Start Your Week Off With The Undertaker's Debut At Survivor Series 30 Years Ago
The Undertaker called it a career last night. Again. I don't know if this farewell will stick like all the other farewells, but if it does, The Dead Man saying goodbye at the same event that he made his debut at exactly 30 years earlier is some pretty cool shit and completely deserved for someone that became a foundational piece for the WWF cartoony era, the WWF Attitude Era, the WWE Attitude Era, and whatever other eras the WWE has had since I stopped watching in the mid-2000s.
In addition to all that nice symmetry three decades later, I had to put Taker's debut on the blog because of how scary it was for kids like me to watch who believed every single thing they saw on TV. Seeing a gigantic human like that solemnly stroll down the aisle, walk on then fly off ropes, tombstone people seemingly to hell, and rise whenever Paul Bearer lifted that urn was fucking TERRIFYING. Oh yeah and when he used to do stuff like light people on fire, bury them alive, hit them with lightning bolts, or lock people in caskets that had to be propped open before medical professionals tried to bring him back to life.
No wonder I can't walk into funeral homes without breaking into a cold sweat. I was cursing Brother Love and The Million Dollar Man for years for unleashing that unstoppable evil into my life as the mystery partner until I realized there wasn't a supernatural undead being making wrestlers disappear like Chris Partlow and Snoop did in Baltimore. But looking back I can't imagine a WWF or WWE without The Phenom just like I can't imagine not thinking that real life undertakers have some sort of magical powers instead of just a really, really tough job. That's the power of The Taker. And that theme song.
If you need one last reminder for how ridiculously long Undertaker's career was, this should do the trick.
RIP In Retirement Dead Man
P.S. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Papa Shango whose voodoo was the only thing nearly as terrifying as The Undertaker and the reason I believe in the dark arts til this day.
