The Undertaker vs. Triple H

 

The Winner: The Undertaker

Triple H, after his match with The Undertaker had taken an “office” role. Executive VP of Talent Relations or something of that ilk. He came out one February 2012 night on RAW and was gonna make some big announcement. Just as he was about to climax, The Undertaker’s GONG went off. The Undertaker at this point had not been seen since the previous WrestleMania. Undertaker had a problem with the end of the previous years WrestleMania. He may have won but he didn’t walk out on his own power. Undertaker wanted a chance to redeem himself and he attacked Triple H’s pride in doing so. Saying that Shawn Michaels was always better than Triple H.

The match would happen in Hell in a Cell with Shawn Michaels as special guest referee. It was broadcast as an “End of the Era” match. Presumably because it was the last we would see of any of them. To this point it has not been and the closest we have come is Undertaker only making one appearance. Shawn hasn’t wrestled since (in fact, he has not wrestled since his match with The Undertaker at WrestleMania 26) but Triple H did have a match with Brock Lesnar. Undertaker had a match, kind of, on RAW 1000 teaming with Kane to face Hunico, Camacho, 3MB, Curt Hawkins and Tyler Reks (if that team is not accurate I apologize). It was likely the last time we saw these men who were a part of the 1990s boom in such a high profile situation.

This match was awarded the 2012 Slammy Award for match of the Year.

As The Undertaker’s music ended, he removed his hood to reveal a Mohawk. This was synched perfectly with a lightning sound effect. It appeared when I was watching this that the revealing of the haircut staggered Triple H, watching it back, this was not the case. They stare down for a moment, then the Hell in a Cell lowers. Complete with its entrance theme, “The Memory Remains” by Metallica (which is actually featured on this DVD, must have been cheaper than For Whom The Bell Tolls). An important note for this match, the PPV was outdoors. Despite my wishes, the Hell in a Cell cage was not suspended over the ring by a flock of very strong and well trained birds. After the bell rings, the men back to opposite corners, then charge at each other with strikes. Much like the previous year had one man control the match early, The Undertaker is controlling this one.

At one point Shawn Michaels was checking on Triple H, which is his duty as the official. The Undertaker proceeds to carelessly shove Michaels away. Undertaker, while being vicious, isn’t being relentless. He isn’t moving fast as if he is in a hurry. At WrestleMania 26 he was working franticly to beat Shawn Michaels. Going for a Chokeslam early. Going for Old School very early. He is meticulously wearing down Triple H here. This slower pace gave Triple H an opening for a facebuster. However it had no effect. The Undertaker responded with a hard strike that downed Triple H. Undertaker finally hits the Old School elbow drop. He then tosses Triple H outside and hits him in the head with the ring steps. He hits the guillotine legdrop too. He slowly reenters the ring. Triple H hits a DDT. Another example of him taking advantage of The Undertaker’s slower pace. Triple H tries for a pedigree on top of the steel ring steps but Undertaker reverses with a back body drop.

While his actions do not indicate desperation, his face indicates relief after the back drop. Triple H reverses an Undertaker attack to a spinebuster onto the ring steps, before a weakened Triple H can take advantage, Undertaker locks in the Hells Gate. Triple H reverses it to a powerbomb variation, helped by the elevation of the hold, with Undertaker still on the steps. He only garnered a two count from it. Triple H goes to the outside of the ring and gets a steel chair. In a call back to the previous encounter between the two, Triple H begins pounding Undertaker’s back with the chair. Shawn Michaels tries to stop him.

Shawn Michaels, who up to this point had not really done much other than his officiating duties, began to beg Triple H to just pin him because “you know he is not going to quit”. After Triple H told him he will not, Shawn tried to convince The Undertaker to quit. Undertaker refuses, Triple H threw him out of the way. Then the exact same process repeated. But this time Undertaker told Shawn to leave him alone and “do not stop it”. Triple H used the chair a few more times and then tries for a pin, it only draws a two count. Triple H, clearly seeing that the chairs aren’t working, goes for the sledge hammer.

