Columns
Morning Glory #16: Dead
Man Walking
For over ten years now,
The Undertaker has been my favourite, or one of my favourite wrestlers. I’ve followed
him through some of his great feuds, against men like Kane, Steve Austin, and Mankind, and
also his not-so-good feuds, against the likes of Giant Gonzales, Ted DiBiase’s
Corporation, and most recently the Full Blooded Italians. I’ve seen Undertaker defeat
Jesus Christ himself on a ratio of 5 resurrections to 1, and go through huge gimmick
changes, from an undead zombie, to a faux-Satanic priest, to a badass biker, who happens
to be a loving father and husband. I own the Undertaker’s ‘This Is My Yard’
DVD, and I even made myself a compilation of his classic matches, Casket matches, Inferno
matches, Buried Alive matches, the lot. You could very well say that I’m one of the
biggest Undertaker fans around. However, as big an Undertaker fan that I am, I’m
sorry to say that since his return at the Royal Rumble in January of this year, his whole
character has bored me to tears. If I’m being honest, the last time the character of
the Undertaker interested me was back in September 2002, when he defended his pregnant
wife against Brock Lesnar.
That’s 9 months ago. A hell of a long time for an Undertaker mark. So, the question
can be asked – what’s made the Deadman so boring? Is it the people he’s
feuded with, since his return? Big Show, A-Train, and the FBI are hardly the best heel
opponents, after all. Is it the angles he’s taken part in since his return? Well,
having a big, Australian ex-convict as your protégé is hardly Austin vs McMahon in terms
of storyline quality. However, despite the shoddy nature of these two points, ask any
internet fan about what makes Undertaker so bad, and they’ll tell you that it’s
because he’s playing a face. You see, Undertaker’s an aging wrestler, who should
really be putting younger, fresher guys over, to get them up to main event status, or just
giving them a bump up the card. As a heel, Undertaker did that – he helped raise the
stock of Maven hugely, he gave Jeff Hardy a massive rub during his mini-feud with him
culminating in a Ladder match, and in general, he seemed willing to sell a lot more for
lesser opponents as a heel.
As a face, Undertaker doesn’t tend to show any of these attributes. The last heel I
can remember going over him was Brock Lesnar, during Hell In A Cell. As a face, he no-sold
the Crippler Crossface AND the Ankle Lock, at the SAME TIME. As a face, he doesn’t
sell for opponents, and rarely loses, let alone cleanly. Over the past few weeks,
he’s systematically squashed the members of the FBI, rendering them little more than
jobbers, and before this, he beat up the WWE’s fastest rising star, John Cena,
basically squashing him too, and only lost to him through FBI interference. It IS
frustrating to watch, without a doubt. Undertaker’s character, at this point, is
nothing more than a one-dimensional tough guy biker, who beats up on lesser guys. When he
does job cleanly (see Lesnar, Brock), the rub is huge. But is putting one guy over
cleanly, giving them a huge rub, while squashing countless others really worth it? I
don’t think it is. So, is the solution as simple as a heel turn for the Deadman?
Again, I don’t think so.
People who wish for a heel Undertaker will tell you that not only does he put a lot more
guys over as a heel, his character is also a lot more interesting, too. This is true.
Taker’s heel character, at the end of 2001 and the beginning of 2002 centered around
‘respect’. If Taker didn’t feel that someone was showing him respect, well,
he’d go after them. The character came across as a man who was not only paranoid
about the other wrestlers feelings towards him, but also a man who was EXTREMELY
self-conscious, in that he craved respect from his peers, his bosses, and the fans. The
character was three-dimensional, engaging, and meant for some interesting feuds with guys
from the upper echelon, such as The Rock, but also with lower guys like Maven and Jeff
Hardy. Just as interesting was the tweener version of this Undertaker, who emerged in the
summer of 2002. He was still demanding respect from everyone, but he was willing to
acknowledge, or even help (John Cena) wrestlers who had earned his respect. Of
course, the tweener version slowly became the stale face character we see today.
So, after all that praise, you ask, what the hell is my problem with turning Taker heel?
It’s simple really. At this point in time, turning The Undertaker heel would be
simple impossible. Whether Undertaker is heel or face, one aspect of his character remains
the same – he is a ‘badass’ who incites fear into his opponents. Obviously,
this aspect is never going to change, not in a million years. It wouldn’t be
believable for Undertaker to play the ‘pussy heel’, as he’s 6’10”
and 300lbs, and of course, it’d go against everything the character has done in the
past 13 years. The problem isn’t the character trait – 20 years ago, it
would’ve been great. Undertaker could’ve been the perfect ‘monster
heel’, just as he was upon WWF debut. Now, however, since the advent of the Stone
Cold Steve Austin face persona, if you’re a badass, you pretty much get cheered,
regardless of your actions. Since the rise of Austin, no ‘badass’ heel has been
able to get over as a pure heel, unless they’ve been up against a phenomenal
babyface. Brock Lesnar was getting huge face pops (Summerslam) before he was turned face
properly. HHH regularly gets the biggest pop on RAW. And so it was with Undertaker.
