Category: Mark Calaway Project

The Undertaker Vs RVD – Vengeance 09/12/2001

The first major match in Undertaker’s heel turn at the end of 2001. Loved his heel run during this time; going around demanding respect, beating the hell out of people, and eventually winning the WWE Undisputed Title!

It all started with making JR join the Vince McMahon Kiss My Ass Club, then he would attack random people and destroy whoever he had a match with, and then he set his sights on RVD. No true explanation as to why, but his heel turn was all based around wanting respect which he most definitely had, so I guess he didn’t need a real reason to go after RVD lol. Despite loving this time in his career, it didn’t really make that much sense :p.

The Hardcore title is on the line here, as RVD was the champion and it’s what allowed him to remain with WWF after the Alliance lost at Survivor Series. Always remember his entrance here, when he showed up with the new haircut, and coming out on his bike with the sunglasses; reminds me of the Terminator in T2 lol. And anything or anyone that can remind me of what I consider to be the greatest movie of all time is awesome :).

RVD is over like fuck, and as the RVD chants start, The Undertaker gets more and more pissed, which can only be bad for Mr PPV. ‘Taker shows RVD no respect by going for an early cover, while RVD shows Undertaker plenty of respect by throwing out some HUGE moves early on to try and keep the Dead Man down. No slow build here, both guys start off with big blows and big moves (well, RVD is the one throwing out the big moves, but that’s most of his arsenal anyway lol). Normally I would be against shit like this, BUT there are times where it’s done right, and where it makes sense, and this is one of those times. For starters, it’s a hardcore match, and everyone expects crazy shit anyway. Then we have Undertaker who wants to destroy RVD for disrespecting him, and we have RVD who needs to fight for his life and his title against the Phenom.

They spend little time in the ring, instead opting to go into the crowd where RVD uses his environment to pull out some crazy moves, while Undertaker takes everything RVD can throw at him and continues to come back, including throwing him over a guard rail that lands on Van Dam’s face, so Undertaker stands on it lol. Gotta love Undertaker in response to the RVD chants… “RVD’s getting’ his ass kicked!”

But, this is wrestling, and Undertaker is an old school guy, so him saying that is basically jinxing himself, allowing RVD to make a comeback and hit a huge crossbody from about 15 feet in the air. Now it’s time for RVD to really get into a rhythm and show why he is the hardcore champ and why he did so well in ECW. Undertaker sells all the shots really well, another thing I loved about his heel run. He was so animated with his selling, but not to the point it was cartoony.

Some awesome back and forth action from here on out as they battle at the top of the ramp. More crazy RVD moves, Undertaker disappearing behind the curtain and returning with a steel chair, RVD using it against him etc etc. Really run to watch, and lots more going on than I am writing down lol.

Finish is great, and really well executed. Undertaker could have easily fallen back by mistake, or RVD could have slipped and screwed something up, but both men do exactly what they planned, and the Dead Man sent RVD to hell with a chokeslam off the stage! New hardcore champ! RVD already added some credibility to a belt that let’s face it, meant fuck all this time the year before, and with Undertaker holding it? Credibility goes through the fucking roof!

Loved this match. A great back and forth brawl, and while the finish was a big spot, they didn’t go into spot territory like some of RVD’s other hardcore title matches ended up like. Sure, RVD hit some crazy moves, but against someone like The Undertaker they weren’t as big as they would be against the likes of Jeff Hardy etc. Basically, if this match had been against a smaller guy (both in size and status in the business), both men battling back as much as they did all the way through after the moves RVD did would probably go into the no selling territory, but against The Undertaker, it’s much more believable that he would be taken down and hurt from the moves at first, but could easily make a comeback not too long after. Or maybe my man love for the Dead Man has just made me blind. Whatever :P.

Rating: ***3/4

The Undertaker Vs Brock Lesnar – Unforgiven 22/09/2002

One of the things I loved about Smackdown 2002/2003 is how a lot of the matches and feuds were mainly based around competition and being the best. No crazy Attitude Era style bullshit, which could be entertaining but also could be stupid as fuck, and got boring after a while too. Brock Lesnar was the young rookie with tremendous power and amazing amateur wrestling skills. The Undertaker was the legendary phenom who had been on top for the last 12 years. Lesnar had beaten the likes of the Hardy Boys, RVD, Hogan and even The Rock to become the KOTR (RVD) and WWE Champion (Rock). Now he would face his biggest challenge to date against The Undertaker. Simples!

