Okay, so I'm prepared for most of you to haaaaate this. I get that. This is sacred land here and I'm about to trample all over it.
A few months ago, I argued why The Undertaker vs. John Cena should happen. Then, back at the end of February, after Cena told everyone that a match against Undertaker was "impossible," I insisted it was still very possible, smelling the musty musk of a misdirect. Buckle up for more here, funfans.
This opinion, if you can call it that, is a bit looser. I'm about to get everything I want. Cena will fight Undertaker at WrestleMania 34 (there's no way this match can't happen now that Cena's called Taker a coward multiple times), though we may not get the official announcement until the week of. A new wrinkle in the caper is this though: With Kid Rock being inducted into this year's Hall of Fame class and the Kid Rock video packages showing, and calling out, Undertaker's 2000 to 2003 biker gimmick, there's a strong rumor that Undertaker may return to face Cena as - yup - BikerTaker.
I'm here to say that...[breathes deep]...I'm okay with this. Do I want Undertaker's final match to be with this persona? Not really. It's not ideal. Though there's been no real talk, thus far, of this being Undertaker's final anything. That hasn't even been broached. Right now we're just talking about Undertaker returning from the depths of self-exile, from sweet oblivion, to fight John Cena. There's been no mention of this being an official retirement match. So if no one is billing this as Taker's Last Ride then I'm even more okay with him facing Cena as SAMCRO McDeadDude.
Here's the deal: The Undertaker's Wild West mortician persona, the "Deadman" gimmick that sometimes has him don a black hat and long duster coat, or sometimes a black robe that makes him look like the Potions Professor from Durmstrang, is timeless. It's old, it's creepy (af), and it has an amazing out-of-step/out-of-time horror vibe. Old things are scary. This we know. It has to be really old though, right? This is one of the main reasons why he's been such an enduring presence.
The "American Badass" gimmick (or "Big Evil" during the shorter-haired parts of it), from the turn of the century, very much represents an era that we sort of wince at now, in hindsight.
Like the news about Vince bringing back the XFL, our thoughts first turn to "Why?" Back then, it was all nu-metal and tribal tats and Godsmack and a lot of things that are seen as punchlines now. These things all worked in wrestling at the time, worked really well, but like hair metal and other music and fashion fads, any attempt to bring it back can really only be done so ironically.
So not only does Undertaker's "American Badass" gimmick, along with the Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock music, feel silly now but WWE itself squashed these three years, for years, because it robbed Undertaker of his other-worldly supernatural mystique. The flashes of the American Badass gimmick in that Kid Rock video package were the first glimpses of it on WWE TV in ages.
I know, it really sounds, right now, like I'm arguing against my point. Hell, I may be talking myself out of it as I type all this. We'll see. There were parts of those years that shouldn't be forgotten though. Taker won the WWE Undisputed Championship as Big Evil. He had an awesome Ladder Match with Jeff Hardy during that time too. He also had great WrestleMania match with Rick Flair along with two separate, and awesome, feuds with Brock Lesnar. There was joy to be had and goodness to be experienced. Not all of it, but enough that WWE never mentioning it ever was a small(ish) sore spot for some fans.
Back when Undertaker appeared at RAW 25, he donned his black robe. It made sense since he left his cowboy garb in the ring after last year's 'Mania loss to Roman Reigns. All neat in a pile, like a witch trap. It stayed there until morning. He didn't scamper back down the aisle to collect it. So, of course, he'd now be wearing his alternate Taker gear. In fact, I thought he'd wear the robe to face Cena since, apparently, in order to retire Taker you have to beat him in all of his costumes.
Now though, Cena's calling out Undertaker the man. He's not going so far as to use Undertaker's real name, but he's getting personal. I half suspected, when WWE was in Texas last week, that they were going to film a segment where Cena went up to Undertaker's house to demand a match. But then I realized that doing a segment where someone walks onto someone's property in Texas unannounced is probably a dangerous deal.
Still though, Cena not only called out the fact that Undertaker has a wife but also that her Instagram showed him working out. Wives and social media accounts aren't exactly spooky, ethereal manifestations of a tortured soul. Or maybe they are. Either way, Cena is trying to get through to the dude underneath the Deadman. And Undertaker in his "Deadman Inc" phase as about as mortal as he ever got. In fact, even though it was an amped-up gimmick, the American Badass was the man. It was Mark Calaway. Cranked to 11, yes, but it was him.
If Cena is directing his challenges to the mortal human who doesn't think he has it in him anymore to wrestle one more match, then I can deal with the "American Badass" Undertaker arriving on the scene to do battle.
Also, if they are saving this reveal for the RAW right before WrestleMania, then it'll work even better. One huge pop on RAW and then a big Kid Rock-y singalong at 'Mania and we're done. Basically, we wind up not oversaturating ourselves with something that could start feeling hokey really quickly. We bring the Big Evil gimmick back for a fast and awesome encore and no one tires of it or starts asking "Wait, why did we all voluntarily listen to Crazy Town?"
Along these lines too, it'd be interesting to see Undertaker come back for one final hurrah as...Mark Calaway. The way Mick foley wrestled his final WWE matches as himself and not any of his characters. Sure, that might not work for someone like Undertaker but it would really speak the storyline of Cena facing the human underneath the Undertaker. Overall, we're looking for Undertaker to return in some sort of form that doesn't rob us of last year's "Black Hat in the Center of the Ring" moment. He doesn't need to retire, but that moment definitely needs to have closed some sort of door. Whether it's the death of Undertaker as just the cowboy or Undertaker as the mystical zombie coroner altogether.
Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association (TCA). Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire