History Awesome / TheUndertaker

** But, perhaps, nothing can beat his entrance at ''Summerslam 1994''. For a recap, Undertaker had disappeared after losing to Yokozuna in a Casket Match at the ''Royal Rumble'', and Ted DiBiase, the man who had introduced the Deadman, claimed he had "bought" the Undertaker into joining his Million Dollar Corporation (the one DiBiase managed was an impostor played by Brian Lee). However, Paul Bearer, the manager of the actual Undertaker, spent months taunting the Million Dollar Man and his creation, promising that the real deal would return to thwart DiBiase's plans. When it came time for the real Phemom to make his return entrance at ''Summerslam'', Paul Bearer entered the arena first, but without the Undertaker. Bearer would direct some druids to wheel out a casket, which contained the urn, before entering the ring and opening the urn, which revealed a blinding light. Bearer would proceed to, in the words of commentator Vince McMahon, "command the spirit of the Undertaker" as the violet-shaded silhouette of the Undertaker, the real Undertaker, stalked toward the ring.

* Looking back at the stories behind his [=WrestleMania=] matches from Randy Orton on all the way to AJ Styles, there were several opponents who Undertaker pitched behind the scenes that they should beat him--yet every single one of them turned it down out of pure respect. That is how renowned Undertaker was by his peers. He was down to sacrifice his biggest selling point to benefit others, yet they all asked to take the fall instead for his sake. The only reason the losses to Lesnar and Reigns still happened is because Vince [=McMahon=] himself overrode their declines and made the call for them to win anyway.

* Undertaker's ''Wrestling/WrestleMania "Streak" is a career-spanning [=CMoA=], but he has a few more.

* [=WrestleMania=] 36 is both a career resurrection AND a satisfactory sunset for The Phenom all in one as he fights AJ Styles in a Boneyard Match. At first, one's questioning his decision to be the American Badass, especially when the numbers game of The OC puts him on the brink of being buried alive again, but then it's revealed that he still has his supernatural powers! It must be seen to be believed.

* [=WrestleMania=] 36 is a career resurrection for the Deadman as he fights AJ Styles in a Boneyard Match. At first, one's questioning his decision to be the American Badass, but then it's revealed that he still has his supernatural powers! It must be seen to be believed.

* [=WrestleMania=] 36 is a career resurrection for the Deadman as he fights AJ Styles in a Boneyard Match. At first, one's questioning his decision to be the American Badass, but then it's revealed that he still has his supernatural powers! It must be seen to be believed.
* During an Interview, Chris Jericho talked about during a live show, someone managed to sneak in a large battery and chuck it at Jericho's head. This infuriated Jericho and wanted to call of the main event of the show and [[RageQuit stormed off to the back]]. When confronted, he told everyone he wasn't going back out there, and around the corner, Undertaker got in his face and said "Say what?", Jericho repeated his statement, and Taker calmly replied "[[ScareEmStraight Are you sure?]]". Jericho paused for a minute, realize who he's talking to, and sheepishly said "I'm going to go back to ring".

* [=WrestleMania=] 36 is a career resurrection for the Deadman as he fights AJ Styles in a Boneyard Match. At first, one's questioning his decision to be the American Badass, but then it's revealed that he still has his supernatural powers! It must be seen to be believed.

* ''From his very debut'' Undertaker has been an awesome force. While Mark Calaway had been wrestling for 6 years already, the first time the world got to see The Undertaker was in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_ZW8vExvdw the 1990 WWF Survivor Series]], when he was recruited by Wrestling/TedDibiase as the "Mystery Partner" on his "Million-Dollar Team" for the four-on-four tag-team match against the "Dream Team" of Wrestling/BretHart, Wrestling/DustyRhodes, Jim Neidhart and Wrestling/KokoBWare. When he stalked into the stadium at the end of [=DiBiase's=] LargeHam introduction (complete with [=DiBiase's=] trademark EvilLaugh) he stunned ''everyone,'' who'd never seen his like before. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-XHQbJ04Qo Barely a minute into the match]], after [[NoSell shrugging off every attack directed at him]], he flattened Koko with a Tombstone and pinned him with casual ease. Later in the match he would drop The American Dream with a Double Axe Handle ''off the top rope'' and send him out. He would have been [[TheJuggernaut completely unstoppable]] if his manager, Brother Love, hadn't picked a fight with the eliminated Rhodes, getting himself beaten up in response and causing Undertaker to leave the ring [[BloodKnight as if he didn't care about the match at all and brutally go after Rhodes again]] to protect him, leading to him being counted out[[note]](The Million-Dollar Team still won when [=DiBiase=] pinned Bret Hart, meaning 'Taker didn't start his career with a loss)[[/note]]. One of the most [[EstablishingCharacterMoment awe-inspiring debuts]] in wrestling history.

[[quoteright:251:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/taker_3.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:251:Undertaker's VictoryPose after another grueling title defense match.]]
WWE [[https://youtu.be/1yT9LC6-i64 obligingly compiled a top 20 list]] in the wake of ''[=WrestleMania=] 33''.

* Wrestlemania 36 is a career resurrection for the Deadman as he fights AJ Styles in a Boneyard Match. At first, one's questioning his decision to be the American Badass, but then it's revealed that he still has his supernatural powers! It must be seen to be believed.

* Undertaker deserves one for the sheer amount of respect he commands [[AFatherToHisMen from everyone in the wrestling industry]]. Rarely is anything bad said about the man by insiders and fans alike, and the fact that he was able to ''believably portray'' a superpowered undead cowboy all the way up until 2017, a time at which such outlandish gimmicks had been almost entirely phased out, is awe-inspiring even long after Taker's retirement. Even among the most cynical of wrestling fans, the Undertaker remains one of the last things about wrestling they genuinely and unironically love.

* At ''[[Wrestling/KingOfTheRing King of the Ring 1998]]'', the Undertaker met [[Wrestling/MickFoley Mankind]] at a Wrestling/HellInACell match, which is legendary for its HolyShitQuotient

*** And he would cement this by not only getting up every time Roberts would land a chairshot on him or some other vicious heelish move, but ''dragging the damn coffin his hand was stuck in'' as he went after his ex-partner.

** Talking about his feud with Wrestling/UltimateWarrior, it says a lot when a character that was mainly known for his crazy, intense, and narm-filled promos is suddenly visibly scared and even talking in a low voice about just how terrifying The Undertaker is. That's right, at the beggining of his career, The Undertaker managed to scare the ''craziest'' wrestler in the whole company.

*** His first match against Wrestling/{{Kane}} at ''[=WrestleMania=] XIV'' saw him enter to lines of druids holding torches, set to "O Fortuna." [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_egp_Nflzzw This raised the bar for epic entrances, even for Taker,]] and the druid motif has been reused and modified a few times since.

** What's more: according to Wrestling/ChrisJericho, Undertaker had suffered anywhere between ''second and third degree burns'' from the accident and then had to go wait in one of the Pods. And since Taker was not one of the first men out, he had to stand in those (according to Jericho) uncomfortably hot pods for-freaking-EVER. And never once did he break character. [[CaptainObvious After the match, Undertaker was understandably pissed about the special effects guy, who was summarily fired.]]

* At ''[[Wrestling/KingOfTheRing King of the Ring 1998]]'', the Undertaker met [[Wrestling/MickFoley Mankind]] at a Hell In A Cell match, which is legendary for its HolyShitQuotient

** Any match he's had with HBK (the 1st Hell In A Cell, final two in the 2007 Wrestling/RoyalRumble)

** If it were possible to take it {{Up To Eleven}}, then their rematch at ''[=WrestleMania XXVIII=]'' inside [[HolyShitQuotient Hell In A Cell]] sure did. Among the many things 'Taker survived to win the match included a spinebuster on the ring steps, multiple sledgehammer shots to the face, over a dozen chair shots and a [[FinishingMove Sweet Chin Music]] from guest referee Shawn Michaels that was immediately chained into a [[FinishingMove Pedigree]].

* Undertaker [[spoiler: ''finally'' ending his losing streak to Brock Lesnar in a PPV event during Wrestling/SummerSlam 2015 via submission.]]

* At the end of ''[=SmackDown=]'''s 900th episode, the [=SmackDown=] Survivor Series team are all in the ring, and AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose particularly are about to make things break down. And then....[[MostWonderfulSound GONG.]] The Undertaker returns to the ring, telling everyone that not only does he plan to work outside of [=WrestleMania=], but that his home is [=SmackDown=]. He then follows it up with a speech similar to the one he gave during [[CallBack the end of the 2001 Invasion,]] telling the team they don't have to fear failure....but should they fail, [[OhCrap they will have to fear HIM.]] Safe to say Undertaker just got the [=SmackDown=] team on the same page, with just one conversation.

