The 411 Wrestling Top 5 4.14.10: Week 70 – Feuds of The Undertaker

Hello everyone and welcome to 411 Wrestling’s Top 5 List. What we are going to is take a topic each week and all the writers here on 411 wrestling will have the ability to give us their Top 5 on said topic, plus up to three honorable mentions. Most of our topics will be based on recent events in the Wrestling World, looking at those events that make us think of times past.

So, on to this week’s topic…

UNDERTAKER FEUDS

Undertaker is not just all about his 18-0 WrestleMania streak. That streak would not mean anything if The Undertaker was not part of such memorable feuds, many of which cumulated in matches that would forever be known as “The Streak.”

So what did our group of writers select? Let’s find out…

Aaron Hubbard

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Batista – Surprising chemistry and a multitude of memorable matches makes this one of my favorite Undertaker feuds, and certainly my favorite Batista rivalry.

Kurt Angle – I don’t think these guys ever had a long-lasting personal feud, but staring in 2002 and going through 2003 and into 2006, these two gave Smackdown! some of the finest matches to ever be on the show, and that’s saying a lot.

Stone Cold Steve Austin – This one was kind of a toss-up with my #5 pick: these guys were pretty good rivals who usually had good but not great matches with each other.

5.Edge – Starting when Edge cashed in Money in the Bank to steal Undertaker’s World Title, these two would main event Wrestlemania XXIV and follow up with four more major matches on PPV in 2008. The Backlash and Judgment Day matches are unsung in my opinion, because they built off of the previous matches, and the TLC match is solid. The feud ending in grand fashion inside Hell in a Cell, the main event of Summer Slam. A level of consistent quality and a great hero-villain dynamic puts this in the best feuds of either guy.

4.Bret Hart – Much like Angle, these two never had a formal feud. It just so happens that Bret likes the World Title and so does Undertaker. So they are bound to run into each other at some point. I love the basic psychology of their matches is that they can’t beat each other. Undertaker is too big for Bret to beat in a straight fight and too tough to submit to the submission game. Bret is too good of an athlete for Taker to wear down and too much of a technician for him to wrestle. So they never have clean finishes. Seriously, find me a major Bret vs. Taker match with a clean finish! Taker had some of his best matches with Bret, but a lot of people did, so no surprise there.

3.Kane – The huge, demented, mute, burned brother who apparently inspired Firebending in Avatar was the perfect opponent for Undertaker. Taker was huge, agile and had the best gimmick ever. Kane was bigger, just as agile, and had another fantastic gimmick. They had a similar moveset and a great backstory that saw us see some of Taker’s best promo work ever. Sure, you have to get over some of the inherent stupidity of these two having supernatural powers to really enjoy the feud, but I can do that. Years later, Kane buries the Biker Taker alive and we get the return of the Deadman at Wrestlemania XX. Mark out city! The only thing that keeps this from going into the top two is that, aside from Wrestlemania XIV and the Inferno Match…these guys didn’t have great matches. Or even good ones.

2.Mankind – Up until this year, I probably would have put this guy at #1. These two always had good matches with each other, but more importantly, Mankind was one of the first guys that became a true, credible threat to the Undertaker. They had tried to make credible threats before with lackluster results: Gonzalez, Kama, Mabel. Perhaps it was because it was Foley under the mask, or maybe it was just a case of the right gimmick, but Mankind was a credible threat to the Undertaker, and actually won a few of their matches. The most memorable I can think of between these two are the Boiler Room Brawl at Summerslam 1996, the Buried Alive Match, and the infamous Hell in a Cell Match. But really, there was never a truly awful Mankind-Undertaker match.

1.Shawn Michaels – For sheer in-ring quality, there is no competition. Five one-on-one matches on PPV, two in 1997, one in 1998, one in 2009 and one in 2010. Three of those are right around the five-star mark. The other two are around four stars. They brought Hell in a Cell into the world and made it the most feared gimmick in the WWE. It served as the catlyst for D-Generation X. When these two were the last two men in the 2007 Royal Rumble, people were begging for a rematch. Wrestlemania XXV lived up to nearly impossible hype. A year later, Shawn Michaels chose Undertaker to have his last match with, an they main evented the show despite no title being on the line. Great matches, great storytelling, and two huge feuds in two different eras.

