100 Worst WWE Matches Ever - 43 - The Undertaker vs. "The Undertaker"
Summerslam 1994
I’ll go to my grave thinking there’s potential for one of these doppelganger matches to be interesting someday. It’s easy to bury the concept because WWE have proven repeatedly that it seemingly can’t be done, and I have no doubt that there’s a couple of major problems to overcome - but at the same time surely there’s scope somewhere for it to work.
This feud had seemingly everything ready for it when compared to its spiritual successors. This wasn’t like Kane vs Kane or Sin Cara vs Sin Cara where it was haphazardly put together for a short-lived feud. Undertaker vs Undertaker was a genuine main event level feud with effort put into it and months of build up. The story was there, as Ted DiBiase - the man that originally brought the real Undertaker to WWE - claimed that he was going to bring back the Undertaker after his burial and subsequent resurrection at the Royal Rumble. This led to a lot of cheesy early 90s WWE segments where members of the public reported sightings of the Undertaker. Ted DiBiase eventually did bring out his Undertaker, which Paul Bearer claimed was not the real Deadman which sets up this encounter. WWE kept the real Undertaker off screen for the entirety of the build up. What makes this angle even more bizarre was the fact that WWE brought in Leslie Nielsen and George Kennedy to revive their Naked Gun characters in a series of admittedly funny, but terribly out of place vignettes where they try to investigate what is happening with the Undertaker.
The highlight of these features Nielsen ordering a Dominos pizza, which is delivered by the Undertaker:
It’s of course always worth mentioning that this was the main event WWE chose for this show over the classic WWE Championship match between Bret Hart and Owen Hart. Yet it’s a campy unserious feud between two undead zombies, with a pair of Hollywood stars parodying it, but the feud somehow still treats itself seriously? It’s no wonder the crowd had no idea how to react to this match.
There’s two major problems that these matches have to overcome to allow the audience to suspend their disbelief. The first is when the imposter doesn’t look like the original - whether that be the attire doesn’t look right, or the fake lacks the intangibles of the original. We all remember the fake Kane’s bad hair day during his unfortunate debut. The Imposter Undertaker, or the Underfaker, is played by Brian Lee, and the attire in fairness looks pretty accurate. When he was on screen in the build up to this match, he benefited from clever camera tricks to hide his face - and the fact that the real Undertaker was never seen at the same time. It’s actually pretty smart of them to build the match this way, which might be the only piece of positive feedback I give to this angle.
However, there’s only so long you can hide behind camera angles and keep the two men separate. At some point, inevitably, the two would have to wrestle. All of a sudden, all the flaws of an imposter storyline come to fruition. As soon as the two men have to wrestle, you can see how clearly Brian Lee is not the Undertaker, and honestly isn’t even remotely close. He’s shorter, and they look nothing alike in the face. Every now and then Brian Lee’s full face will be exposed and it's genuinely hilarious how little he actually looks like the real thing.
Shockingly, the crowd never bought that the Underfaker might be the real thing once the match started.
The more pressing issue - even if the two looked identical - is that it’s very clear from mannerisms alone which one is which. The best example of this in practice is the Sin Cara vs Sin Cara feud. Both looked almost identical with the gear, they wrestled a relatively similar style, but as soon as the original Sin Cara returned the fans in attendance knew exactly which one was the real one. Despite the fact that Sin Cara was nowhere near as established a character as the Undertaker, the fans could still tell the difference. They’re doomed from the start.
Brian Lee has to wrestle this match with Undertaker’s mannerisms and it clearly throws off his wrestling. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for a performer to try to wrestle like somebody else, going against everything your body has learned to date, while still having to do basic things like keeping yourself and your opponent safe. While also trying to keep as much hair in front of your face because everyone knows you look nothing like the guy you’re imitating. Ric Flair at his peak in 1990 failed horribly trying to wrestle like someone else at Starrcade. For someone with relatively little experience like Lee had, this was a tall, almost impossible ask. He’s trying to do the sit ups, the choking, the uppercuts but it doesn’t feel right and everyone can see through it. Beyond that, he looks uncoordinated, and the two do not mesh at all. Every sequence looks sloppy, which makes for a truly grim affair. Perhaps if Imposter Undertaker was portrayed by a more convincing talent, then maybe this could have been better, but there’s no doubt that Brian Lee was not ready for this assignment. The only thing more dead than the characters in the ring is the crowd, who treat this more like a funeral than a campy wrestling angle. A fact that Vince McMahon decides to reference on multiple occasions on commentary for some ungodly reason. At one point as they’re both doing very little, Vince decides the best course of action is to bring attention to this by saying: “nothing is happening!”.
The rumours are that the storyline was set to continue after Summerslam, but due to the negative reaction the angle was killed. I’m not sure how much I believe that, because the real Undertaker won with three tombstones and put Imposter Undertaker into a casket, which to me is a definitive death of the angle. I don’t see how it could conceivably continue after that.
After the match, Paul Bearer and Undertaker celebrate with the urn. The camera cuts to Nielsen and Kennedy in the back, and they find a briefcase to which they proclaim “the case is closed.”
And at this point, I’m left wondering if all of this was just a three month vehicle for a mediocre pun.
Up Next - Ric Flair goes 60 minutes later in the night, but this next match may be the longest match on the entire countdown.
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