American Badass The Rise Fall and Rebirth of WWEs REALEST Undertaker

American Badass: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of WWE’s REALEST Undertaker

A forgotten part of The Undertaker’s long history, here’s a look back at the time The Deadman’s character became more human.

You Are Reading :[thien_display_title]

American Badass The Rise Fall and Rebirth of WWEs REALEST Undertaker

The Undertaker is the greatest character the WWE ever created. The dedication to the gimmick from WWE and the man himself, Mark Calaway, has allowed The Phenom to thrive for three decades. In a business that depends on its big stars to promote the product with public appearances and media spots, The Undertaker was seldom seen outside of the ring or out of character. Despite being the longtime leader inside the locker room, it was rare for the audience to see The Undertaker in backstage segments.

Younger WWE fans who were shocked to see the human side of The Deadman on the latest episode of RAW might also be surprised to find out this has been done before. For a three and a half year stretch in the early 2000s, The Undertaker traded his dark magic and supernatural abilities for a motorcycle, bandanna and a pair of shades as The American Badass.

The story of The American Badass goes back to 1999 when The Deadman character had reached a point of no return. The Undertaker went from a supernatural anti-hero into a truly dark cult leader as the head of the Ministry of Darkness. After a while, the Ministry version of The Undertaker quietly faded off of WWF television in late 1999 and took a hiatus to heal nagging injuries.

After months off-camera, The Phenom made his dramatic return in the middle of The Rock and Triple H’s Iron Man match at Judgment Day 2000. The crowd went wild when he showed up on a motorcycle wearing biker gear instead of classic deadman outfits, indicating that The Deadman’s more human persona would be a good fit during the height of the gritty Attitude Era.

See also  Season 4 Trailer Proves Stranger Things Will Avoid Season 3s Weak Point

American Badass The Rise Fall and Rebirth of WWEs REALEST Undertaker

Undertaker’s first WrestleMania match in his new persona was an underrated classic against Triple H at WrestleMania X-7 which he won with a new finisher called the Last Ride. Throughout 2001, The American Badass fought alongside his WWF peers in the ill-fated Invasion angle. Big Evil then got the honor of facing Ric Flair at WrestleMania X8, defeating the Nature Boy in an entertaining No Disqualification match and flashing ten fingers up afterward to acknowledge that he was now 10-0 at WrestleMania.

Ten years after winning his first WWF title from Hulk Hogan at Survivor Series 1991, The Undertaker defeated Hogan again to win the Undisputed WWE championship for the fourth time of his career. At Vengeance, he dropped the title in one of the best triple-threat matches in WWE history between The Rock and Kurt Angle, which The Rock won it by pinning Angle.

In the Summer of 2002, he embarked on an epic program with the rookie WWE champion Brock Lesnar. Arguably the best match of The American Badass Era took place at No Mercy 2002, where he battled ‘The Next Big Thing’ in a grueling and bloody Hell in a Cell match. Lesnar’s victory put over the young Beast in a major way.

While his fans enjoyed The American Badass, by 2003 they longed for a return of the classic Deadman character that the fans grew up with. The Undertaker’s half-brother Kane interfered in his match against Mr. McMahon at Survivor Series and buried him alive, thus ending The American Badass Era. Four months later, The Deadman returned at WrestleMania XX to get some revenge on Kane and never looked back.

See also  DCEU Supergirl 10 Storylines The Movie Could Adapt

Fast forward sixteen more years and it looks like The American Badass is back in action. There are a lot of reasons why returning to The American Badass character should prove to be a good idea for Taker, both now and in the future. First of all, kayfabe is dead. The Undertaker was one of the last to cease protecting his character by keeping kayfabe at all times, and he has since embraced his public life as Mark Calaway. He now has a presence on social media alongside his wife Michelle McCool and has made plenty of public appearances and shot interviews, the most acclaimed of which was his Broken Skull Sessions talk with Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Secondly, the plain truth is that The Undertaker doesn’t have that many matches left in him. Two of the biggest traits associated with The Deadman character were his invincibility and immunity to Father Time. The Deadman may be immortal, but Mark Calaway isn’t, so bringing back the American Badass means bringing back the version of The Undertaker who most resembles his real-life self.

Calaway stated on the Broken Skull Sessions that he never wanted to become a parody of himself, but recently The Deadman has come close to doing just that. The past five years have seen more downs than ups as he enters into mid-fifties, a territory only the likes of Hogan, Flair, Sting, and Funk have also wrestled into. The return of the Badass should be the perfect way to refresh The Undertaker’s character in the twilight of his career.

Link Source : https://www.cbr.com/american-badass-wwes-realest-undertaker/

Movies -