10 Wrestlers Who Suffered Heat From The Undertaker

You don't want to get on the wrong side of the zombie mortician hallway monitor.

The Undertaker Chris Jericho
WWE Network

Look up 'locker room leader' in the dictionary, and you'll find a picture of a scowling Undertaker looking back at you. Truth be told you won't, 'locker room leader' isn't in the dictionary, but the point stands. The respect afforded to Big Evil behind the scenes is of mythic proportions, with wrestlers past and present falling over themselves in gushing praise of the Dead Man. Time changes the scenery, but the honorary plaque above the entrance to the yard lets everyone know who is in charge.

The Undertaker has been a major presence in the wider WWE world since 1990, so even contemplating the possibility of nobody pissing him off in that time is enough to draw stifled laughter. This is pro wrestling, a hyper-intense world of macho personalities and alpha males, each trying to piss on as many trees as possible. The problem that a lot of performers in WWE have had is that they forgot that all trees belong to The Undertaker.

Confusing cat analogies aside, there are plenty of men who have found themselves off The Undertaker's Christmas card list, the potential existence of which drew a legitimate guffaw from this writer. Whether it was insufferable pricks being insufferable pricks, arriving stars with chips on their shoulders or Mabel being Mabel, crossing the Phenom is rarely a good idea.

10. Big Show

The Undertaker Chris Jericho
WWE.com

The early days of the Attitude Era were all about major names jumping from WWE to WCW, but by early 1999 the tide had well and truly turned. Superstars were starting to move in the other direction, and one of the first big time players to head to the Vince McMahon-captained promised land was the man who eventually became the Big Show; Paul Wight. Billed as The Giant in WCW, Show won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in his first match, albeit in a real schmozz of a disqualification finish. WCW! Booking nonsense aside, it was clear that The Giant was a once-in-a-lifetime prospect, a humongous man with incredible athleticism and obvious ability to function as a babyface or a heel.

Boy oh boy did that ability get ran into the ground.

What does all this have to do with The Undertaker? When Big Show made the jump he did so with a chip on his shoulder, a chip salted with main event history and the safety of being immediately thrust into the Vince McMahon/Steve Austin feud. Big Show allowed all of the attention to go to his head and acting like the proverbial dog's, talking down to other wrestlers (also literally, what with the height) and generally showing off. 'Taker wasn't going to stand for this, and Show was eventually brought down to size.

Which was all good and well, as Undertaker and Big Show went on to have approximately 345945 feuds over the next couple of decades.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.