My Take IV: Undertaker

[Little Jerry Lawler]

Debuting at Survivor Series in 1990, the Phenom has reigned over WWE for nearly 20 years. The innovator of the Hell of the Cell, Buried Alive, and Casket matches, he has had memorable feuds and images that would last forever. His entrance is something to behold and is one of the best at playing mind games the wrestling industry has ever seen. He is seen as a legend to some but is he on the level of Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, or The Rock?

I've watched some of his matches in his first four or five years and he was slow and boring due to his gimmick. They built him up as unstoppable and immortal and it showed. Not until Mick Foley came, he started working at a faster pace and perform better matches. Over the past ten years, he has had great matches with HHH, Kurt Angle, and Randy Orton among others. Sure he has taken time off for months, but at his age and the way he has wrestled he needs to recharge and has been better for it. He puts on great matches at his age than most wrestlers in their entire career. One of the best matches I've ever watched was him and Kurt Angle at No Way Out in 2006.

The most important thing about the Undertaker is that he puts younger superstars over. Even though he's never been the main focus on Raw or Smackdown, he's proven to be above the belt. The most memorable Undertaker feuds have been without the belt such as his ones with HHH and most recently Randy Orton. His most impressive job to me was his feud with Batista. Their match at Wrestlemania 23 was the best match Batista ever wrestled and the Wrestlemania 24 match with Edge was no less. It's been proven that once you have a feud with the Undertaker you improve more and more a la Randy Orton.

Everybody knows about his undefeated streak at Wrestlemania, but look at the opponents he has faced. Giant Gonzales, King Kong Bundy, and Mark Henry among others. Most of his great performances at Wrestlemania have been when he was the American Bad Ass fighting HHH and Ric Flair. People consider Mr. Wrestlemania to be Shawn Michaels, but if you give the Undertaker HBK's opponents, how would he fare?

So how will Undertaker go down in history? Will he be considered as just a upper mid-carder or will he be recognized as one of the best the WWE has ever seen? Also, does his quality of opponents thoroughout his career hurt him and will there be another superstar with a gimmick that can last that long and never grow stale?

 

[kizzyturtl]

Objectively speaking, if you take the gimmick away from the Undertaker, you have a fair wrestler - above average for a big man, but not Bam Bam Bigelow or Big Van Vader quality either.

Gimmick wise: he played the role well and WWF/WWE did a really nice job of helping to get him over with the fans - which really helps because I would rate him average at best on the mic (definetly not in Shane Douglas' league), but the gimmick allowed him to not have to say much but a few catch phrases.

That's my take on the Undertaker.

 

[Zeitgeist]

Undertaker is someone who never really struck a chord with me. For as big of a star as he is, I feel like I could take it or leave it. Sure things were more interesting back in the Ministry and Corporation days, but even then, I wasn't crazy about him. As pointed out above he is an average wrestler who has been carried by an above-average gimmick.

I think I'd be happy to see him go. It just doesn't fit anymore, everyone else has taken on a more realistic gimmick yet we still have this guy coming to the ring cutting a promo about how he's coming for your soul... lame. Not to mention his body is obviously worn and I think WM25 would be a good time for him to bow out.

 

[mrkite619]

i do think the whole deadman thing is getting too lame at this point. but undertaker is definitely one of the greatest of all time. i honestly never thought he got the respect he deserved.only won 1 royal rumble & it was just 2 years ago & he's only closed 2 wrestlemania's in like 20 years (something aint right about that).personally i thought the american badass was good. who wants 2 see satanic demonic characters trying 2 take others wrestlers soul? its an insult to our intelligence, alot of these storylines & gimmicks are, but his matches are no joke. i have the 3 disc dvd & its packed with amazing shit! he is not the average wrestler, charlie haas is an average wrestler, gene snitzky is average, jbl is average & boring as shit in the ring since he's returned. but the undertaker is very much above average, sometimes he is the top guy on smackdown & sometimes he aint & still manages 2 look good.& he doesn't jam himself down our throats like hhh or john cena, he knows when to take the back seat, he doesn't need 2 always be in the title picture & he can leap over the top rope, how many 7 foot wrestlers do you know who can do that?

 

[Joker ' Ferreira]

mrkite619, just one thing, I don't agree with you when you say Charlie Haas is an average wrestler he has the talent to be one of the top wrestlers of the industry, just because he doesn't have the right gimmick doesn't mean he can't wrestle, just like Santino.

About Undertaker, I don't think he will be remembered as a mid-carder, he won more than 5 World Championships and he is definitely one of the guys that will be remembered forever as one of the top draws of the industry.

He will be remembered because even Kane will be remembered, by being a part of BOD, and doing his work correctly for 20 years, he is definitely one of the best of the industry, and probably the most over guy in WWE so that says something.

Perhaps you can argue that he didn't become a 10 plus champion but that doens't mean he can't be great, hell, I think Flair is a fluke for that matter.