Triple H tells Shawn Michaels to end it. Undertaker tells Shawn Michaels no. Triple H NAILS Undertaker in the face with the hammer. But it only draws a two count. Triple H then shoves Shawn out of the way and tries to pulverize The Undertaker’s head like a Gallagher watermelon. Shawn swiftly removes the sledgehammer from his hands and tosses it out of the ring. Shawn Michaels teases that he will end the match but keeps stopping himself to check on The Undertaker. After a 3^rd return to check on The Undertaker, Undertaker locks him in the Hell’s Gate. Not Triple H, Shawn Michaels. Triple H breaks this up by hitting The Undertaker with a sledgehammer shot to the head. Undertaker blocks a 2^nd one with a Hell’s Gate. The ref is unconscious. A rerun of the finishing sequence from the previous year happens, with Triple H teasing that he can grasp the sledgehammer but fighting his losing consciousness.

Another official, Charles Robinson, comes barreling down the aisle (much like he did at WrestleMania 24 actually) and gets into the ring just as The Undertaker hits the chokeslam. It only draws a 2 count. Undertaker responds by hitting Charles Robinson with a chokeslam (much like he attacked the referee at WrestleMania 17). Undertaker tries for a tombstone but Triple H reverses and pushes Undertaker into a Sweet Chin Music. Triple H follows that up immediately with a pedigree. It only draws two though. Triple H makes it up first and grabs the hammer. Shawn tries to come between the two and stop Triple H from destroying The Undertaker with the hammer. Triple H tosses him out of the ring. Triple H turns around into The Undertaker sitting up. An action which causes Triple H to drop in fear. Undertaker hits Triple H with a a big boot and more furious strikes. A whip to the corner. A clothesline. A snake eyes and big boot. A big legdrop. TOMBSTONE!

Shawn makes it back into the ring to count a two from that. As the two men fight back to their feet, the crowd seems strongly behind The Undertaker. Undertaker attempts a tombstone but Triple H escapes and hits a Pedigree. It was a two count. Triple H and The Undertaker both try to pull themselves to their feet. Undertaker has the chair. Triple H has the hammer. Just as Triple H starts to bring it up, Undertaker puts his foot on it and begins to wail away with the chair. Triple H kicks out at two from it. Shawn begs them both to give it up. Triple H crawls back over to the hammer as The Undertaker is pulling himself up on the other side of the ring. Undertaker is now waiting for him to get up. Triple H goes after him with the hammer. Taker catches it and takes it away from him. Triple H has no other choice but to signal with a crotch shot. Undertaker responds by hitting him in the head with the hammer. He drops his singlets straps, slits the throat and hits the tombstone. Crosses the arms and gets the victory!

I think The Undertaker in this match looked refreshing, powerful and intimidating. Something he really didn’t at a few of the previous ones. I think 26 played into this match well and I really enjoyed the call back to that finish.

The Undertaker vs. Triple H

The Winner: The Undertaker

After being gone for several months, The Undertaker returned to RAW. As he was entering the ring, someone else’s music started to play. That man? Triple H. Triple H, who had been gone about 11 months at this point, came into the ring. Got up in The Undertaker’s face. Then looked at the WrestleMania marquee sign hanging in the arena. Undertaker looked at it too. Then did his throat slit as apparent confirmation of this challenge.

The match was made with NO WORDS USED AT ALL. They did promos after this of course. But the actual challenge came with no words.

Triple H’s entrance for this match was accompanied by “For Whom The Bell Tolls” by Metallica. That song is not used on this DVD. A knockoff version of it is. Its close but not the same. This match will take place under No Holds Barred rules.

The problem with this match that I don’t think translates well to the writing of this blog is that I don’t think I can get across the drama of the moves that they are doing. There were several close moments in the match that Triple H had, but they just went from signature move to signature move and while it made sense in the context of watching it. There is not a lot of wear down holds. This match is based solely off of what Triple H and The Undertaker are known for doing. The story was simply, who had the bigger will and better arsenal. It wasn’t as fast paced as their WrestleMania 17 match or as psychologically driven as the following years match. This match did though add a lot to the drama of the rematch the following year. And the finish of this match set up the next match.

