This review was commissioned by Connn over on my Ko-fi account.
First, a confession. It’s an opinion that’s certainly frowned upon on my side of the fandom and internet, but the truth is that I have a soft spot for The Undertaker. I make no bones about how much of this is rooted in nostalgia, Taker was my first favorite wrestler. I spent hours, and I mean hours, of my childhood pouring over the multi-volume VCD compilation that the WWE put out for him back in the 2000s. For a ten-year-old kid, the dark lights, the gong and funeral dirge? It was all like catnip.
With time and distance though, I find that I still have a certain fondness for the Deadman’s work. I don’t think he’s as awful as people say. In something like this, his first WrestleMania main event, for example, he’s very clearly the man putting the work in. His performance is surprisingly agile for a man his size. He throws himself at the ropes when he’s hitting them, he puts his back into a couple great bumps (including one over the announce table towards the start), and he also puts a lot of his body weight behind his worked punches. As the ever so slightly smaller man in this match too, he does a decent job working smaller than he is. He’s putting in a lot of the work to push the pace against Sid’s slower heat segments, and pretty much the entire match only functions as it does because of Taker’s performance in it.
That being said, this is no forgotten gem. I like Sid, I think he’s funny, and he does bring a sort of awkward, shouty charisma to the ring, but there’s not much going on with his performance here. His first big cut off is to go for a bear hug that kills the crowd dead, and his strikes leave a lot to be desired.
Beyond that, there’s also the problem that so little about this Mania main event feels like it’s about these two at all. Shawn Michaels makes a full entrance–his song loops twice over–just to join the commentary team, Bret Hart cuts a pre-match promo, and then later Bret returns to attack Sid. It becomes very clear that we’re watching a proxy main event, a consolation main event if you will. Vince couldn’t have Shawn/Bret II at Mania, but Shawn and Bret is still the story they’re telling.
And as for Taker and Sid? Well there’s not much on the bone there either. Just a pretty basic match one might see at a WWF house show.
Also, I heard Sid shits himself in this. Couldn’t spot when, but I just find that funny.
Rating: **1/2
