Match of the Day - The birth of the streak!

The Undertaker vs. Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka - Wrestlemania VII (1991)

Only a few months after the fresh (yet dead) new competitor known as The Undertaker made his debut at Survivor Series, he was thrown into a match at the biggest WWF PPV of the year against Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. While challenging Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka is never a walk in the park, you can see here that this was boot-era Jimmy Snuka and therefore lacked the "Superfly" powers that he once possessed.

'Taker would go on to win 20 more of these WM matches, and is looking for his 22nd win this Sunday against "The Beast Incarnate" Brock Lesnar. Many people on the internet say that the only wrestler that can really put an end to the streak is Kane - who has failed two times already. I, on the other hand, believe that it takes someone who can tie the whole streak back together, and since Jimmy Snuka is well passed his glory days to return, it looks like it's up to another Snuka; it looks like it's up to Tamina "The daughter of Hall of Famer Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka" Snuka to put an end to the streak!

Match of the Debut - The first Hell in a Cell and... that's gotta be Kane!

The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels - first Hell in a Cell match - WWF Bad Blood: In Your House (1997)

The match that started it all: the very first "Hell in a Cell" match. The main differences between a Hell in a Cell match and a regular WWF/E cage match is that the cage is wider with room for the wrestlers to go outside the ring, there's a roof on the cage, and you can't win via escaping the structure.

While this match between the Undertaker and Shawn Michaels marked the first Hell in a Cell match, the match is probably remembered more for its ending. The ending goes like this: Just as Undertaker is about to finish off a bloodied Michaels after blasting him over the head with a blue steel chair, the lights got and from the darkness appears Paul Bearer, Taker's former manager, following a large figure clad in black and red from head to toe. After weeks of Bearer mentioning that Taker has a long lost brother, it is finally confirmed that he is still alive and looking for his brother. As the large individual walks to the cell, Vince McMahon from his headphones reveals, "that's gotta be... that's gotta be Kane!" before ripping the cage door right off its hinges. The two brothers of similar height then square off in the middle of the ring until Kane makes his move and takes out Taker using the Phenom's own tombstone piledriver and forever cementing his legacy as the Big Red Machine!

This match also features a fair amount of brawling outside the ring and on top of the cell, Michaels abusing cameramen, and a bump off the cage that will forever be overshadowed by the legendary bump that Mankind takes in the next Hell in a Cell match.

Match of the Day - Mean Mark gets an 8.2 on the slam-o-meter + Robocop gets his own dressing room

Mean Mark w/ Theodore R. Long vs. Johnny Ace - NWA/WCW Capital Combat: The Return of Robocop (1990)

Who knew that all three of these men would still be around and even employed by WWE in the year 2012? Two of whom would have their own separate teams in a Survivor Series-style elimination match at WrestleMania XXVIII while the other would win his 30th WrestleMania match, the longest streak of its kind in WWE!

Who knew that Mark (pre-Undertaker) Calaway would be the last person to face Johnny Ace, AKA "Senior Vice President of Talent Operations" John Laurinaitis, in a televised match in WCW? A bout that may have also been Johnny's last televised match ever in the US as, soon after leaving WCW, he went of to wrestle and fine tune his "skills" in Japan with AJPW until his in-ring retirement in 2000.

Johnny Ace would later return to WCW after retiring, but just as a backstage figure with his real name, John Laurinaitis. Laurinaitis would eventually replace Vince Russo and be the head booker for WCW until its demise in 2001.

... And the rest is history.

This match is taken from the Capital Combat WCW PPV that revolved around Robocop saving Sting from the Four Horseman in promotion for Robocop 2 and then disappearing into wrestling folklore. Maybe Robocop will make a return in TNA this year or the next to help rescue Sting from the Aces & Eights to promote the new Robocop remake.

The match also features great use of the Slam-O-Meter, a very scientific metering system that WCW invented to calibrate and calculate the impact of a slam. Mean Mark earned himself an 8.2 on the Slam-O-Meter with his tight-rope elbow drop to end the match and send Johnny packing...

Theme Results:

Final match: Johnny Ace's final televised match in WCW and possibly in the US.

Match of the Day - Rock 'n' Sock Connection are in grave danger!

The Rock & Mankind (c) vs. The Undertaker & The Big Show - WWF Smackdown! (1999)

In yet another interesting tag team confrontation, the ever-popular, Rock 'n' Sock Connection of The Rock and Mankind took on the ever-evil team of pony-tail era Big Show and The Undertaker in the very first tag team "Buried Alive" match. That's right! A tag team member buried alive match.

The first and only tag team Buried Alive match in WWF/E was unlike other specialty tag team matches like a tag team cage match or a tag team tables match in that only one man from either team needed to be buried AKA thrown in a rectangular hole and "completely" covered by dirt. This is contrary to the cage and table matches where both team members must escape the cage (usually, if they don't want to go for a dumb pinfall or something like that) or both team members must be put through a table for the win.