Scott Rutherford

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Giant Gonzales – Yes, GG sucked balls as a wrestler but this feud showed two thing, UT was a true company man by going through with this and secondly, he was bullet proof insomuch he could work with anyone and not lose his heat. That’s two big positives.

Hulk Hogan – He beat a legend well before the internet deflated what Hogan was. Not bad for a guy less than a year into his WWF tenure.

Edge – Complimented each other perfectly. Pity the dynamic worked better with my #5 pick and is relegated to HM.

5.Shawn Michaels – A feud of two parts and both equally compelling. Not surprisingly these two had great chemistry with Shawn doing the talking and UT doing the stalking. These guys exploited all the great wrestling dynamics…small guy/big guy, wise ass/feared ass kicker, blunt force trauma /finesse, speed/strength. Depending on which decade they faced each other, depended on the dynamic on the feud. In the 80’s it was about UT’s revenge were as in the last couple of years it was about respect. Fittingly, UT ending Shawn’s career this year bookends the match that put Shawn on the shelf back in 1998. Stellar matches with meaning…almost the perfect storm of wrestling.

4.Jeff Hardy – I know people are going to crap over most of my choices, I get that. I’m guessing my view of what constitutes a feud is a little askiew of what most people think. Take this choice…It wasn’t long running, it didn’t really centre around any great hatred or major issue. It was merely Jeff Hardy wanting to make a name for himself and get a little famous by attacking the big dog…to paraphrase UT. When Hardy charged the ring and kicked UT from behind to throw the proverbial rock at the hornets nest, the whole crowd was “OMG! Did he just do that!” The ladder match to blow it off was great and showed the Hardy could live in the main event scene…even if it did take nearly another 8 years to really show that to be true. Anyway, a tidy little feud using each characters traits to amplify moments and make it work.

3.HHH – I’m talking about the short lived build-up to their match at WM17, which has always been VERY underappreciated by a lot of pundits. It was very simply done and highly effective. UT was way into his “bikertaker” run and was using “I’ll make you famous” as a catchphrase. I have an enduring image of HHH catching UT unaware and laying him out, then sitting on a chair which was place over UT throat and saying “guess what? I’m already famous”. It was such a great moment and then we had all the little asides of UT not being allowed within 20m of Stephanie so UT sends Kane after her to force HHH’s hand into a match. Seeing Kane up high, with Stephanie pressed above his head just waiting for his brother to give him the word to send her down was fantastic. While it had little impact past Mania and very little has been mentioned of it since, I always thought this was a great mini-feud for both guys playing on their stature in the industry and the individual character traits. The match was pretty darn cool as well.

2.Mankind – For years, UT was used against big guys that in his own words were “big, slow and clumsy” and had taken years off his in-ring career. Cue Mick Foley repackaged as Mankind and cue one of the best WWF feuds of the 90’s. While the Mankind gimmick may have been career death in a performer less talented than Foley, he used it as a way to compliment the UT character. UT was able to use all of his big power moves on the relatively smaller Foley, and Mick was able to go full tilt boogie with ‘Taker who was more than willing to go to Mick’s extremes. They had a string of PPV matches that was crowned with one of the most visually famous wrestling moments ever. These guys were made to wrestle each other and their feud help take UT into the next generation of WWF wrestling.

1.The Ultimate Warrior – Feuds don’t have to mean great matches. Keeping that in mind, if you talk about putting the Undertaker on the map then defeating The Ultimate Warrior for months on end at house shows in body bag matches and getting the better of him every time they interacted on TV, would make this feud EPIC. Warrior was nigh invincible at the time and as a result UT rolled right into a WWF Title defeating Hulk Hogan at the time he almost never lost. Historically it will likely get overlooked because it had no televised blow-off thanks to the Warriors flakey ways, but getting the best of Warrior so emphatically set UT down the path to greatness.