Of course, they added some more to that to make it a little more interesting, since it WAS the main event feud for Smackdown. Undertaker’s wife at the time, Sara, was pregnant. Lesnar and Heyman brought up how Undertaker had his family to look after, but Lesnar considered the WWE Title family, and he would have to look after that. Cue Heyman being all creepy around Sara, Undertaker getting pissed off, and Lesnar cheapshotting the Dead Man and we have a personal feud in the making by doing very little really. Goes to show you that you don’t need to go all Vince Russo to create interesting storylines…

The match begins with Undertaker getting the better of Lesnar, showing his 18 years of experience (12 in WWF/E). Lesnar gets frustrated and the Dead Man capitalises on the mistakes the rookie is making. Nice simple start to the match, but extremely well executed! Again, just goes to show you that you don’t NEED crazy shit, whether it be storylines or SPOTZ~! to create a good match. It’s all about the storytelling, and sometimes the simplest stories are the best.

Undertaker is in firm control for the first 5 minutes or so, using his experience to his advantage. He knows when to use his strength and when to use his speed, and when to use his wrestling ability, to throw Lesnar off his game and remain in control. Unfortunately the wildcard for the match is Paul Heyman, the agent of Brock Lesnar, on the outside. One small distraction from Heyman and even The Undertaker loses focus (after Heyman nearly loses some teeth via a Big Boot lol).

The powerful Brock Lesnar locks his arms around the waist of The Undertaker and begins to squeeze as hard as he can, along with powering up the Dead Man and slamming him to the mat just like his amateur wrestling days. Again though, experience shines through and The Undertaker escapes, and begins to give Lesnar a taste of his own medicine as he works over the body with vicious rights and lefts.

But, just like Undertaker’s experience keeps coming back to help him out, the distraction of Heyman is there again to give Lesnar an opening, and he opens up Undertaker’s head with the WWE Title! It doesn’t quite work the way Brock would have hoped; instead Undertaker gets pissed off and unleashes hell on the champ.

One ref bump and Matt Hardy interference attempt later, and Lesnar is back in charge and going right after the open wound in Undertaker’s head.

Things start to get really crazy now with yet another ref bump, and its times like this that remind me of the HBK/Undertaker feud from 1997. I’ve said it a few times in the past, but the build up to the HIAC matches in both feuds are pretty similar. With the HBK feud, Ground Zero is the first match they have, which ends up becoming a crazy brawl with no winner, leading into a HIAC match between the two. Here, we get something similar with the ref constantly getting talking out, weapons getting involved, and then both men refusing to stop punching each other in the face causing a no contest, leading to a HIAC match between the two :).

Both the Ground Zero match and this match have pretty cool endings too. Ground Zero sees The Undertaker diving over the ropes onto the entire roster, just to get his hands on HBK. Here we see Undertaker launch Lesnar through the Unforgiven ring set.

So yeah, awesome match here. Not entirely sure which I prefer now; Ground Zero or this. Like I said, both are similar in how they help build up to HIAC matches, but both are executed very differently. The fight at the end of this one is probably better than the HBK brawl as both men can really go back and forth, whereas HBK was more about running away lol. The storytelling here was pretty great too, definitely better than the GZ match. Yeah, think I prefer this one now lol. Not only does it do an awesome job of building to HIAC, but it’s a fantastic match on its own too. It’s been so long since I saw it that I don’t remember is being anywhere near this good!

Rating: ****1/4

The Undertaker Vs Ric Flair – House Show 10/09/1992

Something nice and rare; Dead Man Undertaker Vs WWF Champ Ric Flair!

Undertaker just stands in the corner as Flair lets him know who the champ is, and proceeds to “wooooooooooooo!” in the Dead Man’s face and then push him. Which results in Flair getting shoved down and thrown around.

Plenty of stalling from Flair, then some attempts at chops and punches while The Undertaker just stands there lol. Amazing how protected The Undertaker was, even just 2 years into his WWF career, and in the ring with the WWF Champion lol.

It takes a missed leaping lariat from the Dead Man, and an attack from Perfect, followed by Flair coming from behind to FINALLY give the champ the advantage. Great seeing Flair work his stuff even at a house show.

The match is all about Undertaker being unstoppable, and Flair being the dirtiest player in the game, heeling his way out of a beating lol. So much fun to watch. We even get a glimpse of the future as Undertaker is put in the Figure Four, then sits up and grabs Flair by the throat to escape (for those not understanding what I mean… watch Flair Vs Undertaker from WM 18 lol)!