Triple H got in 3 pedigrees, even a tombstone but nothing would stop Undertaker. Chair shots wouldn’t do it. A sledgehammer wouldn’t do it Undertaker only won though, because he got in a luckily timed hold. He could not stand up at the end of the match, he was not able to walk out after the match. Nobody had beaten The Undertaker this bad. Nobody had come this close.

The Undertaker’s kickout after Triple H’s tombstone was probably the biggest pop of the streak thus far. With the way the match was going, that could have sensibly been the finish. Yet Undertaker survived.

It took everything of the Undertaker to win the match.

The Undertaker vs. Triple H

 

The Winner: The Undertaker

Background Noise

This match took place on April 1^st 2001. Wrestlemania 17

The backstory to this match, was, if I am remembering correctly, Triple H said he had beaten everyone in the WWF that there was to beat. Undertaker disagreed and said that Triple H never beat him. This would be the first WrestleMania in which The Undertaker competed under his biker persona. Triple H was accompanied to the ring by a live Motorhead performance of his theme. Lemmy got a lot of the words wrong.

This match took place in Houston, Texas. Which is Undertaker’s hometown. Thus the crowd was firmly behind him. I remember watching this match live (not in person, but on PPV). This would be The Undertaker’s first WrestleMania match in about 9 years in which he wasn’t giving up some size to the opponent.

The Bell

The brawl started before the bell rang. They began fighting outside the ring. Undertaker tosses Triple H through the Spanish Announce Table. Jim Ross points out that Triple H destroyed The Undertaker’s motorcycle a few days earlier. The bell finally rings when they get back into the ring. Undertaker shows a lot of intensity with his attacks, selling the fact that he would be pissed about his motorcycle. Taker hits a powerslam and then goes for an elbow drop and misses (something that has happened in EVERY match so far, it’s a reoccurring thing that I never noticed from his matches). Despite the opening, Triple H really can’t maintain much offense for very long. He gets hit with a running clothesline. Taker wrenches the left arm hard and then calls for Old School, which the crowd explodes for (this WrestleMania had a tremendous crowd). Triple H blocks the Old School and tosses Taker off the top rope. He follows with a neckbreaker. He continues work on the neck for a few minutes. He does repeated cover attempts (much like Sid did at WrestleMania 13) but does not follow up on his attack enough, rather focusing on harassing the referee. This gives The Undertaker an opening for some punches. Triple H fells him though with a knee to the face. Triple H then goes outside the ring and grabs a sledge hammer. Before he can use it, the referee grabs it from him and throws it back outside. Triple H nearly hits a Pedigree with the ref’s back turned but Undertaker blocks and inadvertently throws Triple H into the referee. He hits a chokeslam and goes for a pin. The referee counts to two before Triple H kicks out. Undertaker then does the completely logical thing and attacks the referee, I don’t understand why he would risk the match for such a small issue as a kickout. As the referee remained unconscious, Triple H and The Undertaker fought into the crowd.

They end up on a camera tower. Triple H manages to grab a chair and he works over The Undertaker’s body with it. Specifically the head and knees. Undertaker responds by chokeslamming Triple H off of the camera tower. Undertaker then dove off of the tower and dropped an elbow onto Triple H. Now word of the condition of the referee but I assume he is still out cold, because if he were in any condition to do his job, he would probably wonder where these guys were.

The match makes its way back towards the ring with brawling. When it finally re-enters the ring, The Undertaker grabs the sledgehammer and signals he wants to end Triple H with it. He lifts it up overhead but is met with a foot to the genitals. Triple H grabs the hammer but before he can use it, is kicked in the face. They trade punches for a few minutes until Triple H attempts a tombstone, Undertaker reverses and hits one of his own. He goes for a pin but the ref is still out, so no count. Undertaker signals for his Last Ride powerbomb (which he started using when he adopted the biker persona) Triple H though, grabs the sledgehammer mid move and hits Undertaker in the head with it. In what I believe to this point to be the closest to the end of the streak, Triple H gets a two count from it. Triple H tries to work further on Undertaker’s head and mounts him in the corner, Undertaker reverses this into The Last Ride and does hit it this time and it is enough to continue the streak.

