The Undertaker's 24 WrestleMania Matches Ranked - From Worst To Best
14. Vs. Sid - WrestleMania 13
The Undertaker had arrived as a truly elite performer by 1997, a status recognised with a ***** Wrestling Observer newsletter rating for his seminal, never-bettered Hell In A Cell match with Shawn Michaels at In Your House: Badd Blood - but he had no hope of matching that feat opposite Sycho Sid at WrestleMania 13.
The most entertaining part of it occurred before the opening bell; Bret Hart, cementing his heel turn, marched to the ring in an attempt to shoehorn himself in the match, as Shawn Michaels on commentary laid waste to him in a intriguing slice of real-life tension. Sid literally laid waste to Hart by drilling him with a powerbomb and instructing him to take his “whining ass out” of the ring.
The match was more entertaining than is often remembered, at least when the No Disqualification stipulation was exploited with a ringside slugfest, but it didn’t help that it dragged on for an ultimately interminable, rest hold heavy twenty-odd minutes. The best spot - Sid’s Tombstone reversal and subsequent near-fall - was compromised by the fact that it was performed away from the hard camera. But that was Sid; so close to greatness, he was only a considerable amount of wrestling ability away from it.
It also didn’t help that the mat was stained by the crimson spilled during Bret Hart and Steve Austin’s candidate for greatest match ever. It was a visual reminder that ‘Taker and Sid’s plight was impossible.