In the end, all the Flair stalling and cheating isn’t enough to take down the Dead Man, so it takes Mr Perfect and a steel chair to end the match on a DQ. Undertaker Tombstones Flair for good measure, and while he picks up the win, he doesn’t win the title.

Just pure fun. No big spots, no crazy moves or reversals, just two old school guys working their gimmicks to make the match as entertaining as possible. Flair stalled, he begged, he cheated. Undertaker ummm… no sold and looked powerful. Both did exactly as you would have expected them to do back in 1992 (and as far as Flair goes… 2010 even lol). It isn’t a masterpiece, and it’s certainly not as good as their WM 18 match (funny to think they could do so much better in 10 years time!), but its damn fun and far from anything bad too.

Rating: **1/2

The Undertaker Vs Muhammed Hassan – Great American Bash 24/07/2005

Talk about a controversial gimmick and angle with Hassan and his short lived feud with The Undertaker. Might not have been too bad if the London Underground hadn’t been bombed around this time (a segment on SD with 5 masked men attacking Undertaker and then Hassan choking him was removed from the UK version of the show due to the London incident), but unfortunately wrestling doesn’t control what sick bastards decide to do and when.

Anyway, I’ll try to keep going with the review without bringing up the real life stuff.

I don’t remember much of this feud other than the SD segment that got banned in the UK, so I have no idea WHY Hassan is going after The Undertaker. If this was still his American Bad Ass days, then the story would have written itself, but as the Dead Man, I honestly can’t think of an actual reason lol.

So, the match is a #1 contenders match as well, no doubt Hassan bitched and moaned about not getting a title opportunity, similar to what he did on Raw before getting drafted. The gimmick itself was pretty great, and Hassan played it brilliantly, it’s just a shame things had to end the way they did.

The same masked men that attacked The Undertaker on SD are on the outside surrounding the ring, almost like a lumberjack match, except they aren’t officially part of the match. Undertaker takes the fight to Hassan early on, but something happens to the ref (I’ve already forgot lol, and cba looking back), and Undertaker gets sent to the outside where one of the masked men chokes him.

Hassan has control for a few minutes, until Undertaker takes him down with a couple of right hands. Knowing that this is pretty much a 6 on 1 match with the guys on the outside, the Dead Man goes out of the ring and takes the fight to them. He levels one of them, but another comes from behind and chokes him with some wire or something, and Hassan is back in control.

Again The Undertaker fights his way back in control, and all 5 men from the outside come into the ring one at a time, and Undertaker takes them all out, then Chokeslams Hassan for the win. Wow. That’s it? Lasted less than 10 minutes lol. Then again, due to the SD segment that got banned, and the situation surrounding it, WWE were forced to take Hassan off of TV, and this would be his final match, so it makes sense that the match wouldn’t be too long and Undertaker would look unstoppable for the most part. Real shame, because this probably could have been great with another 10 minutes added to it, and more Hassan in control.

The match isn’t very memorable, but what they do in the short time they have IS good. However, it’s the aftermath that everyone remembers. Undertaker continues to destroy Hassan’s men one by one, including putting Davari through the announcers table… but through the bottom panel, which is something I don’t think I have ever seen before or since.

The Undertaker isn’t done yet though… Hassan is getting away. One chokeslam on the steel ramp and Hassan looks to be done… but Undertaker isn’t. He removes a section of the floor on the rampway, and gives Hassan a Last Ride through the hole to the concrete floor!

Rating: **

The Undertaker Vs Steve Austin – WWF Raw 24/06/1996

This takes place the night after the King of the Ring. Steve Austin won the KOTR tournament, and The Undertaker lost to Mankind after Paul Bearer “inadvertently” hit him in the head with the Urn, allowing Mankind to lock in the Mandible Claw.

For Austin, this match could be another stepping stone in his career. He just won the KOTR tournament, and now he had the chance to beat one of the biggest stars in the company.

For The Undertaker, this match would serve as a way to take out the frustration of losing the night before. Austin knows this, and makes damn sure to take the fight to ‘Taker before the bell. Despite this approach, Undertaker is able to fight off Austin, while The King gets up from commentary to question Paul Bearer over the incident the night before lol!

The match ends up on the outside, where Austin goes head first into the ring post and the steel steps. Not even the KOTR winner is able to slow down a pissed off Dead Man!

Not only are all the shots to the face a way for Undertaker to take out some of the frustration he has, but there is also a chance Undertaker can bust Austin’s lip open again, which required stitches the night before! Funnily enough, the one shot to the face, out of the ring post, steel steps and everything else, that looks the worst for potentially busted Austin open again, is a boot in the corner! I’m surprised that it didn’t cause the lip to bleed, regardless of the prior injury lol.

