Category: Mark Calaway Project

The Undertaker Vs Goldust – In Your House 8: Beware of the Dog 28/05/1996

Never realised when making the list of 30 matches to watch for Undertaker Month that I was pretty “casket match heavy” lol. 4 matches on my list ended up being casket matches, but hey, I’d only ever seen one of them before, so 3 brand new casket matches aren’t a bad thing :).

I’ve always been a fan of The Undertaker in 1996 due to him finally getting to face GOOD opponents on a regular basis, but when I thought about it, I’d hardly seen any of his stuff from 1996 lol. The start of the year? Yeah, saw most of it. Mankind? Saw around half of what they did together. Goldust? Nothing. Best get started then huh?

The Undertaker surprises Goldust by appearing behind him in the ring instead of coming down the isle with his usual entrance. Goldust, in his short time in WWF, had become known for playing mindgames with his opponents, but The Undertaker is the master of the mind games and shows it from the get go.

As well as a power and mind games advantage in this match, The Undertaker has a sort of “added bonus” advantage too; Goldust is afraid of caskets. Within the first 2 minutes Goldust comes face to face with the casket, causing him to lose focus and allow The Undertaker to demolish him.

Wow, very weird spot about 5 minutes into the match where Goldust actually hits a Tombstone on The Undertaker, to very little reaction from both the crowd and the announcers. The actual excecution of the spot came across as awkward too. Not good tbh.

At least the Tombstone transitions Goldust into his control segment of the match, and I guess hitting your opponent’s finisher is a good transition lol.

Sound stratergy from Goldust, using a sleeper hold to knock out The Undertaker long enough to stick him in the casket, but not enough to shut the lid. Great spot when Undertaker prevents the lid from closing and throws it open, sending Goldust over the top of it to the floor! This actually ends up as nothing more than a hope spot though, with Goldust regaining control following a big clothesline on the outside.

Again Goldust tries to take a page out of The Undertaker’s book, attempting Old School, but The Undertaker counters and drives Goldust down to the mat with a Tombstone! He opens the casket lid, only to be put in the Mandible Claw by Mankind! Mankind then locks Undertaker in the casket and gives Goldust the win! The casket then starts filling with smoke, and when Paul Bearer finally opens it, The Undertaker is gone!

Fun match, but not that great. I’d take the house show casket match against Mankind over this tbh. Not much to it, a couple of awkward spots and nothing memorable outside of the finish with Mankind.

Rating: **1/2

The Undertaker Vs The Big Show – House Show 10/10/2008

The last of my rare house show match reviews for Undertaker Month (still got plenty more to do at later points for my Mark Calaway Project though 🙂 ), and it’s the most up to date house show footage I have access to atm. Oh, and I just found out it falls count anywhere too! Awesome!

The feud these two had in 2008/early 2009 was great. Nothing heavy when it came to the storyline, but the matches were awesome. Two big bastards trying to cave each other’s faces in. Some truly epic brawls, starting at No Mercy, then a LMS match at Cyber Sunday, some awesome moments in the 2009 Royal Rumble match, and a great TV cage match on Smackdown. Oh, and a casket match at… Survivor Series was it? Best to forget THAT one lol. Will be interesting to see what they do in a falls count anywhere match, and at a house show too.

LOL at the women on the outside ready to walk to the back with Undertaker’s coat before he could take off his hat and give her that too. No idea why I found that so funny. But I did. Lol.

Big Show heels it up in the most basic way by leaving the ring and refusing to come back in, which gets plenty of heat. Crowd are great, booing the fuck out of Show and chanting for The Undertaker, and one little kid screaming “chicken” at Big Show and demanding that The Undertaker “go get him” before getting bored and shouting “get on with it”. WWE being PG and more Kid Friendly may not be the best thing for the product, but those little buggers can be hilarious at live shows. Shame they were just annoying at the ones I went to…

Man, 15 minutes have gone by already, and that’s just been both men making their entrances, then Big Show stalling like fuck. And the crowd are STILL very much into the whole thing.

Things finally get underway when Undertaker gives the Rest in Piece signal, and Show goes to deck the Dead Man with a right hand, only to miss and take a few shows to the face himself. Unfortunately The Undertaker has control for about 4 punches before The Big Show’s power comes into play, and ‘Taker is bumping around and being thrown to the outside where he continues to take a beating thanks to those massive body shots from Show.

