[1994-01-22-WWF-Royal Rumble] Undertaker vs Yokozuna (Casket)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[flyonthewall2983]

At the time it was kind of cool, but now I'm unsure if it was the right idea to have every heel to come out and help Yoko win. I'm sure it was to help solidify that Undertaker would be gone for awhile, but it made Yoko look like a weaker guy for it. 5 bonzai drops in a row could have done the job easier than what half the locker room did.

[El-P]

It was kinda sad to see a huge star like Tenryu buried in a see of WWF heel midcarder. This guy would sold out 40.000 seats or so a few months later with Onita at Kawasaki Stadium, which is something no one in the US could be able to do at the same time.

At 17 I thought the post-match angle was awesome. Looking back 20 years later, it's kinda retarded. Is that the first occurence of WWF using grand production to sell a flat out supernatural angle ?

[Ricky Jackson]

I was about the same age as you El-P when I saw this match, but I totally hated the post match supernatural stuff at the time. I was at the peak of my Bret Hart/Shawn Michaels/athletic-workrate phase and the Undertaker (and Yoko as well) was pretty much the antithesis of everything I wanted my wrestling to be. Yes, I spent most of my teenage years and twenties mired in cynicism, but I'm making up for it today by watching an inordinate amount of 80s Hulk Hogan matches! I'm not sure if I'll ever get into early-90s babyface Undertaker, though.

 

And unless I'm forgetting something, I think this was pretty much the first time WWF went overboard with the Hollywood special effects and all that. Warrior-Shango had the black goo and vomiting (haven't watched that stuff in ages, I wonder if...nah) but this was something else all together.

[FLIK]

It was kinda sad to see a huge star like Tenryu buried in a see of WWF heel midcarder. This guy would sold out 40.000 seats or so a few months later with Onita at Kawasaki Stadium, which is something no one in the US could be able to do at the same time.

Meh, it's not like 99% of the people watching had any clue about any of that or even who Tenryu was unless they remembered him from his 1 Mania aperance a few years earlier. Looking back in hindsight now I more see it as a cool little moment that he got to make a quick cameo.

 

I'm sure it was to help solidify that Undertaker would be gone for awhile, but it made Yoko look like a weaker guy for it.

To me it just made Taker look like a super man and Yoko & Fuji look like evil geniuses.

 

Like OF COURSE 2 or 3 dudes weren't gonna keep THE UNDERTAKER down especially when it's in a CASKET MATCH and he's prepared a DOUBLE WIDE DOUBLE DEEP casket for you and the WWF WORLD TITLE is on the line, those are near impossible odds to overcome, it should take an army to bring him down.

[jdw]

I'm older than you guys, and at the time we thought it was one of the dumbest things ever. I suspect that I wouldn't be as annoyed by it *now* because it would strike me as the writers being intentionally campy. Wrestling Writing in 1994 wasn't like that, they weren't trying to be campy, and it was just amazingly bad.

 

John

[Cox]

I think my favorite part about this whole angle was Cornette being involved with it, and then trying to downplay it in his Fanweek shoot interview, saying how he had no control of the storylines and how he thought it was hokey but he does what the boss says, blah blah blah...meanwhile, at the same time this took place, he had a wrestling mummy in Smoky Mountain.

[Bix]

I think my favorite part about this whole angle was Cornette being involved with it, and then trying to downplay it in his Fanweek shoot interview, saying how he had no control of the storylines and how he thought it was hokey but he does what the boss says, blah blah blah...meanwhile, at the same time this took place, he had a wrestling mummy in Smoky Mountain.

Rick Rubin insisted! He provided the money! What else could Jimmy do?

[Marty]

Been a little while since I last saw this, but it was recent enough for me to conclude that it was so stupid it was good.

[Loss]

YOU AND THAT ROTTING FLESH YOU CALL AN ENTOURAGE -- The video package before the match is the best part of all of this, and that quote is one of my favorites ever in wrestling and never fails to make me laugh.

 

This match was actually pretty good until the booking kicked in. These two do have good chemistry, but they were never really put in a position to have a decent match.

 

Nothing really new to say about the angle, except that there is still a part of me that is surprised it ever happened at all.

[Gregor]

It's kind of strange that, four years later, they repeated this scenario without the promo and ascension to the heavens, as if they thought that this was a great finish that they'd simply overdone a little the first time.

[Loss]

And even that had them setting the casket on fire!

[Dooley]

YOU AND THAT ROTTING FLESH YOU CALL AN ENTOURAGE -- The video package before the match is the best part of all of this, and that quote is one of my favorites ever in wrestling and never fails to make me laugh.

Agreed. I loved the build-up.

 

This match is actually one of my guiltier pleasures. I always got a kick of Taker's supernatural stuff and them going completely over the top with it was fun for me.

 

The sheer volume of heels was unwieldy. They could have cut the amount of bodies in half and kept them to Fuji guys or guys you could buy as Fuji allies and it would have worked better. Seeing Jeff Jarrett and to a lesser extent Diesel involved was almost more head-scratching for me than the post-match soliloquy and ascension to the rafters.

