[1991-07-01-WWF-MSG, NY] Ultimate Warrior vs The Undertaker

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This was far better than I expected. Dare I say, it was a perfectly solid match! Undertaker and Paul Bearer were so into their act at this point that I am pretty entertained by everything they do. In fact, I thought it was interesting that Undertaker seemed like a much bigger deal to the crowd at this point than Warrior, who does seem like a guy whose star is fading. A bodybag match is a pretty horrifying idea for a gimmick match, but I love it. Undertaker sitting up in the bodybag after the match was great. I knew Warrior wasn't going to lose, but I was still a little surprised to see Undertaker do a job this early.

[Childs]

This was a fine cartoon match, built around which guy could no sell more dramatically. I'm not sure I'd trust Warrior to piledrive me three times in a row, but I guess a neck injury is less frightening if you're undead. The sit-up in the bodybag was a clever way for Taker to retain his aura in defeat.

[PeteF3]

I was stunned by how much I enjoyed this. In particular I really liked the Undertaker's failed sit-up after the third piledriver, only to sit up for real just as Warrior was about to drop with the splash. The "near-fall" as Warrior came close to being zipped up was also well-done, and we even had some bodybag psychology with Warrior zipping up Undertaker's head and torso first, the opposite of what Undertaker did. Then the cool visual of the bodybag sitting up and Undertaker storming out looking none the worse for wear. Warrior's piledrivers actually looked pretty good. The only big negative was UT delivering possible the worst tombstone of his life.

 

No one's going to confuse this with 6/3/94 but this was as good of a match between these two workers, in this gimmick, as you could expect. Two larger-than-life characters in a comic book battle that's action most of the way, with a decisive finish. This was one of the few North American programs of 1991 that was actually doing good box-office and we can see why.

[Superstar Sleeze]

When I read these reviews, I said to myself "You must be shitting me." I think this is best Warrior performance where he is not being carried by the likes of Rude or Savage. There is something about Warrior fighting an evil Zombie that just seems so right. I think if there was a Sci-Fi/Comic Book wrestling fed where Warrior was the Ace Babyface and fought heel Robots, Zombies and Aliens that it would be pretty awesome. When Taker just keeps coming at Warrior at the beginning even as Warrior is clubbering was a cool visual. Taker gets in his one highspot at the time: the flying clothesline. Choking is boring and not well-done. What is well-done are Warrior's piledrivers. He should have added that to his arsenal. The Zombie Sit-ups and the counter to the Warrior Splash were very 80s horror movie campy cool. The finish was perfectly adequate and solidly booked with the Tombstone -> Comeback-> Urn Shot.

 

This was totally preposterous and absurd, but I loved it. This is just one of those matches that the WWF produces better than anyone else. Not only that Warrior got a way better match out of the Undertaker at this point than Hogan did. Warrior looked really strong in this match to me. I have been racking my brain, but is this the best pre-1996 Undertaker match? I cant think of one.

[Kevin Ridge]

When they talk about hush over the crowd the announcers always seem to be covering for crowd just not responding. You don’t exactly get the feeling with Undertaker’s matches though as I think there is certain awe of him and the gimmick at this time. Taker sitting up from the piledrivers is awesome. Good match with even though Taker does the job he still looks really good in the end.

[shoe]

These guys really matched up well together . The body bag visual was pretty spooky.

[soup23]

Lord Al and Gorilla on the call, yikes. Gorilla immediately calls the steps steel when he is 2 feet away and they are clearly wooden. This match was fun as hell. Warrior had sort of found a template, high octane match he could be serviceable in and showed some fire. Taker/Bearer feel really connected to their characters now and are still put over strong. Finish was a cool visual.

[garretta]

This was a good match, and I can confirm that this should have been the other half of a SummerSlam double main event with Hogan/Sarge Desert Storm. That said, I can see why Vince didn't do that; even though Taker sat up in the bodybag at the end and walked out under his own power, this was still too visible of a job for him to do on pay-per-view so early in his run. They would have had a hard time selling him as a Hogan challenger after this kind of a defeat, and heaven knows where his career might have ended up.

 

Warrior delivered another unordinary match for him to go with the Mania match against Savage, and the multiple piledriver spot was cool, although Gino insisting that they were tombstones when he clearly knew better was a turnoff. Normally, I'd have had trouble with all the no-selling, but no-selling was Taker's entire gimmick at the time, so what else could you expect?

 

There should have been more than one bodybag tease; even with guys like Warrior and Taker, the opponents should have been rolling each other toward the bag every chance they got, even when it was pretty certain that they weren't going to get the win.

 

Percy was a bit too demonstrative at ringside for my tastes; the mugging was bad enough, but practically making love to the urn after Warrior clobbered Taker with it was just too much for me. I'm this close to sounding my "universal Heenan" call (Heenan as manager for almost all heels regardless of fit) for Taker in spite of Bobby's retirement. (Bobby and Taker would have been a damn poor fit anyway.)

 

I bet Gino called the steps steel purely out of habit, because I think the Garden had steel steps for many years, though of course I can't be sure. I highly doubt he cared what material the steps were made out of while calling the match, though you could certainly say that he should have known beforehand. It was nice to hear Lord Alfred on a house show again, especially after Neidhart tried his damndest to damage the Desert Storm match back in June.

 

Blooper of the Night: Gino calling Warrior "The Ultimate Warlord". Maybe that would have been a good name for him as a heel, who knows?

[dawho5]

Way better than expected. Warrior's piledrivers looked good where Taker's did not. So strange. Warrior trying to hip thrust his way out of the choking was an unusual deal and not one I want to see repeated.