Michael Uphoff

For these rivalries, I instead picked my favorite Undertaker rivalries.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Undertaker-Bret Hart This was a great rivalry, but correct me if I am wrong, they never had a clean finish in one of their major matches for the WWF Title. You had two great wrestlers, whose styles were completely different but meshed well together, but never had a clean finish. That is why it’s not on the list.

Undertaker-Brock Lesnar – These men fought over the WWE Championship in 2002 and 2003, putting on some very good matches. The only reason why it doesn’t make the list is because these two never really had a prolonged rivalry.

Undertaker-Kurt Angle – Here’s the thing: These guys had an off-and-on rivalry that doesn’t really work for most guys, but for some reason, it worked for them. They had matches in 2002, 2003, and their unforgettable match at No Way Out 2006. The only reason that this rivalry doesn’t make the Top 5 is because the top 5 is just a little better.

5.Undertaker-Kane – This makes the list not only because of the matches they had together, but also the storyline between the two that began in late 1997, went into late 1998, stopped for a while, then began again in November 2003 to Wrestlemania XX. At the beginning of the rivalry, you believed it. You believed that Kane was coming back for vengeance on his big brother. That is a rarity in this business. Very rarely now do you see a storyline like this played out so well over time and the two involved work so well with each other. This rivalry also helped establish Kane into a superstar. We even got some good matches out of the rivalry, including the debut of the Inferno match which, since I’m a pyro, I loved.

4.Undertaker-Batista – These men had a great rivalry that started with Undertaker chokeslamming Batista on RAW and declaring that he would come after the World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania 23 as the Royal Rumble Winner. Undertaker won at Wrestlemania, and retained in an equally great Last Man Standing match at Backlash. Taker winning at Wrestlemania also marks the last time the Royal Rumble winner has won the title at Wrestlemania. Don’t believe me? Look it up. Undertaker would get injured, lose the title, and Batista would eventually gain the title back. Taker came back and challenged him at Cyber Sunday, where Batista pinned him CLEAN, after two Batista Bombs. Their Hell in a Cell match was not great, but it furthered the rivalry to its culmination in a triple threat match at Armageddon, where another of Taker’s rivalries was furthered, and that rivalry appears a little later on the list. This rivalry was intense, mainly because in each match, I never knew who was going to win, except at Wrestlemania. Each match these two men brought their A-game and put on matches that pleased the crowd and built up the rivalry even more, and that is all you can ask.

3.Undertaker-HBK – This rivalry, for me at least, does not start at their Hell in a Cell match at Badd Blood 1997. It doesn’t even start at Ground Zero a month before, where Shawn won by DQ, after Taker beat the ever mother-loving crap out of him. It starts at SummerSlam 1997, where an errant chair shot by HBK cost the Undertaker the WWF Championship. Taker immediately cast his sight on Shawn for vengeance, and proceeded to put on some of the greatest matches ever with Shawn in late 1997 and into 1998. Taker eventually cost Shawn everything, when he backdropped Shawn over the top rope, and the casket got Shawn’s back on the way down. Fast forward almost ten years later, these two men are the final two in the 2007 Royal Rumble, where again for several minutes, they channeled their intensity again, and put on probably the greatest finish to the Royal Rumble, bar none. Two years later, they would clash again to see who was the greatest at Wrestlemania, with the Undertaker ultimately prevailing with a second Tombstone. That loss ate at Shawn for an entire year, and led him to snap after losing the Rumble and cost the Undertaker the World Heavyweight Championship at Elimination Chamber. They would go on to have another classic Wrestlemania match, where Shawn’s career came to end. The reason why this rivalry is #3 is because it started as a thirst for vengeance by the Undertaker, and changed with the times as HBK would try to prove that he was the better man at Wrestlemania. This rivalry spanned the better part of thirteen years, even though they weren’t fighting during most of it. The only reason why this rivalry isn’t higher is because Shawn never beat Taker one-on-one, without help from Kane or DX.