* The entire Wrestling/MinistryOfDarkness gimmick. The chilling speeches, the wardrobe, the special effects and the comic book-like storyline were all proof that wrestling doesn't need to fool its audience into thinking it's not real for it to still be SugarWiki/SoCoolItsAwesome.

WWE [[https://youtu.be/1yT9LC6-i64 obligingly compiled a top 20 list]] in the wake of ''Wrestlemania 33''.

* Undertaker's ''Wrestling/{{WrestleMania}} "Streak" is a career-spanning [=CMoA=], but he has a few more.
** Said streak was officially beaten at Wrestlemania 30 by Wrestling/BrockLesnar, but damn if 'Taker didn't go down without a fight.
** He [[HesBack came back]] for Wrestlemania 31, beating Wrestling/BrayWyatt in an amazing match.

* At WrestleMania VIII, Roberts hit Undertaker with his DDT, a finishing move that ''always'' meant instantly knocking a guy out and the easy win for the Snake...and the Undertaker ''sits right up from it.'' Roberts beautifully sells being totally horrified as Bobby Heenan began his famous mantra of screaming that Undertaker "is not human! The man's not a human being!"

** Taker's match with Shawn at ''Wrestlemania 26'' deserves special mention for ending with the best Tombstone ''ever.'' AKA the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vBFF88JJ6w Atomic Jumping Tombstone Of Death.]]

*** His first match against Wrestling/{{Kane}} at ''Wrestlemania XIV'' saw him enter to lines of druids holding torches, set to "O Fortuna." [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_egp_Nflzzw This raised the bar for epic entrances, even for Taker,]] and the druid motif has been reused and modified a few times since.

** That moment was probably displaced by his entrance at ''Survivor Series 2015'' (celebrating his 25 years in WWE), with some fans calling it "the best Wrestlemania entrance in a non-Wrestlemania PPV".

* How does Undertaker accept Brock Lesnar to be his opponent for Wrestlemania 30? ''Stabbing Lesnar's hand with a pen on the contract''. Followed by a chokeslam through the table.

* Similar to Undertaker putting Shawn Michaels in his place to make sure he "did the job" at Wrestlemania 14, Kevin Nash once told a tale of Taker doing the same to Bret Hart: the 1996 Royal Rumble had Nash (as Diesel) and Hart in a steel cage match that ended when Undertaker - who had been robbed of a title victory against Hart by Nash at the previous PPV - was to come up from underneath the ring, drag Nash down, giving Hart the chance to escape the cage and retain the title. One problem - in the storyline of the match Nash was supposed to hit Hart with the Jackknife, allowing him to escape the cage, only to be snagged by 'Taker, but while laying out the match beforehand, Hart was refusing to take the powerbomb, giving reason after reason. Nash called Hart out, saying that Hart was going to win the match anyway, but Hart wouldn't budge. Finally, 'Taker, in a rare outburst, stood up and, according to Nash, yelled at Hart, "Motherfucker! It is NOT all about YOU!"
* At the end of ''[=SmackDown=]'''s 900th episode, the [=SmackDown=] Survivor Series team are all in the ring, and AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose particularly are about to make things break down. And then....[[MostWonderfulSound GONG.]] The Undertaker returns to the ring, telling everyone that not only does he plan to work outside of WrestleMania, but that his home is [=SmackDown=]. He then follows it up with a speech similar to the one he gave during [[CallBack the end of the 2001 Invasion,]] telling the team they don't have to fear failure....but should they fail, [[OhCrap they will have to fear HIM.]] Safe to say Undertaker just got the [=SmackDown=] team on the same page, with just one conversation.

