This is a blog that I wrote for the Undertaker fan site ‘Phenomforever.com’. I’ll admit now that I love wrestling, and I love The Undertaker. I thought I’d post it on here too, seeing how this is a blog after all! Plus, I think large bodies of text look cool on Tumblr. They kinda make you look smart! :P
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Enjoy or disregard, it’s up to you :)
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How I Became an Undertaker Fan
By Tombstone_City
I can’t remember the first time I saw The Undertaker on my TV screen. I must have been 8 or 9 I suppose; as that was the age I really began to watch wrestling. But surprisingly this was not the age I became an Undertaker fan. See, I have no memory of seeing Taker at that age and instantly becoming a huge fan. At the age of about 12 I stopped watching wrestling completely. I don’t know why that was; maybe I was becoming a young man, finding other interests that distracted me away from wrestling, who knows! But I had outgrown it. It was only out of sheer chance that I began to follow wrestling again a few years later. At the age of about 15 my best friend at the time was himself outgrowing wrestling and he had a vast collection of VHS tapes that he had collected as a child. These ranged from old Macho Man Randy Savage videos, to Summerslam 1997 (an absolute classic main event between Taker and Bret Hart, if you haven’t seen it then find it immediately!), to Survivor Series 1993. I was curious and decided to take them off his hands. And it was THAT Survivor Series 1993 video that instantly cemented me as a lifelong Undertaker fan.
Survivor Series 1993’s main event was billed as ‘The All Americans’ VS ‘The Foreign Fanatics’. The All-Americans consisted of Lex Luger, The Undertaker, and The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott). The Foreign Fanatics consisted of Yokozuna, Ludvig Borga, Quebecer Jacques, and Crush. It has to be one of my all-time favourite Undertaker matches, but surprisingly Taker is only in the match for less than 3 minutes. Confused? Well let me explain what happens. For almost the ENTIRE match Taker stands on the apron, motionless. He doesn’t get tagged into the match at all, for different reasons. Sometimes you think he’s going to be tagged, but it never turns out that way. So for about half an hour Taker stands completely still as his tag-team partners are eliminated. The Foreign Fanatics are dominating, Paul Bearer is hunched over his urn at ringside. The anticipation builds. As the match progresses it becomes a 2-on-4 event as the Steiner Brothers are eliminated. Lex Luger is in the ring being dominated by Yokozuna. Taker stands stone dead on the apron, emotionless, his arms by his sides (none of this running up and down the apron, slamming his hand down on the turnbuckle like he does now. No, he’s just standing there like a hulking great zombie. And it’s frickin’ awesome!). Lex is getting pummeled and tries to crawl to Taker. But Yokozuna grabs Lex and throws him into the corner. At this time the crowd is coming alive; they know it’s only a matter of time before the Dead Man is tagged. Yokozuna readies a corner splash, but Lex dives out of the way before it hits and falls to the floor, dazing the sumo giant. It’s now a slow crawl to the corner as the crowd begins to stand. Lex reaches out as far as he can. And then it happens. It’s the moment that used to send Goosebumps down my spine, and still does to this day. Taker slowly extends his arm and finally makes the tag! The look on Yokozuna’s face is priceless, as though he’s seen a ghost. And then it’s on! Taker VS Yokozuna! Firstly some throat chops, then an Irish whip! Yokozuna reverses it and throws Taker to the ropes, bending over to perform an over-the-head-toss. DDT to Yokozuna! And then the sit-up…probably the best sit up I’ve ever see, certainly the one that has stuck with me for all of these years (maybe it was the first time I ever really saw him do it when it really meant something). It’s a slow sit-up, like the ones he used to do in the early 90s. The fight continues for some time before Yokozuna gets the upper-hand and slams Taker to the mat. The crowd goes quiet, surely this can’t be it! Yokozuna then delivers TWO mid-turnbuckle splashes to the prone Undertaker, before lining up a third. Is it the final nail in the coffin? Just as Yokuzuna falls from the sky Taker sits up and avoids it! The crowd come alive again as Taker performs his signature flying closeline. It’s just great!
So anyway enough rambling about that match, watch it and see it for yourselves. It was watching that match that made me a Taker fan. Even though he was only in the match for a few minutes it was his presence alone than triggered an emotional response in me. It was his character, the way he moved, the way he didn’t move. From then on I watched every Undertaker match I could find in the collection of videos, and from then I was hooked on WWE and Taker, and I still am to this day. I’ve seen Taker in the flesh twice at two Wrestlemanias and I can’t thank my friend enough for letting me have those videos. If it wasn’t for him I would be missing out on a true sporting legend and I would have missed out on some fantastic experiences in America attending Wrestlemania 23 and 25.