2.Undertaker-Edge – This rivalry started in May 2007, when Edge cashed in his newly-won MITB briefcase from KK, and took the title from Taker. It continued in the Hell in a Cell match between Batista and the Undertaker. Edge made his return and cost the Deadman his chance at the title. Edge would win the title a month later, and the Undertaker would win the Smackdown Elimination Chamber to earn the #1 contendership to Edge’s title at Wrestlemania 24. These two would put on a main-event classic there and a month later at Backlash. When Taker was stripped of the title, Edge would eventually win the title and their rivalry continued to One Night Stand 2008, where the unthinkable happened. Edge retired and banished the Undertaker from the WWE. No one had ever done this before. Although Vickie Guerrero would reinstate the Undertaker, this gave Edge a huge boost to his career, being the only person to end the Undertaker’s career. When Undertaker came back, Edge had already lost his mind, and the Deadman was hell-bent on vengeance. The blow-off to their rivalry was another great match between the two in a Hell in a Cell match at SummerSlam 2008. This rivalry is one of the greatest ever, and would undoubtedly be #1, if not for a certain deranged superstar from the WWF.

1.Undertaker-Mankind – This is the greatest rivalry that the Undertaker has ever had, bar none. This is so for one reason, and one reason only. Watch their epic encounter at King of the Ring 1998 at the beginning, where the King and JR state this: “No one has owned a win-loss record over the Undertaker quite like Mankind has.” That is the truth, plain and simple. Mankind owned the Undertaker. This rivalry started in 1996 and went into 1997, where Taker picked up a victory here and there, but Mankind would dominate the Undertaker, pinning him, lighting fireballs in his face, etc. This rivalry continued into 1998, where Mankind came after the Undertaker again, and their rivalry culminated in one of the greatest Hell in a Cell matches of all time, at King of the Ring 1998. Undertaker hated Mankind and would do almost anything to end him, and Mankind was, well he was Mankind. He was insane and would do anything to beat the Undertaker, as we see in the match. While Undertaker won the Hell in a Cell match and the rivalry ended, this rivalry remains the greatest Taker’s ever had because no one ever dominated the Undertaker in terms of win-loss record like Mankind did. We saw Boiler Room Brawls, Hell in a Cell, a Buried Alive match, etc. These men truly defined what a rivalry was all about, and that is why it is #1 in my book.

Jeremy Thomas

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Hulk Hogan – It wasn’t the Dead Man’s first feud, but it was the one that truly thrust him into the main event scene where he has remained ever since—and it happened in his first year. In the scale of important feuds for Taker, this ranks up there.

Kurt Angle – Angle and Taker were two of the top guys, and their continued battle that came and went throughout the years produced some really great matches. I always enjoyed it when these two guys locked it up

Bret Hart – From their first Pay-Per-View match at the ’96 Royal Rumble all the way through to their final Pay-Per-View match at One Night Only, these guys always meshed very well together.

5.Edge – This is definitely one of Taker’s top feuds in the last several years. Edge was a perfect cocky, opportunistic heel to Taker’s Deadman persona, and started when Edge cashed in his Money in the Bank shot following a steel cage match between Taker and Batista to win his first World Heavyweight Championship. There would be an extended pause to the feud when Edge injured his pectoral muscle, but he would return at Survivor Series and screw Taker out of the title. Things continued from there and led to some classic encounters between the men, including their matches at WrestleMania XXIV, Backlash, Judgment Day One Night Only (where Taker was “forced out” of the WWE) and finally SummerSlam. I loved this because it was a great example of Taker really boosting someone’s career; it doesn’t hurt that the characters both men had at the time were really perfectly suited to each other. I don’t even mind that Vickie Guerrero was right in the thick of it, because this was the best work she ever did.

