Reassessing The Undertaker: Mark vs Mark Part 4
- Reassessing The Undertaker: Mark vs Mark Part 5 - July 11, 2024
- Reassessing The Undertaker: Mark vs Mark Part 4 - June 27, 2024
- Reassessing The Undertaker: Mark vs Mark Part 3 - June 25, 2024
Welcome to the fourth instalment of Mark vs Mark, a series of articles where I reassess my opinion of The Undertaker. If by some weird chance you haven’t read the other articles, they can be found here, here, and here. If you have, then thank you for putting up with me. This part is from after The Undertaker has abandoned his motorcycle and found his hat. In this batch of matches we have a poorly thought-out gimmick match, the first WrestleMania match on the list and maybe the most interesting match on the list.
Match 9 – Last Ride match: John Bradshaw Layfield vs The Undertaker, No Mercy 2004, 3rd October 2004, East Rutherford, New Jersey
According to Cagematch, this was the 2nd best match on this show. Wow, I am so glad that I missed this show at the time. This match had some great spots, like the Tombstone on the steps and a great looking announce table chokeslam. The structure, where most of the match was outside of the ring, did play into the stipulation. The vehicular stunt after the match ended was memorable. The rest… was not so good.
The main issue with the match was the stipulation, where the winner had to throw their opponent into a hearse on the entrance stage. Most of the action took place near the announce tables, on the other side of the ring to the hearse. Every big spot was so far away from the hearse that the tension and drama was immediately negated. In hindsight, the obvious way to overcome this would have been to have the big spots and the brawling much closer to the hearse. It was almost like the WWE tropes got in the way of the stipulation, and the stipulation got in the way of the match. The finish, with John Heidenreich sitting in the hearse with chloroform, was laughable. Honestly, this was the kind of wrestling match that made me glad that I wasn’t paying much attention to the WWF at this point of my fandom.
This match was much more interesting when I focused on The Undertaker. This was the biggest change between matches that I had seen as part of the Mark vs Mark project. In terms of his appearance in the ring, The Undertaker from No Way Out 2004 is not that different to Vengeance 2002. The only differences are fewer haircuts, removing some logos from his ring gear, and a bottle of hair dye. In terms of wrestling, he didn’t make many changes: the same slow, deliberate pacing and control segments with the main differences being the Tombstone Piledriver returning, the triangle chokes appearing and an almost comical amount of sitting up in the first half of the match. It was like someone going to bed and repeatedly remembering that they had forgotten something.
The difference was the aura. The entrance, where the WWE clearly got a great deal on smoke machines, added a lot to the match. Between the hat, the coat, the hair, and the music, they honestly made you think that more has changed than it actually had. To give The Undertaker credit, he did play up the stoicism and there were some changes to his style. Ultimately though, this was a match dragged down by the stipulation and the apparent inability of wrestlers with 29 years of combined experience to realize that they should have done the big spots on the other side of the ring.
Match 10 – Randy Orton vs The Undertaker, WrestleMania 21, 3rd April 2005, Los Angeles, California
This was the first of three matches from WrestleMania on the Mark vs Mark playlist. It was also a match where I came away incredibly impressed by Randy Orton. I have never been a big fan of Orton. He’s never been someone that I’ve wanted to watch more of, and the only live Orton match that I have any memories of was against Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 33. So, it was a big surprise to me how much I enjoyed Orton’s performance.
The structure was pure chickenshit heel making opportunities however he can. It was also clear from the spots that the match was designed to play into what Orton could do well. I don’t think that many matches have The Undertaker running the ropes as much as he does here, for example. Despite that, Orton earned his praise here. His movement from the start, ducking and swaying out of the Undertaker’s reach, established his strategy and character. When he got caught, Orton sold big and made every shot from The Undertaker look great. The big RKO spot was a great visual and the finish was perfect as it gave the impression that Orton could have won if he didn’t get too cocky. It was a match where you could see how good Orton is at thinking like a wrestler.
For his part, many of The Undertaker’s strengths were on display here. He was comfortable at leading the younger guy through the match. His selling was believable and generous, his movement and positioning gave away his years of experience. His initial striking had that perfect balance of urgency and fire that I think is perfect at energizing the crowd from the very start. While it was a comfortable performance, he was also unafraid to try some new things. Some of the big counter spots felt fresh. Of course, while this is one of my favourite matches so far on the list, there were still flaws. It was mostly little miscommunication issues, aside from the Last Ride escape where things fell apart a little. Honestly, and I can’t believe that I’m saying this, it’s a shame that Orton and The Undertaker did not have a PPV match a few years later. I would have loved to have seen that.
Match 11 – Kurt Angle vs The Undertaker, No Way Out 2006, 19th February 2006, Baltimore, Maryland
There was a lot of black in this match: Angle’s ring gear, The Undertaker’s eyeliner, Nick Patrick’s hair. On a more serious note, this was one of the most flowing match structures on this playlist. The use of the structure to tell the story of the match was fantastic. From Angle’s perspective, he was kept on the back foot until one opportunity led to him focusing on the Ankle Lock. Aside from some desperate suplexes, he was completely focused on being the one to make The Undertaker tap. Even to the extent that he could have potentially retained the title by count out on more than one occasion, but instead kept breaking up the count as he needed a more definitive victory.
From The Undertaker’s perspective, the story was even more fascinating. Early on, The Undertaker had a point to prove by targeting Angle’s arm. The Triangle choke kept popping up, but when things got tough for The Undertaker, he relied more on striking, brawling and his trademark big moves. That is where the match story details really shone. Every time The Undertaker used something tried and tested, Angle had a counter that ended up with him applying the ankle lock. The Chokeslam, The Last Ride and The Tombstone Piledriver were all easily countered. The Undertaker had to rely on brute force to escape the ankle locks, and when that didn’t work, he bet everything on the Triangle Choke, only for Angle to manage a match winning counter.
This performance from the Undertaker felt like a performer trying to prove that he could change his style. He did well and was very good at working the Triangle Choke into the match. A great detail was seeing The Undertaker hold both feet on Angle’s ring post Figure Four. A sign of knowing what to do and being able to protect his opponent when he wants to. As I have said multiple times, The Undertaker is great at selling and his leg selling here was maybe the best that I’ve seen on this project. Better than the Hart match at One Night Only, with an escalation in the selling in the finishing stretch.
If you want to nitpick, there are things to criticize: a terribly shot super belly to belly suplex, The Undertaker almost ignoring the leg selling during the post-match confrontation, a sense that the crowd wanted a match that was less about story and more about seeing the moves that they had seen on TV. You could even argue that there were signs of The Undertaker taking longer to get his breath back, and that a lot of the match was spent with him lying on the mat in submissions or applying submissions to hide his diminishing stamina. Although I will say that structuring a match around your limitations is one of the things that makes pro wrestling great. Despite all of that, this was a great match and probably the most interesting match structurally. It is definitely worth watching if you haven’t seen it for a while.
This was possibly the most interesting batch of matches. You see the evolution of The Undertaker’s in-ring style. You see how good his selling can be and how good he is at leading younger wrestlers through matches. You also see blind spots like being unable to work around the stipulation in the JBL match. There were things that made me appreciate his skills and willingness to adapt, but there were also things that showed the limitations of only wrestling in one place for fourteen years.
