411’s Legends With JBL Report: The Undertaker (Part I)

411’s Legends with JBL Report: The Undertaker (Part I)

-No new episode of Breaking Ground this week because WWE is celebrating Undertaker Week on The Network. Instead we get a new episode of Legends with JBL and since Taker doesn’t break character, we get 3 of his greatest rivals sitting down with Bradshaw.

-Joining the panel are “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, and Triple H. They immediately start ripping on each other as Shawn feels inadequate after JBL introduces Austin by saying he was called the greatest draw of all time by Vince McMahon.

-JBL asks Austin where to rank the 25 year run of The Undertaker. Austin talks about the early days and how Taker had a few months start on him as far as getting into the business. He puts over the work ethic and what he put into the character. He talks about how he and Taker would joke about who could last longer, and Austin mentions that 13 years after he retired, Taker is still there.

-Shawn jumps in and talks about how when Taker debuted the guys in the back thought it was a short lived gimmick because nobody knew what all could be done with the character. HHH jumps in on that and actually mentions Hogan by name, which I thought was Taboo, but apparently ok on The Network.

-Austin brings up how Taker jumped all in with the character and how some people would have balked at the idea. He talks about how kids were terrified of Taker and they show footage of kids with their scared reactions. Somewhere there are 30-35 year old guys watching this and marking out or cringing knowing they made this show with their early 90s haircuts.

-HHH talks about how Taker was 100% always in the gimmick as he even went to bars in character. Shawn brings up how quickly he rose to the Main Event and even that had people thinking it was going to be short lived as the thought was he would risk quick and then flame out just as quickly.

-JBL goes through a quick history lesson as Taker debuted with Brother Love before moving on to Paul Bearer. From there he went to The Ministry of Darkness and then to The American Bad Ass and then back to The Dead Man. They talk about how each character could have been death, but not with him. Shawn says changing that much is usually a credibility killer, but Taker was able to find something to keep all the different versions on track.

-Austin brings up the early days again and how Taker was a gifted big man, but Vince found the perfect character for him. JBL jumps in and asks how Jim Herd, Ole Anderson, and others missed on Taker and said there was no money in him. Shawn mentions that everyone at the table was told at some point they weren’t ever going to draw money so it is nothing new. Shawn says that at times guys have to be given control of their character and the same thing happened with Taker.

-HHH goes back to when Taker started and how everything he did was slow and it made him stand out more at a time when everyone else was speeding things up. JBL talks about how Taker almost never came to the WWE. Vince watched Taker have a match with Luger and Taker was so injured that he could barely move and Vince became cold to the idea. Taker thought he had a job and was nearly out with nowhere to work.

-JBL talks about how Taker never jumped to WCW during the Monday Night Wars and asks how bad would things have been if he had made the jump some time between 95-97. Austin says it would have been devastating and he says he thought they were screwed as it was when Bret left following the Montreal Screw Job. Shawn says he doesn’t know much about WCW, but he has heard that Taker never wanted to go back to WCW. Shawn admits he wanted to go to WCW with his friends, but Vince told him he would be miserable.

-JBL is asked by Austin if he had heard that Taker wanted to leave. JBL says Taker didn’t want to leave, but Nash tossed out a feeler Taker’s way to see if he wanted to go. Shawn says he never heard that story and says he thinks Kevin was reaching out to everyone and Austin says they never reached out to him. HHH puts over the loyalty Taker has and that he would have went down with the ship before making the jump. Shawn says Taker is still around because he wants to pass things on so this business thrives when he is gone.

-JBL says one of the watermarks is working with Taker and talks about how his first live match on RAW was against Taker. He was scared to death, but says that a loss to Taker was worth more than 20 wins against other guys. If you could hang with Taker for a few minutes you had a chance. He says all he could think of was if he still had contacts in Japan because he felt he was in way over his head. Zeb just kept telling him to be aggressive and the story gets a laugh from everyone on the panel. JBL says Taker got him through the match and made him look like a million dollars.

-Austin brings up the first time he worked with Taker in 1996. He had so much planned for the match, but when Taker made his entrance he got so caught up his mind went blank and he forgot everything. Again everyone laughs as it seems they have all been there. JBL brings up how Taker loved to yell at guys “do I owe you money?” when they worked too stiff with him and Shawn says it is one of his favorite lines.

-JBL talks about Mania XXV and how he knew it would be his last match and he handpicked Rey Mysterio as his opponent out of respect to Eddie Guerrero. He asks Shawn if he did the same, and Shawn says it just worked out that way. Things were building towards an end for him and Michael Hayes asked Shawn what he thought about going back to back against Taker with his career on the line in the 2nd match. He loved the match at Mania XXV (I was there for that one as it was my first Mania).

-JBL mentions how at Mania XXV Michael Hayes walked in on Taker getting ready and Taker asked what match they were on the card. Hayes told him 5th and that only raised the bar for Taker. That only made Shawn more motivated because he knew Taker was possessed now. Poor HHH is sitting there knowing he had to follow that shit and close out Mania that year. JBL then jumps on that and asks HHH how it was following it. He says he sat in the locker room and watched about 15 minutes of the match and then told Orton they were fucked. Nice! HHH says that he was torn as he was happy for his friends, but at the same time he was doomed. Great stuff there!

-JBL asks Austin if that match was the greatest match of all time and everyone agrees that there is no way to say. HHH says you could probably get guys to name a similar group of 20 matches, but nobody would agree on the order. Truth!

-Back to Austin and he talks about following the Taker/Mankind Hell in a Cell match. He says he and Kane were only following them because they were after them, but that was as close as they could get to following them.

-Back to the Greatest Match topic and Shawn says he is just a fan and he loves seeing guys doing things well. When you can get caught up in a match you don’t care who is doing it.

-JBL goes to Mania XXVIII and puts over Shawn’s job as the ref, and asks HHH if that was his proudest moment with Taker. He says the moment he had with Taker and Shawn at the top of the ramp is one of the greatest moments in his career. Austin jumps in and puts over the match as being one of the greatest. He talks about the ending and how there is a time to let the fans in and something like that. He calls it a magical moment and Shawn says the moment he had at the end of that match are what he cherishes the most. Austin calls the moment money and how he texted HHH after the match because it was so great.

-That wraps up Part I and we get previews of Part II and it looks great as they will discuss Wrestler’s Court and The End of the Streak.

-Fun show to watch as all 4 of these guys are great when it comes to talking about the business. Taker is a fascinating subject as well since his character is so closely guarded that we don’t get much like this on him.