Being rammed head first into the ring post puts a stop to Show’s offence for the moment, and gives Undertaker the chance to hit his signature Led Drop on the apron and some big rights and lefts of his own in the ring. He then targets the arm of Show, but being such a powerful guy, Undertaker is forced to use the ropes to help weaken the arm to set him up for Old School. Old School is reversed into a suplex, and Big Show is back in control.

Usual great selling from The Undertaker as he continues to take those big body shots, while getting a couple of hope spots in only to be cut off. Nothing much to write home about for a while with Big Show in control; he’s just wearing down the Dead Man with side slams and a nerve hold. Nothing particularly exciting, but it’s not boring either.

The falls count anywhere (aka Hardcore Match lol) stipulation finally comes into play when Show tries to use the ring steps against The Undertaker, only to ram himself shoulder first into them. Undertaker then uses the steps and a steel chair to even the odds before going back into the ring for a back and forth face caving session :D. These two men exchanges punches is always my favourite part of their matches.

Old School from The Undertaker fails once again, but this time Undertaker counters Big Show’s counter into a DDT! And Big Show taking a DDT is always awesome considering the way he sells it and the sheer massiveness of him lol.

Speaking of massive… Chokeslam to Big Show! Only gets a 2 count though. Since the big man is too big to Tombstone, out comes a steel chair, only to be punched back into the face of the Dead man! Guess it wasn’t the knockout punch though, and Undertaker kicks out at two lol. Show continues to punish Undertaker, giving him a taste of his own Chokeslam, but again only gets a 2 count. The chair comes into play again, and despite avoiding it once, Undertaker gets hit with it the second time Show swings! A really great finishing stretch for a house show match!

The Chokeslam didn’t work, and neither did 2 chair shots, so it’s all down to the knockout punch, which lands! Show looks confident and goes for a pin, but Undertaker was laying in wait to lock in the Hells Gate! Show taps!

Well I wasn’t disappointed with this one :). They had a great series on PPV/TV around this time, and their house show matches looked to have been great as well. Plenty of punching in the face, good use of weapons and a great finishing stretch.

Rating: ***1/4

The Undertaker Vs Jimmy Snuka – MSG 21/01/1991

From everything I have seen of WWF 1991 (which isn’t that much tbh lol), this is about as close to “build up” as I’ve seen for The Undertaker Vs Snuka at WrestleMania. Not that the match needed much I guess, since it was pretty low profile and lasted what, under 5 minutes? Looking back on it, the match is definitely significant, being the first match of his now undefeated WrestleMania streak, but at the time it wasn’t much at all.

Brother Love certainly seems pissed with Snuka, saying he should have been buried and shit, then runs away to the outside only to be chased around the ring until the Dead Man stands in Snuka’s way, and even Jimmy Snuka has to stop dead in his tracks.

The early going is all Undertaker, who uses basic offense such as an uppercut and scoop slam, but being his size it all looks devastating anyway.

A flying headbutt (done in a similar way to a flying shoulder block) takes The Undertaker down, but does nothing more than piss off the Phenom, who goes to the outside to regroup, then returns to the ring to continue destroying the Superfly.

Snuka takes a beating for a while, then starts to make a comeback, hitting a few more heatbutts and knocking the Dead Man down once again with a flying heatbutt, but is unable to keep him down for a 3 count. A cross body from the top rope looks like it could do the job… until The Undertaker catches him and turns it into a Tombstone for the win! Pretty much what they wanted to do at WrestleMania (only from the corner here) but didn’t.

Fun match, decent enough too, and a little better than their WrestleMania bout too. Similar in a lot of ways, just executed better.

Rating: *1/2

The Undertaker Vs Mankind – House Show 24/08/1996

This rare match takes place in Toronto, after SummerSlam, where Paul Bearer turned on The Undertaker and helped Mankind get the win in the boiler room brawl match. What a crazy match stipulation that was, and hell, most of their matches were some weird gimmick, from Boiler Room Brawl to Hell in a Cell and even Buried Alive. But given their feud, and the kind of gimmicks the two of them had, there was always one match I thought they should have had but never did; a casket match. Well, guess what? This baby is a casket match! 😀

The Undertaker wastes no time in trying to cave Mankind’s face in while also trying to get his hands on Paul Bearer. After taking a bump onto the casket, Mankind goes to the outside to regroup, which seems to help as he is able to get the upper hand on the Dead Man once he drags him to the outside too.

