[1997-03-23-WWF-Wrestlemania XIII] The Undertaker vs Sid

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[RWOOD]

Popping in here to say that this match was surprisingly entertaining sixteen years later.

 

Bret heeling it up is great, Sid works hard when you consider he is Sid and Taker wins a title in a great, memorable moment.

 

So yea, this match gets a bad rap. It is a fine match and better than its comparable matches like Sid/Hogan and H/Jericho and Hogan/Bundy (by comparable I mean odd in retrospect Wrestlemania main events).

[Loss]

Pretty bad main event, but yeah, it isn't as bad as I remembered. Undertaker tries to make something out of this. Bret interferes liberally and it benefits Undertaker, who tombstones Sid and wins the title.

[Childs]

Yeah, "shitty main that could've been worse" sounds about right.

[bradhindsight]

For Undertaker's big moment, I always thought the ending really undercut him. You have a now-heel attacking the heel in the match and the baby gets the win off the distraction. I guess they were banking on a lot more from Sid in the spring as they protected him big time there.

[Zenjo]

This seemed to be more about Bret's heel turn with the Undertaker winning the title in the background. Not a very satisfying way to do a Wrestlemania main event.

[soup23]

Anticlimatic ending that was more about setting up future stuff. Undertaker winning the belt and his journey felt like an afterthought.

[Kevin Ridge]

One of my least favorite WrestleMania main events. Just dragged on. Undertaker goes old school with the gray gloves and boots. Hard to follow Hart/Austin on same card. Bret makes another appearance and nails Sid with a chair. Shawn was his usually obnoxious self on commentary taking every shot he can at Bret. Taker wins the title for the first time since 91 which seems like a very long time.

[PeteF3]

These guys really do try hard to have a good match. They don't get there, but the action down the stretch isn't that bad, and they threw a few curveballs at us like Sid busting out a tombstone reversal spot. Bret interferes liberally as Shawn whines about how much Bret whines. Undertaker wins to start his first "real" WWF title reign, and yes, this whole program seemed like an afterthought in the face of the Submission Match and the Bret/Shawn drama. At least they had a plan and a direction for his reign.

 

Shawn: "He can't stand that the spotlight's not on him!"

Lawler, practically under his breath: "Boy, if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black..."

[Exposer]

This match isnt bad at all in my opinion. The first two minutes suck. I'd call it decent. The ringside brawling is a good idea in a match like this even if I think there was too much of it in a row on this show. Some of the holds were boring. I loved Sid hitting the tombstone for a nearfall. One angry fan must have bought that as a finish & tossed something in the ring because of it. Bret interferes causing Sid to get tombstoned. That's all she wrote & Taker wins the title to a huge pop. Taker's post-match celebration is cool & features another legendary image with him doing his pose holding the belt. Strong ending to the show even if Taker's title win is background noise to the other stuff going on in the main event.

[cactus]

I used to have this event on VHS and I watched it a lot as a kid, but I never remember this being such a drag. Bret Hart coming down at the start of this match to cut a whining promo might just be the best part of this. Sid spends a lot of time keeping Undertaker in rest holds. Undertaker not being able to show emotion limits him when he's teasing a comeback. The worst match on the card and a stinker of a Wrestlemania main event. At least the crowd seemed to enjoy this. 

★½

[Beast]

Suffers from following not only Bret/Austin, but also the Chicago Street Fight, both of which were No DQ. So when Vince announces that Gorilla Monsoon has now made this No DQ as well, this WrestleMania begins to feel like a frantic attempt to catch the ECW Hardcore wave.

This isn't worst match of the year quality, but it doesn't feel anything like a WrestleMania main event. The Bret appearances bookending the contest are the highlights. Neither guy shows much emotion and Undertaker lacks any aura. This should have been in the vein of Warrior/Hogan, but the big moves don't feel big outside of some cool moments like the finisher tradeoffs. Nothing seems to hit hard and Sid flying around takes away from his presence. 

And agreed with the thoughts above about Bret undercutting Undertaker's moment. The final pin has terrible camerawork, with Hebner out of sight so his slow, off-rhythm 3-count seems to come out of nowhere.

So lots of things going against it, but Sid and Taker did the best they could. The Undertaker of 2007 probably could have torn the house down with someone like Sid (he did multiple times with Batista).

[fxnj]

Not sure where the "this is better than remembered" type comments are coming from. This was bad and had no reason going this long. First few minutes and last few are alright, but it drags like hell in between that. No real hook to keep you invested and neither guy does much interesting on offense. The rest holds are also laughable in how blatant they are about it.