4.Steve Austin – I always thought that Taker’s feud with Austin was overlooked in light of some of both men’s more notable feuds of that time, such as Foley and Vince. These two fought each other for a hell of a long time though and had some great twists and turns in their feud. They were tag team champions for just two weeks, and that pairing quickly turned sour once Taker became the number one contender for Austin’s WWE Title. At first it was a battle of respect between the two men, but Taker slowly turned more and more evil as the Undertaker and Kane became Vince’s cohorts in getting the title of Austin—for their own reasons, of course. When Austin screwed Taker (and Kane) out of the title at Judgment Day, Taker decided to return the favor at Survivor Series and it led to a Buried Alive match for the title, which Austin won. Things may have gotten silly for a while, but it helped signal a change in Taker’s persona and led to the Ministry (and Corporate Ministry). I always thought Austin and the Dead Man worked very well together and really dug what went on here.

3.Shawn Michaels – Obviously, this is rated a bit higher thanks to their feuds at WrestleMania XXV and XXVI, but even before then Shawn and Taker had a history of great feuds with each other. Look all the way back to 1997 and their great feud at that time. While some people remember it most strongly for Shawn’s injury at the Royal Rumble, they came out with some great matches, created the Hell in the Cell match and generally tore the house down for several months. That alone is worthy of being mentioned on this list, but when you add in their match-within-a-match at the Royal Rumble in ’07 and then of course their unbelievable matches the last two ‘Manias, this one slides easily into this spot. This was, quite simply, two of the best in the game throwing the best they had at each other. The results were spectacular.

2.Mick Foley – People always talk about what this feud did for Mick Foley and make no mistake, it did make him famous and put him in the history books. But I always thought it did just as much for the Undertaker. After he returned at SummerSlam 1994, Taker had some rather…uninspired feuds. The feud with the Fake Taker was pretty craptastic, as were the rest of his battles with the Million Dollar Corporation around that time. Then he went on to battle Diesel at ‘Mania XII which was not one of his better matches within the Streak. It was the next night when Mankind debuted and attacked the Dead Man. From that point forward, the two dark personas had an intensely personal and extremely well-fought feud. They did things that hadn’t been seen in the WWF before and caught the interest of the fans; it reinvigorated the Dead Man and gave rise to Mick’s push into superstar status. Of course, everyone knows the King of the Ring match but it’s not even close to the only great match in this feud, and I think it’s one that will go down as one of the top all-time feuds of that era.

1.Kane – It was a very tough call for me to choose who would get the number one slot between Mankind and Kane. The topper for me was duration. Don’t get me wrong; I love the Foley/Taker feud and it was a hell of a blast, but no one has had as enduring and consistent of a feud with the Dead Man than Kane. It’s the entire purpose behind Kane’s character, and it turned Glenn Jacobs into a legitimate main eventer who has endured no matter how many losses or stupid angles he has taken over the years. These guys have fought each other like no one else, they’ve fought next to each other time and again and you know that as long as both men are still in the WWE, there is always one more feud left in them. Personally, if someone ever retires Taker and breaks the Streak, I would like to see it be Kane because then, at last, he would be out from “big brother’s” shadow and we could get a legitimate World Title run for Kane as a reward for all of his time doing the right thing for the company. And frankly, I wouldn’t be at ALL shocked if that’s what happens. Wouldn’t mind it, either.

Julian Bond

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Yokozuna – Just had to mention this one just simply for the “casket” promo that Taker and Paul Bearer cut on Yoko.

Randy Orton – Not the greatest, but had to mention it cause Randy brought his freakin legendary heel-ass dad Bob back to try and get vengence! Classic.

Batista – This was to me one of the best “big man vs Taker” feuds ever with Batista actually looking like a legit threat to Taker’s reign.

5.Stone Cold (98′) – This “Highway To Hell” feud with Taker and Stone Cold Steve Austin back in 1998 at the super-height of Austin’s popularity was awesome as hell (no pun intended) at the time and in my book is still pretty underrated. It was a rarity (and still is nowadays) that one sees the very slow build-up of two top guys who keep running into each other, but yet not directly going at it yet. This feud started in May at the Over The Edge PPV with Taker providing some needed assistance for Austin against McMahon’s goons and then slowly came together for the next 4 months until they finally met in the ring for the title at that year’s Summerslam. It was pretty good mainly because they took a cookie-cutter feud with two faces and made it work well (with Austin’s non-trusting of anyone and Taker’s unknown intentions). Forget what happened after this (i.e. the LAME Triple Theat with Kane/Taker…the Ministry of Darkness randomness) and just focus on the brief goodness that was the “Highway To Hell”.

