The Evolution of the Undertaker

[Shocky]

I think the Modern Version trumps all. While the Undertaker certainly made a name of himself a decade ago, this modern version is simply bad ass.

The Original Undertaker was great to watch as a kid. He was essentially the Anti Hogan. Hogan was all colorful, charisma, and loud, while the Undertaker came along and was pale, silent and deadly. Hogan drew upon the powers of Hulkamania, the Undertaker drew his power from Death. Without the existing Hogan formula, Taker never would have worked as well as he did. That's what made it great to be around then, the proper context of the character. However, when that Taker turned face, he was stuck in miserable feud with terrible big men for the better part of the decade, and it was just hard to watch.

The Phenom: While I believe the Undertaker's best year of his first half of his career was 1997, he's probably more remembered for the Cell in 98 and the feud with Austin. You'll be hard pressed to convince me that the Undertaker didn't have his best work in 1997, but that has to dow ith the quality of opponents getting upped. No longer was he facing fat talentless bastards, but he was in the ring with great workers.

The Lord of Darkness: See, I hated this character, Ir eally did. The Undertaker towards the back half of 1998 was just getting out of shape and dealing with injuries. He was probably out of shape due to the injuries to his legs. While great in concept, the Lord of Darkness was simply way to over the top. It's Vince Russo at his worst, Mark Calloway actually believing he's the Undertaker, oh and he's Vince McMahon's bitch, just terrible.

The American Bad Ass: It was a great way to come back, and it was needed for that time period. The WWE was going more to a smark friendly atmosphere at the time, and having hte Grim Reaper come back just wasn't going to work. Instead the Deadmna appears on a motorcycle. At first I was thinking, where the hell are Brian Adams, the Harris Twins and Brian Lee? It worked for a while, but it didn't overstay it's welcome.

The Modern Taker: Easily the best in my opinoin. I think the Undertaker slimming down, and going more to an MMA style performer has been fantastic. The weight drop has increased his stamina, and he simply has better matches now then he ever has had. His match with Angle was probably the best of his career at NWO 2006. Hell, his mania matches outside of Henry in this time frame have been the best of his career, and that's not including what will happen next month against Michaels.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

I enjoyed his American Bad Ass gimmick with the Ministry coming a close second. He put on great matches and was great on the mic. I liked how they made the transition at Judgment Day 2000 and even though his heel turn was awful, he made the most out of it with the whole "respect" thing.

The Ministry Undertaker was just plain scary with the entrance and the sacrifices. I thought the whole angle was well planned and Vince being the higher power made it all the more excellent.

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

I've always preferred Taker as a heel tbh. As a face, his mic work has always been fairly limited to what he can say. He's always been limited to saying things relating to death and being buried, apart from when he was TAB, then it was always about being the Big Dog of the Yard. As a heel, he's more inclined to threaten to cripple people, boast about his accomplishments, and demand respect.

You know you're great on the stick when you can get an entire arena to admit to having sex with their sisters.

Undertaker: Say 'What?' again, if sleep with your sister.
Crowd: WHAT?

Also as said before, he seems more human as a heel because he actually screams in pain, and seems to sell moves better when he isn't forced to play the undead guy who can't show any pain ever.

For me, the best persona was Big Evil, or 'Booger Red' as JR liked to call him. The Undertaker that shoved JR's face in Vince's ass, the Taker that screwed HHH out of the Undisupted title, the Taker that beat Hogan's ass for the title AGAIN, and then proceeded to crush his throat with a steel chair afterward. The Taker that obliterated Maven after the rookie was foolish enough to eliminate Taker from the 2002 Rumble match. The Taker that beat on Arn Anderson and David Flair in order to get Ric Flair to wrestle him at WM, and achieve his 10th WM victory.

THAT's the Taker i enjoyed the most. Heel Badass.

That's closely followed by Ministry Taker and Lord of Darkness Taker. Forget the rolling eyes, smoke streams and lightning effects. I liked lynching the Bossman, crucifying Austin, brainwashing superstars left and right, burning symbols on McMahon's front yard and kidnapping the boss' daughter, and encouraging the Big Show to be more barbaric, while at the same time, straight out telling the guy, 'one day, i'm going to screw you over'.

The quality of Taker's matches are at their highest now, but his earlier heel personas are my favourites. He could really do with having Paul Bearer back as well imo

 

[Ambiguous Turd]

The Ministry Undertaker will always be my favorite. He truly represented the embodiment of Pure Evil.

Today's Undertaker, in my opinion, is the worst. All essentially he is today, is the man who comes out dressed like The Undertaker we are all familiar with ... yet when he gets in the ring and the bell rings, he magically transforms into Mr. UFC. Just seems out of place.

 

[AttitudeEra09]

i loved the american bad ass gimmick, it was my favorite..he actually did promos and talked.Im not really feeling the deadman thing he is doing now its getting boring