The Undertaker's Secret WWE Arch Enemy Nobody Talks About
If it's even remembered at all by a generation of fans born long after it occurred, Yokozuna and The Undertaker's Royal Rumble 1994 WWE Title match is remembered more the audacious write-out of 'The Deadman' more than the contest itself. After a casket match that predictably didn't have loads going for it, ten heels joined forces to release the power of the urn, lock Undertaker in the box and - for the first time in the character's career - potentially force him out of the company forever. To illustrate this, the character appeared to float out of the coffin and levitate up to the skies, having delivered his own eulogy from inside the casket.
All very silly, but all to buy the real life Mark Calaway a break to heal up from the company's gruelling schedule and tend to some personal issues at home. In doing so, he'd miss WrestleMania X, but a SummerSlam return was pencilled in, with a literal headline story to go alongside it. Ted Dibiase - by now a mainstay manager assembling a "Corporation" stable with his unending wealth - revealed that he had found The Undertaker, and having brought him to the company to wreak havoc the first time around, he was doing so again. Paul Bearer rebuffed any possibility that Dibiase could be telling the truth, and he was proven correct when the Million Dollar Man revealed his imposter Undertaker en route to a showdown between real and fake on pay-per-view. Once again, WWE leaned in on theatrics, but it was clear from early on who the faker was, at least building anticipation for the return of the real deal. Per reports, the original finish was due to see the two run into one another to create one final form Undertaker, but that was thankfully dropped in favour of a brutally turgid match ending with a tombstone.
The match was over, but the long, long series with Ted Dibiase had only just begun. Taking on Wippleman's desire to see off The Undertaker having watched his prior plan go up in smoke, Dibiase sent charge after charge to their doom, pay-per-view after pay-per-view after pay-per-view. Undertaker got his revenge against Yokozuna at the 1994 Survivor Series, but the match was blighted by interference from IRS. Death and taxes collided at The Royal Rumble, where the former couldn't extract full revenge because of a run-in by King Kong Bundy. That served as a WrestleMania XI set-up which existed to facilitate new Corporation hire Kama stealing the urn from Paul Bearer. Undertaker fought - or was screwed over by - Kama across the summer months, leading to a payoff at SummerSlam where once and for all he concluded his business with Dibiase's crew, a full year on from when it first started. Its tendrils remained too, with urn-theft being part of Undertaker's follow-on rivalry with King Mabel until he wrapped that up in December and, for the first time since his late-1993 charge at Yokozuna, forced himself back into the WWE Title picture.
At long last, he was through with monster-of-the-week stories against managers who never really explained why they were so obsessed with him in the first place. He wasn't quite ready to ascend back to the top of the company, but he was about to pair off with the opponent that finally broke that cycle. He was about to wage war with an unlikely name that went on to change his career forever. He was about to Have A Nice Day.
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