The guys recording this match (and entire show) are fucking idiots, constantly complaining that they are hungry, and how this match is “shitty” despite only starting about 2 minutes ago.

Anyway, the match, which is what’s important, not the morons recording this thing lol. Mankind tries to put Undertaker in the casket early, but The Undertaker is still too strong at this point, and easily reverses Mankind into the casket instead! The lid doesn’t close yet though, so the match can continue.

It’s your typical Undertaker/Mankind match, with plenty of great brawling in between attempts to shove each other into the casket. They even go fighting into the crowd, and given the position of the people recording, we actually get to SEE it (making a house show recording more watchable than an ECW TV taping!!!). Chairs are used, and the fans literally swarm around both men and follow them everywhere they go.

Things finally end up back at ring side, where Undertaker decides to put half of Mankind into the casket and repeatedly close it. Maybe he forgot the rules? Or maybe he just wanted to make the bastard HURT :D.

LOL, Undertaker uses the ring steps at one point, and once he is done with them, a bunch of people come to the ringside area, grab the steps from the ring and place them back to where they should be! What if he wanted to use them again dammit?!?!

Just as it seems Undertaker is in firm control, the pain loving Mankind reverses a Tombstone attempt into a Mandible Claw, and rolls Undertaker into the casket one more time! He and Paul try to close the lid, but Undertaker is still breathing (or not, he IS the Dead Man after all 😛 ) and manages to escape.

Mankind puts a stop to Undertaker again, but decides to go to the top rope, only to be caught with a Chokeslam! One Tombstone later, and Mankind is placed in the casket and the lid shuts!

Really good match! The second (of 4 I believe) casket matches I have watched so far for Undertaker Month, and yet another good one! Not close to the level of the Ortons match, but for a House Show match, it’s really good. Better than a lot of TV/PPV ones lol, as tbh only a small handful are worth seeing. I guess the fact they don’t use the casket much and have a typical Undertaker/Mankind match is kinda what makes it good. The less time spent around trying to stuff the other in a small box the better lol.

Rating: ***1/4

The Undertaker Vs Randy Orton – Armageddon 18/12/2005

This feud started on the road to WrestleMania, and gave us 3 tremendous PPV matches and one great TV match. Orton had used his own father to help him win matches. Orton had used the recently deceased Eddie Guerrero’s low rider to crash into The Undertaker and blow him up. Orton and his father had locked The Undertaker inside a casket and set it on fire. And The Undertaker kept coming back. Now, inside the devil’s playground, The Undertaker would get Randy Orton one on one truly for the first time in this long and awesome feud, as Bob Orton would be locked on the outside. So no Bob Orton, no low rider, and no casket to set on fire… how will Randy Orton survive THIS match?

Undertaker had been playing mind games with Orton during the build up to this match, and he had one final mind game to play before the match started; he made sure that it wasn’t a referee who shut the cell door and locking these two men inside… it was The Undertaker. He wanted Orton to know that he WANTED to be here, and there was no way out.

The Dead Man is dominant in the early going. Similar to Shawn Michaels in the first ever Hell in a Cell match, Orton tries to run away from The Undertaker, but ‘Taker doesn’t feel like taking his time like he did back in 1997, so he goes after Orton as quick as possible and proceeds to destroy him. Randy gets some offence in here and there, and reverses a few things, but only really out of desperation because Undertaker is just unstoppable right now.

You can tell just how personal this feud is when Undertaker pulls out a steel chair not too long into the match and brutally smashes it over Orton’s head… TWICE. The first time busts him open, and the second time just makes things worse. I’ve seen more Undertaker matches than I can remember, and it’s not often he is THIS destructive and dominant, and believe me, that’s really saying something.

Orton manages to get hold of a steel chain, but before he can use it The Undertaker takes it from him and begins to choke the life out of the Legend Killer, then long darts him into the cell. Fuck me this is brutal lol, and I must be a sick bastard because I am LOVING every second of it!

At one point, when Undertaker brings the steel steps into the mix, Orton manages to fight back for just a moment, and looks to make a comeback… until the Dead Man boots the steel steps back into the arm of Randy. Comeback… failed.

So what finally puts Orton in control of the match after taking such a beating? And RKO of course! Not a regular one though, instead it’s done with Undertaker’s neck being thrown down into the top rope instead of the mat, which may be worse, I don’t know. What I do know is that it creates enough of an opening for Randy to get his bearings back and make Undertaker pay for everything he has done up to this point.