The Verdict

There were a few things in this match that I did not like, for one, The Undertaker’s attack on the ref in the match, sure it lead to great crowd brawling but it didn’t make sense to me that the babyface would be the one to attack the referee and especially over something so ridiculous as not getting 3 on a chokeslam. I liked Triple H’s blocking of the Last Ride with the sledgehammer but I think the finish coming so soon after that was kind of a downer.

Rocky Maivia vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley

 

BACKGROUND NOISE

This match took place on February 13, 1997. A rare Thursday edition of Monday Night RAW. I do not recall this match but do remember this RAW very well. It was on this show that Shawn Michaels forfieted the WWF Title due to his “smile being gone”.

Rocky was challenging for the WWF Intercontinental Championship here.  Hunter Hearst Helmsley had been the champion for 74 days at this point. A title reign that actually was more established than Maivia’s WWF career at this point. An interesting fact about this match, Helmsley was scheduled to defend the title just 3 days later against Ahmed Johnson at a PPV. Rock’s position at that event was not announced.

Helmsley was the heel in this match and Maivia thus was the babyface

THE BELL 

Rocky was at this point still a commodity with in the company, the first 3rd generation Superstar. The story early in this match was simply that as much of a blue chipper as he was, Rocky was still outmatched. He went for a headlock early and was downed after a moment. This gave Helmsley a chance to posture. Helmsley was using his experience and arrogance to get into the youngster’s head.

As the match progresses, Rocky finds his niche and the move that can throw Helmsley off of his tracks, a dropkick. A dropkick that while seemingly missing twice at this point, does send Helmsley to the outside of the ring twice.

What happens next is something I don’t necessarily understand. Maivia places a dazed Helmsley up against the ring post and goes for a clothesline. A move that would, if connected, sandwich Hunter’s head between Rocky’s arm and the post. That I get, but what I don’t get is the fact it was done by the babyface. In the Andre The Giant/Hulk Hogan match at WrestleMania 3, the spot makes sense. Andre tried for a headbutt but Hogan gets out of the way. Andre was the villian in that match. It doesn’t seem like the “right” thing to do here. Its kind of a dick move. Luckily Helmsley gets out of the way and Rocky’s arm gets hurt.

When the match gets back in the ring, Hunter goes full force over the arm. After a few minutes he starts a simplistic beat down. Chops and a neck breaker, asserting his dominance. Every time Maivia starts firing back, he is set back down. He demonstrates a counter to a sleeper hold by running Maivia face first into the corner. Something that Rocky could have used just seconds earlier because Helmsley had him in the same position.

The match takes a brief turn in Rocky’s favor when he starts firing up and is even able to hit a crossbody from the top rope. It is reversed and we go back to Hunter’s dominance. He even hits a neckbreaker that commentator Vince McMahon indicates he believes to signal the end (in fairness, this was a commentary trademark of his). After a piledriver doesn’t get it done, Helmsley begins to show frustration. He keeps going for bigger and bigger moves. After a superplex does not work, he signals it is time for The Pedigree, which he cannot hit because Rocky cannot remain standing. After a third attempt, Rocky grabs a small package (NOT A PENIS JOKE) and gets a surprise three count. 

Winner of the Match: Rocky Maivia

Final Verdict

While it is historically significant in the career of The Rock, it actually isn’t much of a match.  Rocky didn’t do a lot in the match other than manage to not lose. The actual loser of this match however was not Helmsley, it was Ahmed Johnson. The man who was supposed to face Helmsley at the PPV three days later. That match was dropped and replaced with a rematch of this encounter. Ahmed Johnson instead battled nobody. He was off the show.

Rating: **