April 18, 2017
Death and Taxes are the only two things that are certain in our lifetime. Yet, if you were to compare the careers of IRS and the Undertaker you’d realize that those were two completely separate careers where one faltered out around the mid 90s’ while the other one went on for 27 years and as of Wrestlemania, finally appears to be over. Because of that, I wanted to write about the career of the Undertaker as I got to experience a lot of it, some of it I don’t remember because I was so young, but there is a LOT of it that I remember.
Then in 2000 he dawned a new gimmick, a more human like gimmick, as he became the American Badass. During this three year run, he would bring about hell wherever he went. Riding a motorcycle to the ring and becoming a massive, well, badass he would go on to win championships in that three year span while giving the people an interesting look at a different type of Undertaker.
In 2003 the Undertaker returned to Wrestlemania 20 to face his brother Kane. The biggest story in this match was the return of the deadman persona. Superpowers and all the Deadman came back with a vengeance and continued his Wrestlemania Domination. From there for the next 13 years the Undertaker continued his domination of the ring.
The man was a mythical entity that really could only be summed up by Awesome. He was a man who had a ton of respect for this business, and loved the fans and the job he did night in and night out. Hell, the Undertaker came to prominence in an era where there wasn’t social media or anything of the like, so he pretty much was always in character whenever you saw him in public.
I personally got the pleasure to see the Undertaker wrestle twice. Once came as part of the Elimination Chamber PPV that came into St. Louis some years ago. In fact, it was the PPV that set up his feud with Shawn Michaels for Wrestlemania. That match was one of the classics and I have to say that it is one match that is still revered as one of the best in Mania history. The second time was as a team with Kane on the 1000th episode of Raw as they destroyed a group of jobbers.
For the next 8 years the Undertaker would go on to have many memorable matches at Wrestlemania, but Wrestlemania 25 and 26 were the start of the decline in the Deadmans’ full time tenure. The man had an astounding run and left it all in the ring. The locker room will never be the same, the company will never be the same, the wrestling world will never be the same.
In the words of every single wrestling fan on the planet who loved watching you for the last 27 years, Thank you Taker for all you’ve done. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go dry my eyes and rewatch Taker vs. HHH in a Hell in a Cell from Wrestlemania 28. Until next week where I’ll talk about the Rise of AJ Styles, I’m Kyle Robinson picking the pen up and closing the book on this subject.