Just as The Undertaker was a vicious monster while on the offence, Orton is the same. Steel steps, the steel chain, the cell, and a steel chair are all weapons that Orton utilises to payback the Dead Man and bust him open too.

But as vicious as Orton is being, it’s just not enough. After being blown up and set on fire, The Undertaker can not and WILL NOT be stopped it seems. One of my personal favourite HIAC spots comes when Undertaker stands Orton up against the cell wall, goes to the other side of the cell, takes a run up and jumps off the steel steps going knee first into Orton’s head! Spot looked awesome, and I can’t believe I never actually got to see it while watching the PPV live back in the day lol, as the damn satellite feed cut out for a few moments!

The greatness continues with Bob Orton managing to get involved, sticking his arm through the cell, but he ends up getting busted open and knocked down. Undertaker looks to maybe launch himself into Orton while he’s stood against the cell again, but Orton counters with a powerslam into the cell. Oh yeah!

Now the match begins to be a back and forth affair, as both men hit big moves to try and win, but are unable to. The Chokeslam doesn’t work for Undertaker, and a cross body through a table doesn’t work for Orton. Can anything put these men down? Well… the RKO and Tombstone haven’t really come into play yet, but neither man has been in a position to try for their big finishers yet.

The ref gets knocked out and busted open, just as Orton counters a Chokeslam into an RKO just like WM! The cell door is opened for another referee to come in, and who else decides to follow? Bob Orton, who also has The Undertaker’s Urn! After a massive Last Ride, Bob makes his presence felt by taking out the second referee, which results in him taking one hell of a beating from the Dead Man.

Going back to their WM and SS matches, at points in those matches Randy Orton tries to add the ultimate insult to injury by hitting a Tombstone on The Undertaker, but he was always unsuccessful. In the final battle between the two, the Legend Killer FINALLY hits it, believing that it will put an end to the Phenom! It doesn’t, and Undertaker just gets more pissed off, Tombstoning both Bob and Randy to win the match!

Fuck me, this was fantastic. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the casket match given the fact I had only seen it once when it aired live, but I had a good idea about this match having seen it not too long ago when I bought the Hell in a Cell DVD set. I really liked the match back then, but this time around I loved it. Might even make the top 5 HIAC matches list for me now. It was everything a HIAC match SHOULD be. It was brutal, vicious and violent, and it was the culmination of a near year long feud. Too many times now, the HIAC match isn’t even close to the last match in a feud, which is a shame because done right, the HIAC match can be the perfect way to end big feuds. It’s been proven in the past (hell, that’s pretty much why it was invented), and it was proven here. Epic stuff, and best match of their feud, something I wouldn’t have said before.

Rating: ****1/2

The Undertaker Vs Randy Orton & Bob Orton – No Mercy 09/10/2005

Loved this feud, and loved the matches, but I haven’t seen this since it aired. Hell, I wasn’t even watching SD on a regular basis around this time (just catching anything involving The Undertaker on youtube or something), but I saw an ad for the handicap casket match, and ordered the PPV then and there… just hours before it took place lol.

Read my reviews of their other matches to catch me up on what had happened, and I’m really glad I did because there were some ongoing stories in the matches that I might have missed out on had I not bothered to look back. Probably should have posted those reviews BEFORE Undertaker Month so everyone could read them and understand everything in full, but oh well, I’ll post them afterwards instead :P.

As The Undertaker makes his entrance, the Ortons stand in the ring awaiting his arrival, and unlike WM and SS, Randy no longer has a confident look on his face. If he loses this match, he doesn’t simply get pinned or is made to submit… he is locked inside a casket along with his dad.

The Dead Man is backed into a corner when the bell rings, but he ducks an attack from Randy and avoids both his opponents, allowing him to take control of the match, until the numbers game comes into play and Bob Orton low blows the Phenom from behind.

Despite being a two on one match, The Undertaker continues to fight back, and the first chance he gets he asks for the casket to be opened and tries to win the match. Normally The Undertaker likes to beat down his opponents, but in a handicap situation he realises he needs to get this thing over with quickly before he takes too much punishment. Even if one of the opponents is Bob Orton, who retired many years ago, it only takes one small move like a low blow to allow the young Randy Orton to gain control, and given how close Randy came to beating Undertaker at WM, and the fact he got a victory at SummerSlam thanks to his dad’s help, even the legendary Undertaker has to fight to survive.

