WWE's Biggest Booking DISASTER Every Year (1986-2026)
33. The Underfaker (1994)
...and take Brian Lee's unwanted Undertaker knock off with you.
Forget hindsight, because it's appalling that the WWF's top decision makers had a feud as hot as Bret vs. Owen Hart yet decided to put The Undertaker vs. 'The Underfaker' on last at SummerSlam 1994. Things might not have been so bad had this doppelgänger duffer been placed in the middle of the card as a bonus attraction, but no - it main evented.
The real deal and Lee in his Halloween outfit did the best they could, but this match fell during the slow-moving 'zombie' days of Undertaker's gimmick. So, it was doomed to fail before a blow was struck. Inserting 'undead supernatural phenom' vs. 'undead supernatural phenom' as the focal point heading into the summery pay-per-view was also an odd decision.
WCW might've got away with this sort of thing for Halloween Havoc, but SummerSlam? Nah, this battle of The Undertakers was completely juxtaposed with the garish sunshine branding of the supershow in question. If only In Your House had been around, then we could've had IYH: Revenge Of The 'Taker and had that title make sense.
In theory, Lee's version of The Undertaker was supposed to stick around and maybe even form a tag-team with the genuine article. Thankfully, that didn't happen. 'Taker's gimmick definitely didn't need to be diluted in '94, and the brotherly warfare with Kane was well worth waiting on anyway when it came along in 1997.
Sneaky plaudits go to the Hart bros for going over time in their steel cage effort too. That stopped 'Taker vs. 'Faker from going longer than it was supposed to. Small mercies.