Undertaker…I just don’t get it.

Since his debut was covered in a recent Observer flashback I have a question to ask that has bugged me for years.

Why do smart wrestling fans love The Undertaker?

Personally I have hated the guy from the day of that debut at Survivor Series 90. And I have never understood why the smart fans give him a pass. Even Meltzer, who hates anything too cartoony loved Taker from moment one.

In 1996 after the Curtain Call all these old timers and some not so older timers were up in arms that a couple of fake bad guys and fake good guys hugged in the ring. You have someone like Jim Cornette who says it exposed the business (forgetting for a moment that Vince had exposed the business a long time before 1996) not thinking that it could have easily been explained as Nash and HHH turned babyface or something and then have Trips turn back heel right after. Or just ignore it because it’s at a house show and no one really cares. But anyway, the point being a guy like Cornette thinks something as silly as that somehow exposes the business. And yet he’s said numerous times the Undertaker gimmick was the greatest gimmick ever.

How does that gimmick not expose the business? The whole point behind making fake fighting believable is having one person sell for another. Here you have a guy who is supposed to be an, undead zombie or some shit that literally does not sell a single move. And he didn’t for years.

I was 11 when that Survivor Series occurred, and while I knew it was fake at that point. I didn’t like things that exposed that fakeness because it would bring the ire of all the other kids or adults who’s one complaint about it was “why do you like that wrestling, it’s so fake?” and here was a gimmick faker than anything that had come before.

But that’s just the beginning. Put aside the absurdity of the gimmick you have one of the biggest politicians and let’s face it, pricks in the history of the business. They called him the sheriff. Seemed like he was just an asshole protecting his spot.

Let’s list some of the things that made Undertaker great.

· First good match probably wasn’t until Foley in 96

· First good feud wasn’t until Foley (Fine, Jake feud was OK but fuck him for killing the DDT)

· Didn’t do a job until Foley in 96

· Had some of the worst feuds in the history of wrestling before Foley

· Giant Gonzalez, Kamala, Yokozuna, King Kong Bundy, Fake Undertaker, The Executioner

· One more time: Fake Undertaker; maybe the worst feud in the history of wrestling

· Improved in the ring in early 2000s but also used this time to hold down as many young guys as possible

· Embarrassed the shit out of DDP and Kanyon for no reason other than DDP was a nice guy

· Pretty much ruined DDP by having his wife at the time, pin the guy

· Even in resurgence rarely did jobs

· His great comeback was to have one match a year and never lose

And these are the things that I got off of the top of my head of why he’s so terrible. I’m sure there are many, many more. I can understand why the marks love him. They love any guy that doesn’t sell or job. But I don’t get why the smarks love him so much. I’ll see someone complain about how stupid and fake that Dean Ambrose lose was because of the exploding TV in one breath, then say the Undertaker is the greatest, completely ignoring EVERYTHING fake about him in the next. Or I’ll see the smarks railing on Hogan for never putting anyone over but completely ignore that Taker didn’t put anyone over for the first 6 years he was in WWF.

So please, explain to me. Why does the Undertaker get a pass? Why do people like him so much? Why do people think the gimmick is so great? I just don’t get it.

Just to be clear here, you wrote in to ME to ask ME why smart fans “give the Undertaker a pass”?  You wrote to ME to ask that particular question?  The guy who spent the better part of a decade slagging his work and goofy gimmick?  Me? 

Or am I just so old now that Taker’s reinvention as a good worker in 2006 has become considered the norm for my feelings on him?  Because either prospect is a bit depressing, frankly.