When Taker destroyed men like Tommy Dreamer, Randy Orton, and Jeff Hardy, his face pops
only got louder, due to his ‘badass’ actions. Even when he defeated the popular
Hulk Hogan for the Undisputed Title, he got a monster face pop posing with the belt. The
only time Undertaker got legitimate heel heat was when he faced Ric Flair, and attacked
Flair’s friends and family in what proved to be an incredibly well-written feud, and
when he faced arguably the #1 babyface in The Rock. Now, though, neither would be
possible. There are no babyfaces who could elicit a reaction large enough for the fans to
actually boo Taker – especially not up and coming faces, who fans would like him to
feud with, and the chances of a feud as well written and executed as well as his feud with
Flair seem absolutely nil, given the booking of recent WWE feuds. The loss of the
fans’ love of the underdog would be Taker’s heel downfall – I can’t
imagine a crowd booing Undertaker if he beat up on Zack Gowen. And added to the
‘badass’ effect, is of course the ‘legend’ effect, where the fans will
pop a ‘legendary wrestler’, regardless of their status – see Ric Flair, or
Shawn Michaels during his nWo run. Undertaker is one of the most legendary wrestlers on
the roster, so naturally, he elicits huge face reactions. And anyone with half a brain can
work out that face reactions for a heel wrestler is not a good thing.
So, looking at that, it would be pretty difficult, near impossible for Undertaker to have
another successful heel run. So, the question remains – what should be done with the
Deadman? He’s outlived his usefulness as a face – he can’t become JTTS, or
his character will die – he NEEDS the ‘badass’ reputation to stay over.
Turning him heel would not really help, either, as the ‘badass’ actions that he
would have to commit to be credible would only elicit an even larger face reaction. Should
Undertaker retire? I don’t think so. He still has a number of good matches in him, as
the Hell In A Cell with Brock Lesnar proved, regardless of a number of more recent horrid
matches. He’s still over, and has a huge rub to give to up and comers when he
actually does job, as Lesnar again proved. Though he does seem to be more injury prone,
he’s nowhere near the ‘almost crippled’ status of other aging stars like
Scott Steiner and Kevin Nash. A big complaint is about the biker character – so could
a gimmick change help him? I’m honestly not sure.
The rumours of a gimmick change for Undertaker, sending him back to the ‘Lord of
Darkness’ late-90’s gimmick have been flying around since late 2000, and
multiplied hugely when his return was announced as ‘The Deadman Returns’ at this
year’s Royal Rumble. The main question asked about a possible gimmick change was the
obvious one – could the old, almost cartoonish gimmick still work in today’s
climate? Would the fans accept the ‘Lord of Darkness’ Undertaker, knowing that
in reality he’s a biker with a wife and a child? The fans know he’s NOT
an undead zombie now – he’s Mark Callaway. However, I still think, given the
right storylines, it could work and get over. If the WWE played it as if Undertaker was
simply using the character in order to play mind games with his opponents – to psyche
them out, it could work well. That way, they would make no illusions about the character
– it would openly be treated as a gimmick, but an effective one. And of course, the
pops that the return of the classic character would get would be guaranteed to be massive.
It’d certainly freshen Taker up.
However, would it really help in terms of usefulness? Sure, it’d make him a
lot more watchable, and would probably make for more interesting feuds, but regardless,
the end result would still probably be the same – Undertaker would still squash lower
heels, not helping them up the card at all. Back in the 90’s, Taker could get away
with jobbing to guys like Mankind, because he would win the blowoff to the feud, and get
his heat back. Now, it’s a different story, as the Taker-bashers want him to put
someone over in the fashion he did for Lesnar – let them win the feud. But too many
jobs would simply kill Undertaker’s credibility – sadly, he’s not good
enough any more to remain credible while jobbing, like The Rock. Quite simply, you
can’t win. If you keep the credible Undertaker, regardless of his gimmick and
character, you keep the way he squashes up and coming heels. If you have an Undertaker who
puts people over constantly, his credibility dies and he’s worthless. And if you turn
him heel, you end up with a heel who gets cheered no matter what, killing the reaction for
the faces he fights. The bottom line? The WWE has been trapped between a rock and a hard
place when it comes to the Undertaker. The Deadman could end up becoming just that, sooner
rather than later.
Scott Newman: scott.newman@ntlworld.com
AOLIM: thesuperstar24
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