The double superplex is one of the many really cool spots in the match, especially the fight all 3 men have on the ropes first as Undertaker attempts to fight them off. Another one is when Undertaker is thrown into the casket, and tries to hold the lid open while both Randy and Bob try to close it, so Undertaker decks Bob in the face with a right hand and elbows Orton in the face while he keeps hold of the casket lid with his other hand lol.

We see some great double team work from the Ortons, and Undertaker does a great job with his hope spots and comebacks, and is smart enough to take out Bob, placing him in the casket, so he can try and wear down Randy enough to stick him in there too.

Bob being in the casket helps out Undertaker in a different way to what you might expect; instead of helping him keep this match one on one, when Randy gains control and tries to put Undertaker in, he notices that his dad is still in there, and is distracted long enough for the Dead Man to hit a low blow! Nice revenge spot :).

With the match remaining one on one for a while, we get some of the same greatness between the two that we saw at WM and SS, as well as a SD match too. I really like the way they give us plenty of 2 on 1 action, and then transition nicely into 1 on 1 action, and keeping both segments of the match great.

Bob’s return to the match is really great too. Before he was stuffed inside, he was carrying around a fire extinguisher to try and nail The Undertaker with, but he dropped it in the casket before he could use it. Just as The Undertaker has Randy where he wants him, and asks for the lid to be opened… Bob jumps up and sprays Undertaker in the face, causing him to walk right into an RKO! From here, Undertaker gets put in the casket, but Randy ends up in there too as the lid closes! The lid opens again, and they fight in the casket as Bob tries to help his son. One chair shot later, and Undertaker goes down as the lid shuts! Ortons win!

And then everyone knows the aftermath, it’s the same as the 1998 RR casket match where Kane locks Undertaker inside and sets it on fire. It may have been done before, but it still looks great. Only problem is… it means The Undertaker is gone from TV for a month… and during that month I had tickets for WWE to hopefully see The Undertaker live for the first time. Bastards!

So, personal hate for the finish aside, this was a GREAT match. Hell, I might even place this at the top of the casket match list, ahead of even Undertaker/HBK! The action was awesome, the handicap stipulation was done to perfection, and the finish is cool. Right up there with the WM and SS matches between Undertaker and Orton tbh. Can’t wait to watch their HIAC match to finally finish up reviewing their entire series!

Rating: ****1/4

The Undertaker Vs Hulk Hogan – WWF Tuesday in Texas 03/12/1991

Just 6 days after the Survivor Series, WWF attempted to have a PPV on Tuesday (which means that the 1991 Survivor Series took place on a Wednesday, which I honestly never knew until now lol), but due to poor buyrates they decided against more PPV’s on a Tuesday until 2004. I wonder though, were the buyrates low because it was a Tuesday, or maybe BECAUSE IT TOOK PLACE 6 DAYS AFTER ANOTHER PPV.

Ok, so obviously the big match for this event was the rematch from the Survivor Series, where The Undertaker defeated Hulk Hogan to become the new WWF Champion! Unfortunately the match had some controversy surround it, as Ric Flair got involved, and aided The Undertaker in winning the belt thanks to a Tombstone on a steel chair that the real World’s champion placed in the ring.

Great to hear The Undertaker get a pretty decent pop despite still being a heel at this point, and having beat the world’s favourite wrestler ever (LOL) Hulk Hogan.

Love how the match starts, with Undertaker going right after Hogan and giving him the boots, along with Paul Bearer who does the same! But Hogan recovers instantly and starts to work over the WWF Champion, who takes everything Hogan can throw at him and continues to sit up and go after the former champ.

Even though it looks like Hogan has everything in control, The Undertaker isn’t getting worn down in the slightest, and it’s not long before he turns the match around in his favour, and slowly begins the destruction of Hulkamania!

It’s a truly awesome sight to see Hulk freaking Hogan crawling around on the mat as The Undertaker stands over him, slowly stalking him. As big as Hogan was, in just one year with the company The Undertaker was being made out to be just as big. Awesome.

Hogan gets a few hope spots in, but Undertaker quickly puts a stop to any offence from him. Loved the spot on the outside where Hogan gets reversed with an Irish Whip and goes face first into the ring post :D.

The crowd are super hot for this match too, and the pace seems a lot faster than their SS match, making it much more enjoyable to watch (and I still enjoyed their SS match btw). Undertaker’s offence looks much better here, and Hogan’s hope spots are timed really well and come across really well too.

Just as Hogan makes his big, final comeback, Ric Flair shows up again, but Hogan takes him out with a steel chair before he can do anything! In doing so though, Flair gets knocked into WWF President Jack Tunney, who was there to make sure nothing happened like in the SS match. So with JT down, Flair gets back up and tries to use a chair on Hogan, only for Hogan to send Undertaker face first into it! Undertaker is still going strong though, until Hogan ducks when Paul Bearer tries to hit him in the head with the Urn, and Undertaker gets decked! From there, some ash from the Urn is thrown in Undertaker’s face, and Hogan rolls up the champ for the 3 count! New champ! BOOOOOO!

Sucks that Undertaker only got a 6 day title run, but hey, he beat Hogan for it during a time when very, very few people ever beat Hogan, and when he lost back to Hogan it took a steel chair, an Urn to the head, and ashes in the eyes. He still came out looking pretty fucking strong lol, especially considering the fact he is hit in the head with the WWF Title and knocked over the ropes after the match is over, only for him to land on his feet and walk to the back!

Ok, so lame finish aside (lame because he loses lol), this was a really good match! Much better than I was expecting, and a lot better than their SS match too. Crowd was into it all the way through, Undertaker looked really good here, probably the best he had looked in WWF up to this point, and Hogan did really well too. Finish, while not what I wanted, was at least done in a way to keep The Undertaker looking as strong as can be in defeat, and let’s face it, it didn’t hurt his character or credibility in the slightest.

Rating: ***1/4

The Undertaker Vs Triple H – WWE Smackdown 25/10/2008

In just 2 days time, The Undertaker would go to Cyber Sunday to face The Big Show, while HHH, the WWE Champion, would be in a triple threat match to defend his title. Vickie Guerrero, the SD… GM at the time (?) no doubt wanted to make sure both men didn’t enter that PPV 100% as she had issues with both superstars.

They take it slow in the early going, and Undertaker keeps getting the better of The Game. HHH comes out swinging with some big right hands, but loses that battle against the better striker. Interesting to see Undertaker taking HHH down and going after the arm more than usual, and even going for a hammer lock into a half nelson pin attempt. No doubt it was due to the respect Undertaker has for Triple H and knowing that he truly is The Game, and even The Undertaker needs to take him out quickly, especially just 3 days before a big PPV match against the world’s largest athlete.

Undertaker makes a slight mistake, and ends up leg first on the top turnbuckle when HHH moves. HHH tries to go after the leg, but The Undertaker uses his power to fight out of it, and we get a great back and forth sequence between the two for a good 10 minutes or so (pretty much the rest of the match lol), where neither man gains full control, but does enough for a couple of near falls here and there. This whole back and forth stuff makes for a great TV main event, and also keeps both guys strong during the match. After all, HHH is the WWE Champion, and The Undertaker is The Undertaker, and both men are going into big PPV matches in 2 days time, and need to look strong if the people are to get behind them.

We then go into the finisher reversal stuff, until Undertaker finally gets a Last Ride in, and The Big Show shows up to attack the Dead Man and get HHH DQ’d.

The match is pretty good, and has a Big Match feel to it, but other than it being two of the WWE’s biggest starts going at it and coming across as being equals the entire time, there isn’t much to it storytelling wise. Fun to watch, and a good TV main event, and some good build to the PPV by making both guys looks strong, then Big Show and Vladimir looking evil when they show up to interfere (Vlad comes out and attacks HHH once Show is done) when both men are already worn out from the match. Serves its purpose, and did as well as it should have given the circumstances.

Rating: ***

The Undertaker Vs Bam Bam Bigelow – House Show 17/04/1995

These two had a number of matches at House Shows and on TV (non Raw matches if my memory serves me correctly), but they never had anything major between them, and sure as hell no PPV matches. Shame really, especially because it would have made perfect sense for them to have a PPV match in 1995 as The Undertaker was on a quest to destroy Ted DiBiase’s Million Dollar Corporation, and Bigelow was in it. Until he lost to LT at WrestleMania, and was kicked out, turned face, and then released. Had he not turned face, I believe he probably would have had a PPV match or two with The Undertaker in the summer of 1995.

Oh well, sometimes things just don’t happen, so we have to make do with what we got. Let’s see how good the thing we got actually was :).