 

[Khalifa]

Undertaker has had some great matches in his days. Ones against Batista, Kurt angle, HHH and HBK just to name a few. He has also had one of the best gimmicks for his size. 'The Dead Man'. He is 16-0 at WrestleMania ( soon to be 17) and is well known for that. He has held the WWE Championship 4 times and the World Heavyweight Championship twice and that is pretty impressive for a man like him and being in the WWE for 19 years almost. You would expect him to have like 8 or 9. But then you have guys like HHH who has had 12 reigns in 9 years and almost half of those reigns have been longer than Undertakers.

Undertaker is also a good man for putting younger people over. Like he did with Orton in 2005 and Jeff Hardy in 2008. He knows it's not all about him and he knows when the right time is to put other people over. Thats what you need when you have an older guy that is a main eventer. He might take some days of but what do you expect? He is 40 something and is he just meant to Wrestle all the time like HHH does or like Kane does. No. He is allowed to have time of because of what he does through the company and how he has helped them.

Undertaker is a great guy but i don't like him as a Wrestler. But he should get in the HOF and he should always be known for is WM streak.

 

[avi01]

unless there`s a big conflict at the end of his career or something like that, he is definitely going down as one of the greatest superstar ever. I say superstar cause I don`t think he is one the best wrestler ever...at least not in the league of Bret Hart or Kurt Angle.

But for a guy of his size, he had some amazing matches and not all of them were just brutal brawls.

Besides he brought a lot to the company through not only his gimmick but these innovative matches. An don`r forget his Wrestlemania undefeated streak.
1998-1999 remains the best years of his career.

 

[Mustang Sally]

I think Undertaker is the smoothest worker in pro wrestling. All his matches have a flow and he's able to coax a good match out of almost anyone. The match on last night's Smackdown with Shelton Benjamin is a good illustration of how great a match can be when waged between two guys with superior technique.

Also, no one seems to get hurt when they wrestle him. Unfortunately, HE gets hurt when working with guys who can't match him in the "working" department.

It's a shame he has been injured so much because we would have seen much more of him over these many years.

 

[Shocky]

Undertaker is the living legacy of what Andre the Giant ment to the sport. This is a guy that came around right as Andre was leaving the business, and immediatly filled the void of special attraction wrestler that Andre left in his wake. A perfect combination of a gimmick that got over, and intimidating look, and a mega face in Hulk Hogan is what led to the legendary career of the Undertaker.

The Undertaker was the exact opposite of Hulk Hogan, and the two played off of each other masterfully. Hulk Hogan was all color, charisma, full of life and energy. Then you had the Undertaker, played masterfully and topped off with Paul Bearer, becomming the living embodiement of death. As Hogan rose from the powerful of hope and Hulkamania, the Undertaker drew his power froma sybmol of death in an urn, it was a great contrast, and worked well, and it led to the Deadman getting the title off of Hogan in his prime, a rare accomplishment.

Some will dispute his next few years from 92 to 96, citing it as a prime example of why the Undertaker sucks. I simply think those people that believe that suffer a mild case of ******ation, to be perfectly blunt about it. Here you're dealing with a young worker, essentially filling in for Andre the giant as his role of special attraction wrestler, and also playing the andre role of wrestling terrible and talentless giant fat monster heels. Yeah. Despite going againt the whose who of crap gimmicks in Kamala, Berserker, Gonzalez and all of that nonsense, the Deadman was still over, and still managed to stay at the upper mid card level.

It's amazing that everyone seems to agree that when 96 rolled around, and Mick Foley showed up, the Undertaker got better. No really. You mean going from wrestling fat slobs to wrestling the likes of Foley, Goldust, Bret Hart, Ron Simmons, Vader and Shawn Michaels over the next year the man got better, well I'll be damned. The Undertaker proved his worth in late 96 to late 97 by putting on great matches night in and night out, simply because the competition he had was better. How this concept is lost on anyone is beyond me.

People will point to 1998 to 1999 as another negative in the career of the Undertaker. People fail to realize that the guy wrestled at a main event level for a long time without a long break, andnagging injuries were piling up. From a bum ankle to a crap knee, the Undertaker still managed to have a great year in 1998, and win the strap in 1999, before he finally took a much deserved hiatus from the company.

The man came back, changed himself to stay over with the times. Some people love the Badass era, I personally hated it, but I understood the meaning behind it. At the time, the WWE was catering towards a realistic approach to the business with guys like Benoit, Angle, guerrero, and Lesnar developing into main stars, so it would be silly to have a demon comeback during that time. I understood it, and it worked, but for those that think he should have stayed that way, I point to the reaction that the Deadman received inside of smark capital USA, MSG at Wrestlemania 20. The crowd wanted teh Deadman back, and we got him back.

