Favorite Incarnation - Undertaker

[Rockyfolifebo!!!]

I'm going to start a new series. Here I pick a Superstar, Diva, or faction from wrestling history, and you tell me your favorite incarnation of them and why. Today, it's The Undertaker! You have so many options, from his debut, to the deadman, to the Ministry cult leader, ABA, Big Evil, and the return of the deadman!

I'm going to personally have to go with Ministry 'Taker. The titantron, the music, the tactics of him and his Ministry freaked me out beyond repair! The demonic things he said, and did to people. Such as telling people "he's their savior" or crucifying people. It was just totally over the edge. At times they took his gimmick too far, but he was definitely in his prime around this time.

So which is your favorite and what's your reason?

 

[Psyclone]

basically you listed 2 (maybe 3) incarnations...

1) the deadman- I'm counting his original incarnation and his most current revival of it... Yes he was portrayed as not feeling pain and had brother love/paul bearer and the urn in the beginning (And shortly after his revival) but its essentially the same person..

2) Minisry Taker- I'm giving this one only the eh maybe it was different as it was essentially the same person, just tweaked to the nth degree... It was the same "demon" but with followers aside from a fat man with an urn... I'd count him as the same as the original, but it was different enough that I'll grant you the difference..

3) American Badass- To quote Bill Simmons "we all have collectively decided to forget this ever happened.." Yes it was novel for a little bit to have him show up riding harleys and coming out to limp bizkit (and other bands) but really it never made sense to call him the undertaker and have him be a bad ass biker..

to summarize the 6 choices you have laid out, are now 3, 2 of you count "ministry taker" as original taker but slightly tweaked...

Of the 2 remaining, 1 didnt last longer than the "hey its cool taker changed his gimmick" phase before "I miss the old taker" took over again amongst the fans... So really the ONLY gimmick that should be in this thread is the "deadman taker" gimmick that is the MOST enduring gimmick of all time... (Ric Flair is not really a gimmick.... Its Ric Flair...)

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

The American Bad Ass

I know, I know, most people didn't like this incarnation of the Undertaker but to me he was the coolest thing I had ever seen in wrestling. I loved the big moterbikes, the denim and bandanna and his Kid Rock entrance music became my favourite song, and remained so for years afterwards. Add to that the awesome Last Ride powerbomb and the whole ass-kicking persona of the American Bad Ass and you have one of my favourite gimmicks of all time.

It was a total change from anything we had seen from the Undertaker before hand, and allowed him to play a character much closer to his real-life personality, rather than being limited to the slow, deadman character he was perviously, or the evil satanic style of the Ministry 'Taker. I really liked the fact WWE allowed this change to happen, as it really was a total change of one of their premier players.

I liked that he began to team up with Kane more, and took on a prominant role in Team WWF in the fight against the WCW/ECW Alliance faction. The sight of Kane and Undertaker nailing simultaneous powerbombs on opponents and then riding back up the ramp and stopping at the top, both raising their fists up to the sky was awesome to see.

I like all the incarnations of 'Taker, and he has played each one brilliantly but for me personally, The Bad Ass is my favourite even though he was not in the best shape physically at this time. I liked the more human aspect of the character, and I think it fitted in more with the whole feel of the WWE at that time.

 

[relentless1]

id have to say i love the deadman gimmick, it was a staple f my childhood, but i loved the big evil gimmick, there was so much potential for different storylines to go ith, the whole respect and "my yard" schtick was great, he was contemporized for the new millenium, he couldve gone in any direction, they couldve had him join nWo, make his own badass biker stable, anything, it was a very versatile character

 

[Dagger Dias]

My favorite version of Undertaker was The Phenom, that he used from 2004 until 2010. This is my favorite version of him because they took what was good from previous versions of his character and brought him back better than ever. Taker's original persona and Ministry Taker were both great too. His most recent persona was The Last Outlaw which so far is basically the same as The Phenom with more of a cowboy feel and uses Johnny Cash for his theme music. It's cool but not as cool as The Phenom. Then there's American Badass and Big Evil.... They were so bad that I prefer to pretend that those never happened.

 

[Dr. Mantis Toboggan, M.D.]

I've enjoyed every incarnation of The Undertaker, but my favorite was-
Big Evil
From December 2001-November 2003 when 'Taker cut his hair off, began bullying and kicking everyone's ass. He had a GREAT triple threat match with Kurt Angle and The Rock at Vengeance 2002. Actually ALL of 2002 The Undertaker kicked ass. He fought Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Triple H, Rock, Angle, Lesnar, had an amazing ladder match with Jeff Hardy on RAW, had an interesting mini feud with Maven, he even made the hardcore championship mean something. 2002 was a great year for Taker. Big Evil was the best hands down.