100 Worst WWE Matches Ever - 57 - Hulk Hogan vs. The Undertaker
WWE Championship - Survivor Series 1991
When I say this will be the shortest reviewed match, I fully intend to stand by this. I will give this match every bit of energy and respect that I feel the work in the ring deserves.
It is 13 minutes of boredom, restholds, chokes, no-selling, and then the finish.
That’s it.
Undertaker wins his first WWE championship with the help of Ric Flair (the “real” world champion) and a tombstone onto a steel chair. The crowd were shocked, kids were crying, some of the crowd popped pretty big for Undertaker’s win which is pretty cool. An historic moment in the life of a 26-year-old Undertaker.
The far more interesting part here is what happens surrounding the match, both before and after. Hulk Hogan would display a shockingly competent level of selling of the tombstone on the chair, which is surprising considering he literally no-sold a tombstone earlier in the match. Turns out, Hulk Hogan was playing a political game far beyond the comprehension of us mere mortals. Hogan would scream backstage that Undertaker injured his neck. Undertaker at this point had only been in the company for a year, so still relatively new to the company both on-screen and in the backstage hierarchy. Imagine being the new guy, who is gifted the title win over the biggest star in wrestling history, only to be told that you’ve hurt the man.
The reality is that Undertaker delivered one of the safest looking piledrivers in wrestling history, the sort of uber-soft piledriver that is typically reserved for non-wrestlers like Linda McMahon or Pete Rose. But in the world of a green 26-year-old, without the benefit of immediate replays, this was a devastating turn of events.
A 2020 Undertaker ESPN interview on this incident is a classic because as he recites the event you can clearly see how unimpressed he was with Hogan’s bullshit. Even before the match happened, Hogan said to Undertaker that he already had a sore neck. Through the day, he would constantly remind Undertaker of this. The fix was in, Undertaker was just too young, green, and naive to see it. After the tombstone on the chair, Hogan told Undertaker in the ring - and I quote - “ahhh, you got me, brother!”
After the match, Undertaker went to check on Hogan, and found him on Vince’s office floor, crying to get his wife and kids on the phone. Hogan would spend the night in hospital, while a distraught Undertaker had to think about this for a few days. It wasn’t until This Tuesday In Texas nearly a week later that he saw the replay and saw that you could fit a Boeing 747 in the gap between Hogan’s head and the canvas. When confronted with his lie, Hogan would shockingly change his story and claim that Undertaker held him too tightly which caused his neck to jam. Yes, Hogan claimed that Undertaker was too safe on the piledriver.
This lie, while really funny to look back on as another in the long line of Hogan fabrications, could have drastically changed wrestling history. Undertaker’s career could have been wildly different if people had believed Hogan’s story. What if the camera angle of the tombstone didn’t clearly show how safe Undertaker was? He’d have been labelled as unable to work, too green, potentially fired and lost to history as just another big lump that Hogan pushed down the card. I suppose it’s a credit to Undertaker’s own backstage presence that he managed to navigate Hogan’s bullshit, while also establishing himself as the locker room guy after Hogan’s departure.
Oh and by the way, if you think the story has a happy ending in November 1991 … Hogan’s bullshit worked. Undertaker dropped the title back to Hogan at This Tuesday In Texas, just 6 days after Survivor Series. His political prowess is unrivalled in wrestling history.
Before we depart, here’s one more bonus Hulk Hogan lie:
Hulk Hogan claimed responsibility for the Undertaker - noticing him during the filming of Suburban Commando, and convinced Vince McMahon to hire him from there. In reality, Undertaker already met with Vince in the summer of 1990 while he was still under contract at WCW. The suggestion was under the advice of Paul E Dangerously and Bruce Pritchard, not Hogan.
Suburban Commando also did not come out until 1991. Unless Hogan managed to convince Vince to sign Undertaker during the brief window between filming in late September 1990 and Undertaker’s hiring in October 1990, this is another classic Hulk Hogan lie, from the man that has no reason to lie.
Up Next - Don’t work yourself into a shoot.
Previous Entry:
Next Entry:
