19. The Undertaker Flies Down To The Ring - Survivor Series 1996
Returning for vengeance has been a recurring theme in the career of The Undertaker, and perhaps no opponent warranted revenge as much as Mankind. The deranged villain debuted in WWE on the episode of Raw immediately following WrestleMania XII, and without provocation, he viciously attacked the Phenom. This led to a match at King of the Ring, which Mankind won following "accidental" interference from Paul Bearer. The two clashed again at SummerSlam in the first Boiler Room Brawl, where the winner would be the man to fight from the backstage area to the ring and claim Bearer's urn from the manager himself. In a shocking twist, Bearer turned on Undertaker to give Mankind the win. Then, in the first-ever Buried Alive match two months later, Mankind scored a third win over the Phenom, burying him completely in dirt. At Survivor Series, the returning Phenom would have his ultimate revenge - the two faced off one more time, in a bout where Paul Bearer was suspended in a cage above the ring and, if The Undertaker won, he would get unhampered access to his former manager. To place even more emphasis on his rise from the grave for the bout, Undertaker descended from the Madison Square Garden rafters on a zipline wearing leather bat wings. It was a stunning sight, and sure enough, Undertaker defeated Mankind in their fourth encounter.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013