Reassessing The Undertaker: Mark vs Mark Part 3

Mark B.

Welcome to the third instalment of Mark vs Mark, the series where I reassess my opinion of The Undertaker. If you have read any of the previous articles in this series, then you should know what you are in for. If not, then the previous entries in this series can be found here and here.

Previous articles in this series have featured The Undertaker meeting Mankind, vanquishing Vader, beating Bret Hart, and smashing Steve Austin. This next batch of matches took place in 2001 & 2002. It’s the BikerTaker era, which coincides with the period of my wrestling fandom where I regularly watched WWE. The matches in this article feature two rising stars in Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy, as well as Kurt Angle.

Match 6 – Hardcore match:  Rob Van Dam vs The Undertaker, Vengeance 2001, 9th December 2001, San Diego, California

This was the first PPV after the end of the Invasion storyline. Of all the names introduced as part of that angle, I still maintain that Rob Van Dam came out looking the strongest from the angle. Booker T may have had more big matches against the likes of The Rock and The Undertaker, but RVD felt like the hot new thing. He was the new, exciting high-risk guy now that the era of Hardys/Dudleys/Edge & Christian stunt show tag matches was over. RVD received a loud crowd reaction, arguably louder than The Undertaker’s. In terms of appearance, The Undertaker came out on his Motorcycle with probably the most office work suitable haircut and beard combo of his WWF career.

This was such a blast compared to everything else so far on the Mark vs Mark playlist. It flew by thanks to the pace and the short run time. There was some down time with a couple of walk and brawl segments, but other than that, this was great. As a mid-card match, it delivered everything you wanted it to. It was very much a PPV WWF Hardcore title match, with the usual plunder, set pieces and tropes, but RVD’s freshness elevated this match. Literally in the case of his big cross body off of a balcony.

In terms of content, this match was not much more than RVD’s usual high spots, some traditional early 2000’s WWF hardcore spots and then some big moments on the stage for the final minutes. The highlight of which was The Undertaker ducking a Van Daminator and Chokeslamming RVD off the entrance stage and through 2 tables on the floor below. Despite that, it was exactly what it needed to be: Incredibly fun and entertaining.

The first thing that struck me here about The Undertaker was his generosity. He sold everything for RVD, making the relative newcomer look like a threat right up until the end. RVD got constant opportunities to do what he does best. When The Undertaker needed to catch RVD, he did it well and with no fuss. It was a clear case of The Undertaker understanding the briefing: Make RVD look strong and impressive, and make the match look cool.  The other thing about this match was how much more expressive and vocal The Undertaker was. He provided plenty of grunts and grumbles. While his facial expressions were not to the level of a William Regal or a Minoru Suzuki, it was still a clear sign of The Undertaker feeling that he could do more in this area. In summary, this was a fun, enjoyable match where The Undertaker put RVD over strongly and he seemed to enjoy doing things that he had shied away from a few years earlier.

Match 7 – Ladder match:  The Undertaker vs Jeff Hardy, RAW 475, 1st July 2002, Manchester, New Hampshire

This was a TV title match with a midcard act in the middle of a PPV build. It was a match where The Undertaker dominated, and some of his control sequences were a little too dominant and methodical for me. Despite all of those elements, this match was great

Structurally, this was pro wrestling at its simplest: the face has a hot start, gets dominated by the heel and has a couple of big hope spots before losing. Without Jeff Hardy, this match would have been nowhere near as good as it was. His insane levels of popularity at this point meant that the crowd were invested to a ludicrous extent. His history with Ladder matches gave the impression that he might have a chance. Hardy’s performance was great. He sold well, and he showed guts and fire when he was allowed to get some offence in. His punch flurry comeback felt incredibly reminiscent of 1996-1997 Undertaker. The big hope spots, with a Hurricanrana to the floor and a chairshot while The Undertaker tried to hit the Last Ride, were note perfect. Both moments felt like huge, spontaneous opportunities and the crowd reacted appropriately. Even Hardy’s post-match guts and promo were great. This felt like a star making performance, and the structure was a big part of that.

It’s interesting to contrast this match to the previous year’s RVD match. There the structure was designed to showcase RVD by letting him do lots of cool looking moves. Here, the match was designed to limit what Hardy could do, but rely on his connection with the crowd to get them behind him. His limited offence was all about desperation and showing heart. At no point did Hardy feel like he had any real control. The structure worked incredibly well in that regard, aside from the fact that The Undertaker would have won easily if he did not decide to hurt Hardy some more. In hindsight, Hardy should have crawled into the ring when The Undertaker first tried to climb the ladder.

The Undertaker was very good at working to the stipulation. His ladder spots were simplistic, but in a good way. A large man does not need to do something fancy when he can just kick a metal object at you. While The Undertaker was not massively expressive, there was a building sense of frustration towards the finish that worked with the structure and story. Like the previous match, The Undertaker sold when he needed to and was vulnerable when he needed to be. The show of respect at the end really worked as well as an ending, closing this chapter as The Undertaker moved on to the next one.   

I can’t think of many WWE Underdog matches that are better than this one, especially post 2000. At times they convinced you that Hardy could win the title, which is crazy when you consider that this was a week before a PPV.

Match 8 – The Undertaker vs Kurt Angle vs The Rock, Vengeance 2002, 21st July 2002, Detroit, Michigan

The nature of three-way matches means that it is a bit harder to judge a single performer in a three-way match. Some three-way matches focus on the competitors having distinctive roles. The TNA Unbreakable 2005 three way is a good example of that: Samoa Joe is the powerhouse, AJ Styles relies on athleticism, Christopher Daniels is the wily veteran. This match did not really have that. Instead, from a match story perspective all three wrestlers felt interchangeable.

In terms of structure, it was a WWF triple threat match while also feeling very different. The structure had the classic two men in, one man out format for most of the match, although the transitions where they swapped who was on the outside were incredibly slick. When I say that this felt very different, I’m referring to the second half which felt like a long finishing sequence of almost non-stop signature moves. It is that aspect that really makes the match feel like something special. The action is constant and exciting, full of big spots designed to get big reactions while still feeling natural. There were no contrived double teams or sequences. What felt strange was seeing The Undertaker use Angle’s Angle Slam during a brief period of finisher theft. As a match, this had very little fat and it flew by due to being less than twenty minutes long. I think very few people will watch this and not be thoroughly entertained.

My issue with the match was that I found it hard to tease out anything new in terms of analyzing The Undertaker. Did he fit into the style and structure of the match? Yes. His move-set was a great fit, he kept up with the pace of the second half and his selling continued to be very good. The finish with him reaching over just too late to break up a pinfall was very good. This is both one of the best matches on the playlist and one of the least interesting for the purpose of the playlist. The Rock and Kurt Angle in 2002 are just better at demanding your focus and attention. The Undertaker is very good in this, but he’s the one you think about after you remember the other two.

This batch of matches was interesting as it was an example of The Undertaker working with less experienced wrestlers. It was examples of adapting to different stipulations and structuring matches around the strengths of the opponents: RVD’s unorthodox offence and high spots, Hardy’s crowd reaction and high flying, Angle’s finisher spam heavy finishing stretches. In the first two cases The Undertaker sold and helped both opponents look good, although in both of those examples he also looked dominant in different ways. It is probably easy to be generous when matches are designed to make you look really strong. It’s interesting that, in the period where The Undertaker had less constraints on his character and his mannerisms, he felt a little lacking and unengaging at times. Although, that could be the nature of the matches rather than him as a performer. Of course, the next batch of matches will involve a very different looking Undertaker.
 

mark-b


Co-host of the Must See Matches podcast.