* During his shocking announcement to enter the 2017 Royal Rumble, he made one point very clear, particularly to Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon, that this is not the same Deadman who more or less did Vince's dirty work the year before at WrestleMania:

* ''From his very debut'' Undertaker has been an awesome force. While Mark Calaway had been wrestling for 6 years already, the first time the world got to see The Undertaker was in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_ZW8vExvdw the 1990 WWF Survivor Series]], when he was recruited by Wrestling/TedDibiase as the "Mystery Partner" on his "Million-Dollar Team" for the four-on-four tag-team match against the "Dream Team" of Wrestling/BretHart, Wrestling/DustyRhodes, Jim Neidhart and Wrestling/KokoBWare. When he stalked into the stadium at the end of [=DiBiase's=] LargeHam introduction (complete with [=DiBiase's=] trademark EvilLaugh) he stunned ''everyone,'' who'd never seen his like before. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-XHQbJ04Qo Barely a minute into the match]], after [[NoSell shrugging off every attack directed at him]], he flattened Koko with a Tombstone and pinned him with casual ease. Later in the match he would drop The American Dream with a Double Axe Handle ''off the top rope'' and send him out. He would have been [[TheJuggernaut completely unstoppable]] if his manager, Brother Love, hadn't picked a fight with the eliminated Rhodes, getting himself beaten up in response and causing Undertaker to leave the ring as if he didn't care about the match at all and brutally go after Rhodes again to protect him, leading to him being counted out[[note]](The Million-Dollar Team still won when [=DiBiase=] pinned Bret Hart, meaning 'Taker didn't start his career with a loss)[[/note]]. One of the most [[EstablishingCharacterMoment awe-inspiring debuts]] in wrestling history.

* Undertaker deserves one for the sheer amount of respect he commands [[AFatherToHisMen from everyone in the wrestling industry]]. Rarely is anything bad said about the man by insiders and fans alike, and the fact that he can still pull off a gimmick of a superpowered zombie mortician until the modern era (where such outlandish gimmicks have been almost phased out) is still awe-inspiring. Even among the most cynical of wrestling fans, the Undertaker remains one of the last things about wrestling they genuinely and unironically love.

* Undertaker [[spoiler: ''finally'' ending his losing streak to Brock Lesnar in a PPV event during SummerSlam 2015 via submission.]]

* During his shocking announcement to enter the 2017 Royal Rumble, he made one point very clear, particularly to StephanieMcMahon, that this is not the same Deadman who more or less did Vince's dirty work the year before at WrestleMania:

** Any match he's had with HBK (the 1st Hell In A Cell, final two in the 2007 RoyalRumble)

* Similar to Undertaker putting Shawn Michaels in his place to make sure he "did the job" at Wrestlemania 14, Kevin Nash once told a tale of Taker doing the same to Bret Hart: the 1996 Royal Rumble had Nash (as Diesel) and Hart in a steel cage match that ended when Undertaker - who had been robbed of a title victory against Hart by Nash at the previous PPV - was to come up from underneath the ring, drag Nash down, giving Hart the chance to escape the cage and retain the title. One problem - in the storyline of the match Nash was supposed to hit Hart with the jackknife powerbomb, allowing him to escape the cage, only to be snagged by 'Taker, but while laying out the match beforehand, Hart was refusing to take the powerbomb, giving reason after reason. Nash called Hart out, saying that Hart was going to win the match anyway, but Hart wouldn't budge. Finally, 'Taker, in a rare outburst, stood up and, according to Nash, yelled at Hart, "Motherfucker! It is NOT all about YOU!"

* He and Wrestling/{{Kane}} saving Wrestling/{{Lita}} from brutal beating at the hands of Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin and Wrestling/TripleH. [[LimpBizkit Rollin]] hits and through a pillar of fire they ''casually'' stroll to the ring like they had all the time in the world. Austin and Haitch see this and go ScrewThisImOuttaHere.

** Jake hit ''another'' DDT on the Undertaker before going to the outside to attack Paul Bearer. Sitting up once more, Undertaker walks out and gives Jake a Tombstone ''on the floor.'' He then rolls him back to the easy pin as Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan are awed on commentary about how unstoppable this man is.[[note]] For a little bit of inside baseball: Roberts told 'Taker to hit him with a Tombstone to the outside and not in the ring to get the pin because he wanted to protect his character a little bit. In Kayfabe, there is a pretty big difference between taking a pin after a finishing move to the outside and taking a finishing move right in the middle of the ring (the idea being that the exposed floor adds an extra "kick" to your finisher, thus making it stronger than a "normal" finisher). However, it didn't really work, because the Undertaker was supremely over and all anyone noticed was the fact that Roberts got pinned by 'Taker. [[/note]]