For 25 years, he's been the one constant in WWE. While other wrestlers defected to WCW or retired, Mark Callaway has stuck around for a quarter of a century as The Undertaker. When the gimmick started out at the Survivor Series in 1990, it was thought it'd be a short term gig with a limited shelf life but it's a testament to the talent of Mark Calaway that he's been able to stick around for so long and remain an iconic character in the eyes of the fans. In the 20 plus years he's been in action, Undertaker has gone from the spectrum of having some classic matches that saved WrestleMania shows to having stinkers that were so awful he lived up to his gimmick by killing crowds. Vince McMahon's appetite for having Taker face giants, freaks and supernatural folk is seemingly insatiable and thus for every classic against Shawn Michaels, there's a head-scratching slug-fest with The Great Khali. Let's delve into the 5 best and 5 worst performances of Taker's career...
5 Awesome Performances....
5. Ladder Match: The Undertaker vs. Jeff Hardy (RAW, July 2002)
When The Undertaker turned heel in November 2001 during his American Bad Ass phase, he ended up revitalising what had become a stale character and the quality of his matches elevated to perhaps the most consistent period of his career. In 2002, Taker had a great WrestleMania match with Ric Flair and a thrilling triple threat match at Vengeance with Kurt Angle and The Rock but the match that sticks out from that era as Taker's most thrilling performance was his WWE Title defense to Jeff Hardy in a Latter match. Yes, a ladder match with The Undertaker. And boy did he live up to the gimmick. In this bout, Taker went out of his comfort zone and not only kept up with the young Hardy, but also put him over as a top superstar. The story of the veteran champion defending against the young rookie was a captivating one. There were numerous spots throughout the match where they had the audience believing that Jeff had a legitimate shot at becoming WWE Champion. In the end, Undertaker retained but he had made The Charismatic Enigma look like a million bucks in the process. It would take a while before Jeff Hardy would be seen by WWE management at main event level but in 2002, The Undertaker was ahead of the curve and visions of his 90s battles with Shawn Michaels could be seen in this contest.
Kenny is a successful podcast host with Inside The Ropes, promotes exciting Q&A events in the UK with the likes of Sting and DDP, has interviewed the big guns like Foley, Jericho, Bruno and Austin and enjoys cheese a great deal.