We go to a commercial break, and when we come back, The Undertaker is STILL dominating, until he makes one mistake by threatening a referee for telling him to get off Austin in the corner, and Austin charges out with a chop block to the knee. Time for some VINTAGE~! Undertaker/Austin match leg work!

During the leg work (which does get a little boring in places), Goldust comes out to do commentary. During the Mankind/Undertaker feud, Undertaker was also feuding with Goldust, and Goldust was getting the better of The Undertaker in the matches thanks to interference from Mankind. Always good when multiple feuds can be going at the same time between the same people, and they don’t turn into clusterfucks. It’s something that WWF did AMAZINGLY well in 1997 with Bret/Shawn/Undertaker/Kane for the second part of the year.

Finally The Undertaker is able to escape the grasp of Austin, hitting a chokeslam and going for a tombstone before Goldust gets involved and the match ends in a DQ.

Not too pleased with a DQ ending, but at least it makes sense. Austin couldn’t really afford to lose after winning the KOTR, and The Undertaker couldn’t afford to lose after losing at KOTR. With Goldust still involved in a feud with The Undertaker, getting involved in the match was perfect to continue their feud and not give either man a real win or loss. Aside from the DQ ending, this was a really good TV match for the most part. Undertaker looked strong and pissed off at the start, dominated Austin as if it was Mankind, and Austin looked awesome by dominating the second half. Just a shame some of the leg work got a little boring.

Rating: **3/4

The Undertaker Vs Mankind – King of the Ring 23/06/1996

This is the first match between these two, despite their feud starting almost 3 months before! And it’s not like there weren’t any PPV’s between Mankind’s debut/first attack on The Undertaker and KOTR either, so it was nice for a feud to have a slow build before going into a match! Also, despite the fact I have seen all their other matches before, this is my first time viewing this one!

Paul Bearer comes out alone, and The Undertaker doesn’t appear to be anywhere. Is Undertaker afraid of Mankind? Hell no! He’s lying in wait on the top rope, and once the lights come on, Undertaker launches himself into Mankind with a massive clothesline!

It’s not very often that The Undertaker needs to attack an opponent from behind like this, which just goes to show you how much of a threat Mankind was being made out to be, even against The Undertaker.

Undertaker starts off strong thanks to the clothesline, but it isn’t long before Mankind gains control and starts to beat down the Phenom with moves like his signature elbow drop from the apron to the floor. He tries to use a steel chair on the Dead Man, but this would be a mistake as The Undertaker kicks it back into the face of Mankind, and then back drops him onto the concrete! Awesome spot for WWF 1996.

His years as Cactus Jack allow Mankind to take this kind of punishment and still come back, even allowing him to go for the Mandible Claw for the first time, a move that has put down The Undertaker on a number of occasions leading up to this match. However, knowing how deadly the move is, Undertaker makes damn sure he blocks it, even if it forces Mankind to lock in another hold to wear him down.

Out of desperation The Undertaker goes new school with a flurry of rights and lefts to escape the hold and put down Mankind (get it? New school… moves he would do in his later years? Oh shut up, it’s clever dammit! :P). Mankind again shows his toughness by taking all of those shots and STILL coming back to regain control, which leads to an awesome running knee to The Undertaker’s face while he is leaning against the steel steps (Mankind runs around half of the ring to build up speed too lol). At this point though, both men are in another zone, and continue to take punishment while also being able to dish it out, which The Undertaker demonstrates by placing a steel chair in the way of Mankind when he goes for another elbow off the apron! Some really awesome stuff here, just a big, wild brawl while keeping within the rules enough for the match to continue. Similar to what they would do at the Revenge of the ‘Taker PPV in 1997.

When a monstrous Piledriver doesn’t put Undertaker away, Mankind loses it, screaming and pulling his hair out. Always loved the Mankind character for things like that. Since the big Piledriver didn’t work, Mankind attempts to use the Urn, but Bearer takes it off him, leading to a Mandible Claw attempt once again. Paul Bearer sets Mankind up to be hit in the head with the Urn, but Mankind moves, and Undertaker is levelled with the Urn, put in the Mandible Claw, and this one is over! Even with the interference of Paul Bearer, getting a win like this over Undertaker was HUGE back then, and would still be huge today.

