The Undertaker's Secret WWE Arch Enemy Nobody Talks About
Many had classic WWE matches & feuds with The Undertaker. But who wanted to take him out FOR GOOD?!
In the year 2000, WWE coined "Decade Of Destruction" as a way to celebrate The Undertaker's first ten years with the company, back when that sort of thing was a minor miracle rather than the norm. 10 years in the 1990s felt like a hundred, and the pace of the second half of the decade in particular resulted in wrestlers having runs that felt like forever even if they'd now be able to go all the way up and back down the card in the time it takes somebody to make it to the end of finishing class in NXT.
Much of the energy could be put down to the laundry list of Jim Ross wins and losses as Executive Vice President of Talent Development from 1995 onwards. Stone Cold Steve Austin was an early signing for JR in December following a controversial WCW firing and transcendent spell in ECW. Mick Foley (more on him later) rocked up on the Raw after WrestleMania 12 having followed a similar trajectory. His old foe Vader was already there, having debuted at the 1996 Royal Rumble. Johnny B Badd was no more but Marc Mero and his real life wife Rena were in as 'The Wildman' and his valet Sable, Rocky Maivia's successful debut at the 1996 Survivor Series couldn't have gone any better, and after a few teething troubles necessitated a heel turn, his rise from doomed newbie to legitimate top star in the industry was meteoric. Other than 'The Man From The Dark Side', this was a roster reborn, and most of the survivors from simpler (AKA financially ruinous) times had to graft their way through all sorts of sludge alongside the defiant 'Deadman' to join the new class.
Bob Holly had rocked up in 1994, and via several dramatic gimmick shifts, was over more than ever before as Hardcore Holly. Billy Gunn had been a cowboy with his storyline brother and a Honky Tonk Man knock-off before The New Age Outlaws hit huge enough for him to find what would go on to fit for the rest of his career. Sean Waltman - the most damning and damned case study - was considered staler than Asda Smart Price bread by the summer of 1999, despite the fact that he was one of the company's best workers and he'd only returned to the fold as one of wrestling's hottest free agents the prior April. He never reversed the trend, and between that time and his eventual 2002 departure, he entered to a unique strain of disgruntled audience indifference known as "X-Pac heat". Of note also - he wrestled his last WWE match (to date) a week shy of his 30th birthday.
It was a wildly, wildly different time, but throughout it all, The Undertaker had endured. He was by then riding a motorbike to the ring and working as the 'American Bad Ass', having dropped his former gimmick entirely to try and fit in with the styles of the times. His matches had maybe never been worse, but he'd earned the opportunity to stretch the premise of his persona somewhat after so long spent portraying various different versions of the undead monster that debuted all the way back in 1990.
Not least because it appeared - at long last - to bury a formula that WWE had leaned on repeatedly when they needed Undertaker the most. After a year as one of the company's scariest heels, 'Taker was turned babyface in order to try and help plug the Hulk Hogan-sized gap on that side of the ledger in 1992. It worked even better than anybody could have forecast. Dissolving his evil friendship with Jake Roberts, Undertaker crushed 'The Snake' at WrestleMania VIII and was immediately beloved by the awestruck crowd as a result. Having avoided a sword-stabbing from The Berzerker in the immediate aftermath to set up some house show battles, he entered into a year-plus war with...Harvey Wippleman.
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