The result of the match comes out to be a shocking turn of events as super heel, Triple H hits The Big Show in the "back of the head", as Michael Cole puts it, with his signature sledgehammer but then buries Mankind by himself for the team of The Big Show and The Undertaker to win the match and Mankind and Rock's tag team titles. An Ambulance immediately appears at the dirt mound to pick up Mankind, but as Triple H goes to help the EMT's by opening the Ambulance doors for them - a real jerk, let the EMT's do their job - out pops the Texas Rattlesnake, Stone Cold Steve Austin! Austin then throws HHH in the back of the Ambulance and drives it out to the parking lot where Austin would then "commandeer" a semi and rams it into the Ambulance with HHH still inside...

Yeah, I know... all that on Smackdown!

This was back when SD! was essentially the blue version of Raw on Thursday nights.

Overall reaction: First, the bump that Mankind takes after being thrown from the stage to the grave looks super painful. Mick Foley was and forever will be known as the guy who could take the most punishment to his body and get right back up, but I honestly do not think that that poor man had to take so many falls to live up to the reputation he made for himself after Hell in the Cell #2. I mean we got it, Mick was unbreakable, but was repeatedly having him fall or thrown off of something really worth it at this point? Some may disagree. I however feel that Mick proved himself a worthy competitor even without the the scientific wrestling ability at this time in his career and didn't always need to be getting handcuffed and hit with a dozen chair shots or, in this case, taking a super hard bump for no reason. Yeah, no reason; the bump wasn't even necessary as the show was going to end with Triple H getting killed by Austin via vehicular manslaughter anyway.

Secondly, this is The Undertaker's first and only Buried Alive match where he is not buried alive. Undertaker, the only person who has wrestled in every one of this type of match in WWF/E (currently), was 1-1 coming into this match but thanks to HHH and only HHH, who wasn't even in this match to began with, buries Mankind for Taker's second win (believe it or not) and the only time Taker escaped un-buried.

Thirdly, no Buried Alive match has ever been won cleanly. What I mean by this is that almost every match out of the five Buried Alive matches that have taken place, an individual/individuals has interfered and buries the loser completely. In the first Buried Alive (officially won by The Undertaker but often forgotten), The Executioner played by masked Terry Gordy comes out to save Mankind from the grave and buries The Undertaker all the way to the top with the help of the heels (including HHH no less); in the second Buried Alive match, Taker vs. Austin, Austin gets help from Taker's baby brother, the Big Red Machine, Kane; in this Buried Alive match, Triple H buries Mankind (who was already buried in the first BA match) all by himself; in the 2003 Buried Alive match between Taker and Mr. McMahon, Kane (now unmasked kane) once again interferes and buries Undertaker whole with the crane digger; and in the last Buried Alive match at Bragging Rights 2010, Kane buries Undertaker for the third time with the crane thanks to the interference by NEXUS.

Just thought I'd spread a little history today, I guess.

Match of the Day - The Underfaker fakes out a ham & egger

Ted Dibiase's Undertaker vs. Mike Bell - Raw (1994)

Not too soon after Undertaker's demise at the hands of Yokozuna (with the help of Mr. Fuji's men of course) in the casket match at the 1994 Royal Rumble, The Undertaker would again resurface by his new manager, "The Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase. This Underatker was a little different than the last time we saw him however as he was now being controlled by money rather than the power of The Urn.

Eventually Paul Bearer would bring back the real Undertaker, now donning a sweet purple and black look, to destroy this impostor 'Taker and once again be WWF's only dead man.

Before The fake Undertaker or "Underfaker" took on The real Undertaker at Summerslam, he beat up a few jobbers on Raw to prove that he was definitely not the real Undertaker.

Mike Bell is the victim in this early sighting of The Underfaker played by Brian Lee who later wrestled as Chainz in the Disciples of Apocalypse (with a biker look before The real Undertaker did that too) and also as that guy who was pushed off a scaffold onto a dozen tables in ECW.

Mike Bell also wrestled in ECW under the nickname "Mad Dog". Bell can be seen in the film, Bigger, Faster, Stronger a documentary about drug and steroid abuse - a problem Bell had that led to his death at age 37.

Some may also know Bell as that guy Perry Saturn dropped on his head.

For Lee, the whole Undertaker deal didn't work out after Summerslam, but he did get to play The Undertaker in a Bollywood film called Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi where he "kills" Crush (Brian Adams) in a wrestling match on top of a building(?).

I've also heard that Brian Lee is Mark "The Undertaker" Calaway's real life cousin and that he once had an affair with Calaway's first wife. Whether or not the latter is true, Lee is a real life cousin to the Harris Brothers (who also wrestled in DOA along with Crush no less).

Match of the Day - Taker and The Executioner tear down the house!

The Undertaker vs. The Executioner - WWF In Your House: It's Time (1996)

In yet another incident of The Undertaker taking on whoever and whatever WWF had to throw at him, this time in the form of Terry Gordy as The Executioner, things got almost extreme in '96 when Taker decided to take the house down...

Literally.

This was also an Armageddon rules match AKA a last man standing match where you must pin your opponent before the ten count is started.

Match of the Day - a great Papa Shango undertaking!

Papa Shango vs. The Undertaker - Coliseum Video "Invasion of the Bodyslammers" exclusive (1992)

The closest thing to Papa Shango vs. The Boogeyman.

Except in this case, The Boogeyman is really one of the greatest, if not thee greatest, superstar/wrestler/character in WWF/E, The Undertaker.

Also: The triple threat Macho Man/Bobby "The Brain"/JR commentary action is a lot of fun!

"What was that explosion!"