Post by Kurtmark22 on Aug 9, 2004 12:42:11 GMT 1
I'll never forget the first time I saw the Undertaker. Not Mark Callaway, I had already seen the Punisher on Video replay of a series of regional USWA house shows.
No, this was the WWF, what I watched every Saturday morning on ITV and & PPV tapes my realitives in America were kind enough to send. I was ready to watch the coolestVideo ever with my friends in my house. An event where there were no One-On-Ones, no tag team matches, not even a World Title match. On this night, groups of four, good guys on one side, bad guys on the other, would line up, shake hands, and fight to survive. And at the end of the night, all of the surviving good guys would battle the surviving bad guys, a classic, cartoonish battle of good versus evil. I was ready to cheer on Hulk Hogan, Jim Duggan and the Legion of Doom as I always did, I was a good, little mark. The good guys wore colorful costumes and had genuine facial expressions, and they had my full support. At least, they did for a while.
I despised the Million Dollar Man and boo'd him like everyone else in the room when he showed up. He made Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant mad at each other, he was a bad man, and he used his money to buy people. The cartoonish villain did his work well on his target audience.
Then came the big surprise, the one that made the Hart Foundation and their bird-carrying buddy seem completely insignificant. A mystery partner which I had thought to be Virgil or one of the goofy jobbers from the Sunday Morning TV shows turned out to be the best thing that ever happened between myself and wrestling. The black trench coat, the pupiless eyes, the grimace, the facial hair, black and grey everywhere, towering over the opposition like Goliath... except Goliath was cool this time.
Yes the Phenom had arrived & he was so cool that you couldn't help but cheer for him.
That was then though & now after 12 years of Taker main eventing it's sad to say he is not even half the man he once was. True that the return to 'classic taker' was better than the boring Biker version but it's not like he competly reverted. This Taker is more half Biker Half Deadman.
Then there's his matches, Biker Taker had started to add submissions to his repotire which added a whole new diminsion to the character. Now however that aspect seems to have being sadly dropped. Then of course theres the infrequent apearances. Why exactly would I want to cheer somebody who only wrestles every third week?
It's obvious that Taker will be retiring sooner rather than later & I for one wish he would go out with a bang rather than the wimper he seems to be content with. Even this World title fued seems to be the least pushed match on the Summerslam card, hell Eddie & Kurt has got twice the attention on SD than than the title fued.
So what can WWE do to make what may be Takers last run more entertaining.
First of all bring back Paul Bearer because love or hate him (personally I dislike the charactr) he is as much a part of Taker as the music, urn or Outfit.
Seondly the outfit is ok but he needs the full outfit taker wore in 1991 not just the part he wears now.
Other than that he just needs to wrestle at every show, & vary his moves & maybe the Deadman can once again count me as one of his 'marks'.
But until then I will keep caling Taker the Boreass walking.
No, this was the WWF, what I watched every Saturday morning on ITV and & PPV tapes my realitives in America were kind enough to send. I was ready to watch the coolestVideo ever with my friends in my house. An event where there were no One-On-Ones, no tag team matches, not even a World Title match. On this night, groups of four, good guys on one side, bad guys on the other, would line up, shake hands, and fight to survive. And at the end of the night, all of the surviving good guys would battle the surviving bad guys, a classic, cartoonish battle of good versus evil. I was ready to cheer on Hulk Hogan, Jim Duggan and the Legion of Doom as I always did, I was a good, little mark. The good guys wore colorful costumes and had genuine facial expressions, and they had my full support. At least, they did for a while.
I despised the Million Dollar Man and boo'd him like everyone else in the room when he showed up. He made Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant mad at each other, he was a bad man, and he used his money to buy people. The cartoonish villain did his work well on his target audience.
Then came the big surprise, the one that made the Hart Foundation and their bird-carrying buddy seem completely insignificant. A mystery partner which I had thought to be Virgil or one of the goofy jobbers from the Sunday Morning TV shows turned out to be the best thing that ever happened between myself and wrestling. The black trench coat, the pupiless eyes, the grimace, the facial hair, black and grey everywhere, towering over the opposition like Goliath... except Goliath was cool this time.
Yes the Phenom had arrived & he was so cool that you couldn't help but cheer for him.
That was then though & now after 12 years of Taker main eventing it's sad to say he is not even half the man he once was. True that the return to 'classic taker' was better than the boring Biker version but it's not like he competly reverted. This Taker is more half Biker Half Deadman.
Then there's his matches, Biker Taker had started to add submissions to his repotire which added a whole new diminsion to the character. Now however that aspect seems to have being sadly dropped. Then of course theres the infrequent apearances. Why exactly would I want to cheer somebody who only wrestles every third week?
It's obvious that Taker will be retiring sooner rather than later & I for one wish he would go out with a bang rather than the wimper he seems to be content with. Even this World title fued seems to be the least pushed match on the Summerslam card, hell Eddie & Kurt has got twice the attention on SD than than the title fued.
So what can WWE do to make what may be Takers last run more entertaining.
First of all bring back Paul Bearer because love or hate him (personally I dislike the charactr) he is as much a part of Taker as the music, urn or Outfit.
Seondly the outfit is ok but he needs the full outfit taker wore in 1991 not just the part he wears now.
Other than that he just needs to wrestle at every show, & vary his moves & maybe the Deadman can once again count me as one of his 'marks'.
But until then I will keep caling Taker the Boreass walking.