Really awesome match, pretty much what I have come to expect out of these two men. Mankind was great for Undertaker’s career, finally giving him someone GOOD to work with instead of the usual giants and obese guys that couldn’t move or work. With Mankind, Undertaker got to unleash his true potential that rarely got the opportunity to come out. They mix the brawling perfectly into a standard match so it doesn’t come across as a street fight, but at the same time it’s not a regular match you would normally see with no stipulations or anything. Not their best match together, only around the 4^th best, but that just speaks volumes of the series they had together. Glad I finally got around to seeing it thanks to Undertaker’s latest set, something I probably wouldn’t have done for a while until I got around to buying the KOTR DVD’s.

Rating: ***3/4

The Undertaker & Ric Flair Vs Hulk Hogan & Sid – WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event 08/02/1992

Damn, what a huge match this is on paper for 1992! The Undertaker beat Hogan for the belt a couple of months ago with the help of Flair, then Hogan won it back a few days later (booooo!) but there was still controversy involved in the finish. This caused the WWF Title to be vacated, and at the Royal Rumble Ric Flair lasted nearly one hour and won the title when Sid, Hogan’s “friend” helped Flair eliminate Hogan! On top of that, we have Hogan and Flair, the big feud that never really happened in WWF for whatever reason, and Sid/Hogan who would main event WrestleMania a month later, and The Undertaker/Sid who would main event WrestleMania 5 years later! Just plenty of interesting little stories that I like lol.

Hogan and Sid have apparently put what happened at the Royal Rumble behind them, and facing 2 opponents like Flair and Undertaker, they NEED to be on the same page.

Flair and Sid start, and Flair bumps around like only Flair can, before Sid tags in Hogan. Interesting to hear McMahon himself mention that this could be a prelude to WrestleMania. Anyways, more Flair bumping, followed by The Undertaker getting tagged in and taking his share of bumps too. Both heels are really putting over Hogan and Sid in the early going and the fans are loving it!

A mistake from Sid costs his team control, allowing Undertaker and Flair to dominate and double team the big man until Hogan has seen enough (after about a minute lol) and evens the odds. Sid doesn’t look too happy with Hogan essentially taking credit for cleaning house even though Sid was right there with him. Sid probably gains more hate for Hogan when it’s his constant interference that allows Undertaker to sneak up behind him and regain control of the match once again.

The structure of the match is a little odd, but nothing that makes me dislike it or anything. It’s just odd in the way that they keep trying to go into a good old Southern Tag Formula, but the babyfaces seem firmly against this as they continue to make comebacks and tag in and out lol.

Hogan takes his turn as the FIP, while Sid stands on the apron looking not so concerned and makes no attempt to help out or even reach out for a tag. Of course it doesn’t matter THAT much as Hogan keeps making comebacks lol, but thanks to Sid’s new found dislike for Hogan, Flair and Undertaker are still able to remain in control for the most part.

Aside from the structure of the match, we do get some decent action, but at this point Undertaker is still limited in what he can do due to his character, and Hogan limits what Flair can do to him because, well, Hogan sucks. Luckily it’s the story of Sid getting sick of Hogan that keeps me into the match despite a weird match structure and only decent wrestling.

Eventually Sid just walks out of the match just as Hogan was able to make a tag, leaving Undertaker and Flair to double team the Hulkster, causing a DQ. Holy crap, even Heenan mentions Hogan and Flair at WrestleMania, saying to McMahon something like “How crazy is it going to be at WrestleMania when Hogan and Flair face off in the ring for the title?”. Weird as hell that they were clearly wanting that match to happen, yet at the same time building to Sid Vs Hogan. Maybe (and this is based on internet rumours lol) Vince was hoping Hogan would finally give in and say yes to a match with Flair, but just in case, Vince was making sure he had a backup match (Sid).

So, the match is… ok. Nothing special at all, and while the angle with Sid and Hogan was interesting, it wasn’t really done that good. Honestly, and I know I probably sound like a broken record when it comes to talking about tag matches these days, if they had just gone with a good old STF for the entire match, and built up to that big hot tag at the end only for Sid to walk away, I think it could have been done really well. Unfortunately Sid walking away hardly got any heat as Hogan was constantly making comebacks in the match and looking strong against two men, and even had multiple chances at making a tag. The decent at best in ring action would have come off so much better too imo. Sigh, when will people learn that STF is the only way tag matches should be wrestled unless the teams involved really know what they are doing and can pull off a different formula :P.

Rating: *

The Undertaker Vs Mr Kennedy – WWE Smackdown 20/04/2007