Bam Bam wants nothing to do with The Undertaker in the early going; resorting to leaving the ring and almost going to the back, causing him to be nearly counted out, which forces him into the ring. He charges at The Undertaker, but not even the near 400lb Bigelow can take down the Dead Man!

Bigelow, despite being a BIG man, bumps around like crazy to make The Undertaker look powerful as hell. Not Shawn Michaels bumping, but impressive bumping none the less lol. Eventually Bigelow gets the upper hand on the outside, using the environment there to his advantage.

Nothing too special about Bam Bam’s control segment, but it really didn’t need to be. Just holding The Undertaker in a sleeper hold was making the fans go crazy trying to get Undertaker back into the match, and any time he got a hope spot in they would love every second of it. It’s that whole “simple” concept again, that can work wonders when done right.

The Undertaker finally makes his big come back following a missed headbutt from the ropes by Bigelow, and that soon leads to an Undertaker victory. Fun match, nothing really memorable or great, but a solid contest between the two. Based on the few matches I have seen from these two, I doubt they would have gone into the “great” territory even with a PPV match, but Undertaker’s gimmick really limited him at this time, as did WWF’s style for the most part. But I would have still liked for it to happen, because it would have still been good.

Rating: **1/4

EDIT: Silly me, I could have sworn this took place in 2006, not 2007 lol, so my mentioning of Undertaker’s feud with Kennedy and Kane’s feud with MVP at the time are, well, wrong :P.

EDIT 2: Silly me again, got the dates mixed up, its actually in Feb of 07 and not November, which is a hell of a lot closer to both feuds I make mention to, plus Undertaker was still having matches against Kennedy, and tag matches against Kennedy and MVP, on TV quite a bit around this time! 🙂

The Undertaker Vs MVP – House Show 11/02/2007

This took place during the time that Undertaker was feuding with Mr Kennedy, and Kane was feuding with MVP, and both feuds would run into each other on numerous occasions through run ins and tag matches (a certain tag match between BOD and Kennedy/MVP from SD 06 is one of the funnest matches I have ever witnessed).

Always nice to see rare house show footage, and given the fact I have access to quite a few, I made sure I watched some Undertaker matches this month that I haven’t gotten around to seeing yet lol. Given my love for SD 06, and the fact I really enjoyed MVP in 06/07, I figured this would be a great choice.

Typical start to an Undertaker match around this time, with Undertaker coming out of his corner when the bell sounds, and the opponent trying his best to avoid being caught by the Dead Man. And we all know how well that works lol. But MVP does a pretty good job at hanging in there and avoiding Old School, but makes the mistake of trying to superplex The Undertaker, only to still come back and actually land the move! A superplex isn’t a big special move by any means, but it’s not often The Undertaker gets hit with one, so when he sits up in VINTAGE~! Dead Man style, he makes it his mission to take down MVP, using Old School successfully this time to help him along his way.

Some nice arm work from Undertaker here too. He does a lot of basic arm holds in the early part of his matches for the match part, as a way of gaining control, but it’s always really good when he follows up on it rather than JUST using it to gain control. Unfortunately MVP still finds a way to get out of this and begins work on the leg, as Undertaker does his best to counter and escape. Awesome selling from The Undertaker too, something I feel a lot of people don’t give him nearly enough credit for, just because he sits up every now and then lol. Truth is, the man is one of the better sellers in the WORLD these days.

MVP is great here too, constantly finding ways to break the momentum of The Undertaker whenever he gets a hope spot in, and makes sure to always go back to the leg. Would have loved a full on feud between these two after the Kennedy/Undertaker feud, but obviously Undertaker moved on to Batista and the World Title, so it was never meant to be. Could still happen at some point these days maybe, if MVP turned heel again and became interesting, and Undertaker was healthy enough to work a full program.

Eventually the veteran instincts of the Dead Man come into play against the rookie, and The Undertaker is back on the offence again, this time on the outside. To MVP’s credit though, once they get back in the ring he goes right back after the leg and puts himself back in control!

The Undertaker eventually makes his big comeback after escaping a figure four leg lock the same way he does against Flair, and despite MVP’s best efforts, Undertaker hits the Chokeslam and Tombstone for the win.

Really good match here. Got around 15-18 minutes, had great selling by The Undertaker, great leg work by MVP who was also really vicious in keeping The Undertaker down, and good comeback spots from ‘Taker too. Almost as good as the Undertaker/Kennedy matches.

Rating: ***1/2