even though the two seemed to have 100 matches over a period of time that seemed endless, they never became stale or boring. They stayed fresh & updated with new ideas consistently being thrown into the mix.
What I loved most about the feud is that Undertaker had gotten to a point to where he seemed unchallenged. As if no one could get to his level & suddenly this deranged freak came out of nowhere & posed a serious threat. Taker did a great job of getting Mankind over, while at the same time never completely burying himself. It was a great chemistry of checks and balances where the two teeter tottered to keep one another strong.
Their Hell in the Cell match was nothing short of epic. I hate that Mick Foley felt that he had to do something so dangerous to please us as fans, but despite the life risk that it was, I cannot help but look back on it in absolute awe. That match is talked about over twenty years after in happened and it'll still be celebrated twenty years from today.
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| #3 Vs Kane Wrestlemania 14 |
I was really, really into the Kane character. Matter of fact I was in the audience in Des Moines, Iowa the night Paul Bearer first began talking about Kane. From his Debut up until this match, I thought he was one of the best heels I've ever seen. Later, I thought he was a great face. I loved him up until the mask came off.
To be honest I thought this was where Undertaker's Wrestlemania win streak would come to an end. Looking back now, I wish it would have. I still get sick to my stomach when I think of Brock Lesnar being the man who defeated Undertaker. I keep on hoping someday I'll wake up to find out that was nothing more than an horrendous dream. Until then, I have to chalk it up as my LEAST favorite Undertaker moment.
As to Kane, I was shocked that not only did Undertaker defeat Kane, but he defeated him clean. I think it helped to propel him to new heights, although I don't feel WWE capitalized upon it as well as they could have. Kane up to this point had defeated both Vader and Mankind, so he was looking unstoppable. Loved the match and loved the feud, but still feel a bit more could have been done.
| # 2 Undertaker's Matches with Bret Hart |
I love Undertaker's matches with Bret Hart. I absolutely adore them. What technical masterpieces full of great psychology, chemistry and action. At first when it was announced Taker & Hart would go at it, I couldn't picture the match in my head. Taker up to that point at been pretty one dimensional in the ring & I wondered how that style would work against the mat expertise of Bret Hart. Boy did these two show me!
This was when I thought Undertaker got to show the world what separates him from the Hogans and the Warriors. He's not just a great character full of great charisma. The man can work!! The man can wrestle! And I don't know if he displayed his in ring abilities better with anyone than he did with Bret Hart. These two put on a 5 out of 5 match every time they got into the ring. Maybe Taker's best match was with Shawn Michaels at WM 25, but not every match he had with Shawn Dean Douglas would grade an A. Give every match with Bret an A+
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| #2 Undertaker wins WWE Title for Second Time vs Sid at Wrestlemania 13 |
There's only one thing I hate about this match. The fact that WWE always made Bret Hart look like such a pansy Vs Sid. I hated that, especially here. He went out and essentially beat the shit out of the toughest son of a bitch in the WWE, Stone Cold Steve Austin & then later in the night, gets thrown around like a rag doll by Sid. I know this blog is about Taker, but that still leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
It's no so much the match with Sid as it is seeing Taker get his moment that he had more than earned. Yes, I know that he had a short title reign vs Hogan but that didn't showcase the caliber of champion that Undertaker was. Here against Sid it did. It was long awaited & of all WWE title wins perhaps the most deserved of any. It was very rewarding seeing him get the belt that night.
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It's hard to believe that it lasted as long as it did. It's hard to believe that it went by as quickly as it did. It's hard to believe that I was a little kid when I first saw Taker on my television screen and now with gray hairs in my goatee I'm only a few short years away from forty. Undertaker was one of the absolute best in more ways than one. I hope that he has many years left on this earth & I hope he enjoys them in peace. L.I.P. dead man, L.I.P.
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