 

DiBiase was actually worse than anything else about the match. If you took a shot every time he said "unbelievable" or "i don't believe it", you would be dead of liver failure before the segment was over.

 

It's kind of strange that, four years later, they repeated this scenario without the promo and ascension to the heavens, as if they thought that this was a great finish that they'd simply overdone a little the first time.

They were right!

[ohtani's jacket]

I kind of have fond memories of this. My friends and I used to imitate and parody the Undertaker's speech all the time. If Robert Stack had spoken those lines I bet it would have been awesome.

[MJH]

YOU AND THAT ROTTING FLESH YOU CALL AN ENTOURAGE -- The video package before the match is the best part of all of this, and that quote is one of my favorites ever in wrestling and never fails to make me laugh.

 

This match was actually pretty good until the booking kicked in. These two do have good chemistry, but they were never really put in a position to have a decent match.

 

Nothing really new to say about the angle, except that there is still a part of me that is surprised it ever happened at all.

I've always thought so too... about as good a 'sprint' (of sorts) that you could expect from these guys (Taker at the time).

[Kevin Ridge]

Well, I was 13 at the time and found the post match supernatural stuff a bit silly. But I did enjoy the heels interfering and beating up Undertaker. More pre match video history before hand. Match is in full which was a surprise as I thought we would just get the post match stuff. Yoko with a chair shot to back of Taker's head that looked like it could have hurt. Match was pretty decent up until the run ins. Jarrett didn't fit with the other guys out there. Would have thought I'd hate this these days but it doesn't age as bad as expected.

[shoe]

I thought the match was fine until the horrible booking.

[Exposer]

The video package was fucking great. The match was solid until Crush came out. God, I hate Crush. Then everyone else came out and took out Taker. The biggest problem with this is that it took forever. I mean it took way too long. It's sad that Tenryu was subjugated to this also. The ending with the supernatural shit is oddly entertaining but not that it was good. Outrageous bullshit I almost always find entertaining.

[soup23]

I guess Vince agreed with the rest of you guys about crush's commentary since it was edited out here. I was pretty shocked about how competent and stiff some things in this match were. A couple of the chair shots looked brutal. The heel brigade is one of those wacky moments were it is really cool now in retrospect to see who everyone is and what type of career they had. The supernatural stuff is what it is but I loved it as a kid and was not real bothered by it now.

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

If I were in charge, I still would've had all the heels come out, but only to knock Taker down and hold him for Yoko to give about five banzai drops. That still would've sold the it takes an army to stop the Undertaker line while involving Yoko more.

 

I hated the supernatural stuff when I was a kid....now I kind of get a kick out of it.

[Smack2k]

If I were in charge, I still would've had all the heels come out, but only to knock Taker down and hold him for Yoko to give about five banzai drops. That still would've sold the it takes an army to stop the Undertaker line while involving Yoko more.

 

I hated the supernatural stuff when I was a kid....now I kind of get a kick out of it.

YES!! YES!! YES!!!

 

But I'd have less, I'd have had one person distract him (or 2 with Cornette / Fuji, maybe salt in the eyes or grab the Urn and knock Paul over) and then Yoko detstroy him with a memorable number of Bonzai drops (like 10 with Benoit on Austin) until being forced out by Cornette and Fuji as "that's enough" type thing and the annoucers going crazy about "Somebody stop this...this is getting out of hand"...then have him rolled into the casket and closed...

 

You wanna do the supernatural stuff afterward? Fine....not my thing, but hey, something for everyone...but at the end, Yoko looks like a fuckin killer.....Bret looks ever better in March and Taker's retrun in November is even bigger...would have some of this work in the Survivior Series match to...

[slabinski611]

I kind of have fond memories of this. My friends and I used to imitate and parody the Undertaker's speech all the time. If Robert Stack had spoken those lines I bet it would have been awesome.

Robert Stack can only deliver the speech if he stops to take off his first pair of sunglasses and then walks through the titantron.

[Zenjo]

Classic Wrestlecrap. The Undertaker having a competitive match against 10 opponents was horrible. The casket-cam made up for it though. It's always fun when they do goofy horror movie stuff with the Taker. Seeing Tenryu in this is surreal.

[PeteF3]

Well, I was 12 when I watched this, and while I liked the Owen turn I thought this was the dumbest thing I had ever seen--and I liked Papa Shango! That said, these two do have good chemistry and the "straight" portion of the match is pretty shockingly good. Just about every heel on the roster gets involved one-by-one, including the Forrest Gump of professional wrestling, Genichiro Tenryu! The idea of bringing in 10 heels to help you just because it's a no-DQ match makes sense on some level, even if it's pretty Russo-riffic. They actually attempt to work some psychology into the urn stuff, too. Then there's...the post-match. Yeah. Gooker Award shit at its finest, yet somehow it's less insulting than either the Black Scorpion or the Beach Blast mini-movie. On its own inane level, it makes a shred of sense, which WCW never quite grasped when they attempted things this grandiose.

[JaymeFuture]

Reading Observer's from the time, and later in the year, this pretty much killed Taker as a draw for a decent period of time if I'm not mistaken...