4.Mankind – The feud between these two back in the day was so freakin’ great because Mankind seemed insane to have the balls to go after the big man Taker straight out of the gate in the beginning of his WWE stint being a much smaller guy and all AND mainly because Foley was one of the first who seemed to actually get under the skin of Taker. Everytime Taker seemed that he had Foley beaten to a bloody pulp, Foley would strangely come back for more. This equalled in the sickest, craziest matches in WWE history that of course included Hell In A Cell and the Boiler Room Brawl. Despite all of the big, bad-ass looking folks (like Mabel and Yokozuna) attempting to take Taker down, Mankind was one of the first to show that there exists a kink or two in the Dead Man’s armor (…character-wise of course!).

3.Edge – I for one totally didn’t think too deep about the Taker/Edge feud as I was watching. While I thought that it was pretty cool in general to see two of my personal favorite grapplers battle it out, I never thought twice about the feud as a whole and how freakin’ well thought out it was done. I loved how Edge took out Taker initially with blindsiding him by taking his World Title and cashing in his MITB briefcase, then have Taker come back to get his title back from Batista only to get pumpled AGAIN by Edge in a very systematic-way (i.e. the video camera, con-chair-to on some steel steps, etc) during his Hell In A Cell match only to set up a multi-month long back and forth over the title for half the year, and then finally concluding with Taker brutally taking out Edge back in the same Hell In A Cell in the almost same exact way that Edge had done so almost a year ago (i.e. the video camera, con-chair-to on some steel steps, etc) and then chokeslamming him into a hole full of freakin fire! So throughout the great matches such as their main event Mania’ match to TLC, these two provided an almost non-stop rivarly for technically a little over a year and did it so well that people like myself had forgotten the full timeline behind it. This to me trumps the Mankind feud a little bit just because the WWE actually stayed consistent with their rivavrly (instead of randomly bringing it up like they kind of did with the infamous…but sudden…Foley Hell In A Cell bout).

2.Shawn Michaels (09′ and 10′) – I’m not just going to rank this high cause I personally love both bouts, but I wanted to put this fresh feud here because of the excellent work that was done behind it. With Taker’s infamous Wrestlemania streak built up to almost (storyline-wise) “legendary” status, it was awesome to finally see someone such as picture-perfect ring-wise as Shawn Michaels get straight-up OBSESSED with beating the seemingly unstoppable Undertaker. Every other Mania’ opponent all had their usual beef with Taker, but Michaels took it personally to the point where he put his career on the line and went toe-to-toe with Taker at every turn. Great feud and great matches to boot.

1.Kane (98′) – I swear…some of my friends and some wrestling fans I talk to often forget how f’n sweet this feud was when it first came out. They say it’s mostly because of the fact that it came on at the same exact time that Stone Cold was the greatest thing ever, McMahon was the biggest heel on the planet, and DX was making everyone pee their pants with laughter. But to me, this feud was the missing part that Taker had always been missing in his overall abilities…a complex personality. Before this, the closest that Taker was to showing real raw emotion was with being confused of his mind at Mankind’s craziness. Besides this, it was just straight “REST…IN…PEACE”…and nothing really more. When Kane came along, Taker was scared, confused, frustrated, heartbroken, and nearly insane with dealing with his “long lost brother”. This feud was done so f’n well with Kane showing up out of nowhere and confusing Taker with his alliance, Kane and Bearer catching Taker on fire in a casket, and Taker pulling the best “post-Buried Alive” comeback with slowly showing up and evenually beating the shit out of Kane. Mankind, HBK and Edge may have came close, but this one was the best because of the great suspense and really solid storyline behind it.