One MIND-BLOWING Secret For Every WWE SummerSlam
22. 2004 | A Decade Later And Nothing Learned
At SummerSlam 1994, the Undertaker faced a version of the Undertaker: an imposter, portrayed by Brian Lee, brought in by the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase.
At just nine minutes long, it still felt like at least an hour. It took six years for Vince McMahon to realise that the Undertaker would excel as a relentless killer babyface only if the correct opponent, Mick Foley, created movement by attacking him viciously and bumping like mad. It was at least something of a very basic spectacle when the Undertaker fought a giant and - eventually, right at the very end - took them off their feet. Brian Lee offered absolutely nothing; he was brought into mirror the methodical version of ‘Taker, resulting in the pro wrestling equivalent of two frigates attempting to bypass one another in an especially narrow canal. You might think that Vince McMahon would have learned from this; after all, whenever the promotion puts itself over for the success of the Attitude Era, WWE drones on and on about how they tapped into the pulse of the youth market and developed a show that was better than Jerry Springer and South Park combined.
You’d be wrong.
10 years removed from SummerSlam 1994, the Undertaker almost faced a version of the Undertaker: his exact opposite, portrayed by Kevin Fertig, a self-professed figure of purity who vowed to rid the world of sin or whatever. If ‘Taker was the darkness, Mordecai, a hypocritical heel, was meant to represent the light.
Dave Meltzer reported in the June 21, 2004 issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Undertaker Vs. Mordecai was scheduled for SummerSlam. This direction was dropped when WWE realised how rubbish Fertig was.