10 Wrestling Moments That Exploited Nostalgia (And Failed)
2. Uncooked, Uncut, Unintelligible
The ICOPRO banners. The original Monday Night RAW logo. That flashing neon WWF stage design. The Fink. WWE got everything right - visually - at RAW 25.
It looked beautiful. It was hardcore fan service loving in its detail. And then they realised they'd left the writing staff over at the Barclays Center and had on-hand Bray Bray Wyatt to script the Undertaker's promo, which must be true, because it was absolute nonsense.
"The carnage began on this sacred ground of evil 25 years ago," he began. "For 25 years I've been digging holes, and anybody who wanted to step into the dark side got buried," he continued, as a solitary tear rolled down the cheek of Diamond Dallas Page. "Stone Cold had to answer to the Reaper. Mick Foley had to answer to the Reaper. Even my own flesh and blood, my brother Kane, had to answer to the Reaper. They all tried, and they all failed."
What?
This was a boring and generously selective reading of his own Wikipedia page. Thank Christ he never won the Intercontinental Title, else he'd have droned on about bringing the prestige back to it. 'Taker signed off by saying, on an affectionate nostalgia show, the likes of which WWE will always do, that it was time for the Legends to "truly rest in peace".
He must have had to endure a meet-and-greet with British fans beforehand, because the Undertaker effectively told the Manhattan Center marks to grow up and move on in a right f*cking strop.