Wrestling is a strange sort of fiction when you look at it.
By being sports-based, it means that it has established rules.
Yet for over 25 years, the Undertaker has been doing exactly that.
Ever since showing up at the 1990Survivor Series, Undertaker has been portrayed as something more than human.
One common trope in superhero stories is that if one superhuman thing exists, so must another.
Unless its Dr. Manhattan or something.
His first actual feud was with the Ultimate Warrior, fresh off of eliminating Randy Savage from the WWF.
Given his ridiculous powers in WCW years later, I suppose there was something to that.
There was never any on-air blow-off to the rivalry.
It looked pretty rad.
The super-soft chair shot to the back that followed?
Undertaker took him out with a chokeslam due to Papa Shango being a bit too big to Tombstone.
They would feud again a few years later when Shango was Kama, but that match was arguably worse.
Hes almost like a low-rent heel version of the Ultimate Warrior in a way.
Dementos biggest claim to fame is that he main-evented the very first edition ofMonday Night Rawagainst the Undertaker.
GIANT GONZALEZ
Was Giant Gonzalez supposed to be supernatural?
Nobody had ever manhandled Undertaker like that up to this point and few in history would ever compare.
He and Undertaker had an atrocious match atWrestleMania IXand then a blow-off match atSummerSlam 93.
Wrestling isweird, yo.
Then he flew away.
Im not making any of this up.
After all, he was the one who initially brought him to the WWF back in 1990.
Yes, he was driven by greed, which I guess made his form of murder worse.
Said investigation featured Undertakerdelivering a Dominos pizza.
The fake Undertaker was wheeled away in a casket and when opened minutes later, there was no sign.
Plans to keep the feud going were nixed and Brian Lee was later repackaged.
He was this inexplicable, invincible freak who always had Undertakers number and would constantly destroy him.
It was kind of frightening in a way.
Oddly, it was always believable.
This was before they went out of their way to mention he was Mick Foleys persona and humanized him.
Back then, Mankind was in some way supernatural.
By that time, Undertaker had gotten his wins back tenfold and Mankind was no longer as scary.
KANE
Ah, Kane.
The Undertakers #1 spooky rival.
Bearer started talking about Undertakers long-lost little brother and how Undertaker burned him alive when they were kids.
Then it came out that Kane was alive.
From there, the two feuded on and off for years.
Sometimes they would be at each others throats.
Sometimes they would team up as the Brothers of Destruction.
THE EMBALMER
Yeah, lets get into comics while were at it.
While the others were one-shots and miniseries, Undertaker actually had an ongoing and it was completely bonkers.
I wonder if hes related to the Finisher fromSlam City.
Then the series thankfully died because Chaos Comics lost the license.
CAPTAIN DOODY
Man.
Whens the last time you ever heard someone talk aboutCelebrity Deathmatch?
The old MTV claymation show shockingly lasted a total of six seasons.
Yeah, I know.
There we had the Undertaker vs. a little boy inhabited by a demon.
The two fought back and forth until Undertaker dropped him with an inverted Tombstone.
MORDECAI
Mordecai never actually fought Undertaker, but he was certainly meant to.
Mordecai was brought in during 2004 as the anti-Undertaker and they couldnt have been more blatant than this.
Instead of black clothes and hair, it was all white.
Instead of being all about the underworld, he was all about Heaven.
Instead of being out to punish the villains, he was about punishing the heroes.
BOOKER T
Yes, thats right.
Booker T is on the list.
Undertaker took exception to this and a match was signed forJudgment Day.
Or dirt, I guess.
To show off that the fortune teller wasnt fooling, a zombie hand came out the grave.
Booker took some dirt, put it in a pouch, and ran off.
Booker treated the pouch like it was the ultimate power and no longer feared Undertaker.
GANGREL
Despite being prominent in the Attitude Era, Gangrel stayed out of the Undertakers way.
After eating a Tombstone, Gangrel was pretty much done with his comeback.
He was just a really entertaining master of nightmares who ate worms and facial growths.
In the world of video games?
Well, thats a horse of a different color.
Raw 2009, Undertakers Road toWrestleManiamode featured a really bizarre feud with the Boogeyman.
Boogeyman put together a stable called Nu School, which included Finlay and Santino.
Undertaker eventually got his urn back and turned Santino and Finlay into zombie henchmen.
Then he broke Boogeymans staff and met him in the ring atWrestleManiain the main event.
Yes, Boogeyman main eventedWrestleMania.
HADE VANSEN
Theres a good chance youre wondering who Hade Vansen is and I dont blame you.
He was fired a week or so later.
Vince McMahon then got wind of this and shut it down.
Instead we got Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels and were better for it.
THE SHADOW KING AND FRIENDS
Oh, man.WWE Heroes.
Where do I even begin?
Its no surprise who, considering the Shadow King looks exactly like Triple H with half his face burned.
Undertaker ended up tearing her heart out and caused her fortress to crumble.
The series then ended on a cliffhanger.
Sadly, the promised follow-up story about John Cena as a time-traveling gladiator would never be told.
BRAY WYATT
And then there was Bray Wyatt.
Just like the Undertaker, Wyatt was treated as magical, though ill-explained.
Wyatt had shown his own set of crazy powers like teleportation, possessing children, and summoning ghosts.
Finally, the other shoe dropped and he started calling out the Undertaker for a match atWrestleMania 31.
Instead, you had stuff like a rocking chair being set on fire via lightning.
Wyatt would show himself again, this time accompanied by the Wyatt Family.
Man, think of how weirdthatwould be.