This return to the darkside has seen the Undertaker drop weight, and become more of an MMA type wrestler. In my opinoni, the Undertakers' ring work now is as good as it ever has been. The guy simply doesn't have a bad match. Sure, he may disappear from time to time, but this is a guy as I've said a dozen times before, is simply a special attraction wrestler.

The Undertaker was never meant to be a guy to hold onto multiple world titles. It's pretty understood, you can't push a guy as the personification of evil as you're poster boy for your company. Yet despite that, the Undertaker has managed to win six world titles, and remain undefeated at Wrestlemania for 16 years. Why is he undefeated, because people care about the Undertaker, and the WWE realizes that making him lose at Mania wouldn't accomplish anything. You need someone reliable year in and year out to get you to the title matches, and the Undertaker has fit that role, a role created and performed by Andre for nearly 15 years before that.

 

[image1986]

As probably the biggest undertaker mark I would like to say undertaker is no where near average. Mark calloway played his gimmick very well and wrestled gracefully for a big man. 92 to 96 were the foundation of how taker became so over as he is today. At first he seemed to be used just to take on monsters like yoko or sid but how is that a bad thing? The fans rooted for him to slay them cuz it was believable that he could. Eventunally he was given more opponents with sustance like hart hbk and austin. the gimmack was never meant to be realistic only kids would have thought he was really dead but his gimmack was cool and creative so it had major appeal to everyone expect smarks. Secong the american bad ass gimmick was ok I actually like the time he was undisputed champion as a heel and beating up people mercilessly. Once taker went back to deadman he became just as over as before and trust if he was avarge vince would can his behind a long time ago. He has so many good matches u can name and matches he innovated so before u trash taker lets gets facts straight

 

[klunderbunker]

Taker is the second coming of Andre the Giant. Someone on here many months ago said that when he debuted he was supposed to be the successor to Andre. If that is the case he has indeed been successful. Taker passed the point where he needs the title to get over years ago. Next year will be his 20th with the company. Not a lot of people can make that claim, not even HBK with his time off for his back injury. He has such a unique style that no one else really has and he's made it work perfectly. I saw him in his Deadman persona for the first time 6 days ago and he's still awe inspiring in person. You hear people talk about how the air gets colder when he comes into the areena and I think there's actually some truth to that. The entrance is just an amazing thing to see, and for a man over 40 years old to come off the top rope with an elbow drop like he did was something to see indeed. When he leaves it's going to leave a big hole in the company, as he's one of the best ever, and to me the best big man there ever has been, including Andre.

 

[kid chameleon]

don't worry people i can translate junkie.
hes saying.
"UnderTaker will always and forever be cemented as the greatest wrestler in the history of smackdown, and dare he say it the wwe, not the wwf, because that is owned by the hulkster, taker has a history of putting over the future ie orton and hardy. he is also the best worker"

while i don't agree fully with captain crackfiends post, i would say that the undertaker will go down as one of the greatest of our generation. hes been loyal to the company for 20 years and has become the man at wrestlemania. the streak will never be broken.
undertaker is a classic exampe of taking the ball and running with it.

 

[notorious102]

The Undertaker is the modern-day Andre the Giant.

Everyone from JR to his fans know that.

JR also said that The Undertaker has reached Andre status in the WWE & that's the highest you can get.

He also said that The Undertaker will probly surpass Andre's Legacy when he hangs up his boots.

The Undertaker is also the 'Measuring Stick', 'Conscience of the WWE' & has kept it together throughout the ups & downs.

He is the most dominant wrestler ever.

The Undertaker is the only man to defeat Hulk Hogan for the WWE Championship twice.
& the only wrestler to win the WWE Championship from Hulk Hogan & Steve Austin in the 90's.

the Greatest Big Man of All Time & will be remember in the All-Time Greats always.

He's also the most respected athlete ever in the history of professional wrestling.

 

[Jane]

Taker is almost as legendary as Hulk Hogan, and before you bite my head off, I just mean that so many people have heard of the legendary Phenom. He is a legend. He will never be forgotten. He has the unforgettable gimmick, the undefeated streak, the wrestling skills and the fueds. He revolutionized the WWE with Casket, Buried Alive and Hell in a Cell matches as well as the most unforgettable spot ever, the Mankind off the cell toss. WWE would still be around without Taker, but I really think he played a big part in making it number 1.

 

[notorious102]

Taker is almost as legendary as Hulk Hogan, and before you bite my head off, I just mean that so many people have heard of the legendary Phenom. He is a legend. He will never be forgotten. He has the unforgettable gimmick, the undefeated streak, the wrestling skills and the fueds. He revolutionized the WWE with Casket, Buried Alive and Hell in a Cell matches as well as the most unforgettable spot ever, the Mankind off the cell toss. WWE would still be around without Taker, but I really think he played a big part in making it number 1.

Taker has been main-eventing since his debut in 1990 also.
How many wrestlers can say they main-evented from 1990-2009...?

19 years straight !