10 Times Wrestlers Busted Out Moves You'd NEVER Expect

9. Undertaker Busts Out A Plancha

AJ Styles Riddle
WWE

The Undertaker, for all his talk of real f*cken men more likely to bring a knife backstage than a Nintendo Switch in his day, had wrestling's cushiest gig in the early 1990s.

He rarely bumped on that horrific concrete ring and indeed barely moved. His shuffling, dreadful walk was perfectly in character, and as such, he didn't have to go, even though, as it transpires, he could.

The Monster of the Week formula was turgid by 1995, as was so much else, and the WWF seemed to grasp, separately, that something needed to change, even if this subjective drive wouldn’t coalesce under a new overarching vision for a few years. 'Taker started to propel himself around the ring in his matches with Mankind during '96, which, incidentally, cannot be underlined enough in their importance to his career.

By '97, he had refined his act to something truly otherworldly. His aura already established, the exhilarating and terrifying idea of 'Taker as a winged behemoth allowed him to play the closest thing wrestling ever got to true horror; he was so powerful at Badd Blood that it was if Shawn Michaels was in there with a Lovecraftian Old One.

That match was so special that their Ground Zero no-contest rarely gets a look, in retrospect, but it was there in which the new monster flashed his teeth with the first jump scare of his unbelievable plancha.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!