The whole point of the match was to try something new and to establish Calloway’s dominance. The fact that it closed the show after the barn burner cage match soured the fans in attendance and watching at home to its own awesomeness.įor what it is, it's a good match. Any match following a classic like that is going to be nitpicked and will never be seen as good as it could have been. Because who wouldn’t be interested in the idea of a guy fighting himself on pay per view.Īnother issue with the match, and perhaps part of the reason is it viewed so negatively, is that this match followed the amazing Bret/Owen II five star classic.
#Undertaker vs undertaker summerslam 1994 full
That was it’s full intention - to garner outside interest in the upcoming event and increase the pay per view buys. The seven month build sucked fans in and made them want to buy Summerslam. The hardcores saw it as a marketing tactic. So why all the hate? One reason is that, as previously mentioned, it appealed to neither the hardcore fans nor the casual fan consistently. While the match further established Mark Calloway’s Undertaker as a dominant force, it did very little to nothing for Brian Lee, the DiBiase Undertaker, who was literally buried in a coffin at the conclusion of the match. The match was sloppy at times with a few botches that seven year old me missed, but thirty-one year old me picked up right away upon a recent viewing. Many hardcore fans saw the match as nothing more than a cheap marketing ploy and casual fans were confused, having no idea why there were suddenly two Undertakers. The foundation was set and the match was on.Īlthough it led to one of the most memorable moments in Summerslam (and by extension WWE) history, the match itself is generally panned by fans. Two weeks before Summerslam, Bearer was saved from an Undertaker attack by supernatural means and just a few days prior to the event the challenge was laid down by the “real” Undertaker. After several attempts by Paul Bearer to realign with the Undertaker, Bearer began to suspect that this was not the real Undertaker. The Undertaker and DiBiase then spent the rest of the summer running through the lower end of the roster. Three weeks after making his claim, DiBiase was a guest on Shawn Michaels' “Heartbreak Hotel” segment on an episode of WWF Superstars when the Undertaker made his return alongside and aligned with the Million Dollar Man. On May 21, 1994, Ted DiBiase, who originally brought ‘Taker into the WWE in 1990, claimed that the Deadman had been found and was working for him once again thanks to the power of the almighty dollar. WWE would air vignettes of various people - common folk, not WWE superstars - claiming to have seen the Undertaker out and about. Ascending to the heavens, Taker promised that the world would witness him being reborn. The Undertaker had not been seen for several months (since the Royal Rumble that January) following a lost to Yokozuna in a Casket match. It was a genius move by Vince McMahon - build up a feud between two wrestlers while one of them isn’t even there! The end result of a seven month long build gave fans a type of match that they had only been able to play in Mortal Kombat up to that point. This match was used as a means to capitalize on the continued popularity of the Undertaker, while the build-up gave Undertaker time to rehab a back injury. This was at the beginning of the New Generation, a period within not only WWE but the wrestling world in general, was on a decline. Summerslam 1994, a pay per view event remembered for two very different matches: the five star classic, WrestleMania X rematch between Bret & Owen Hart and the infamous Undertaker versus Undertaker match.