Loss Posted December 5, 2010 Report Share Posted December 5, 2010 Talk about it here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted January 24, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2011 "The intense and unpredictable relationship between the Undertaker and Mankind seems to have been forged by fate ages ago." Someone should start a megathread of melodramatic quotes from WWE pre-match videos. This surprised me, but I really loved it. There was an ominous atmosphere about the whole thing, and it was great that the fans were still popping from a distance. The match worked within the context of the feud. Interesting concept, probably one best not done again, but again, it worked here. Paul Bearer's turn might have seemed like a bigger deal had Hogan not just turned in WCW. At that point, whether it was the intent or not, anyone who had been in a role a long time who turned seemed like copying. Amazing how strong Undertaker put over Mankind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victator Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 I know it is asinine but it bothered me the match was taped the day before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Austin Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 Amazing how everyone got on Heenan for his "who side is he on?" comment, yet noone mentions Owen doing the same with Paul Bearer here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted January 25, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 Amazing how everyone got on Heenan for his "who side is he on?" comment, yet noone mentions Owen doing the same with Paul Bearer here Owen is not doing commentary on this match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victator Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 Maybe he means Hennig? Anyway not the same as they had been playing up dissension between Taker and Bearer since KOTR 96. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 I loved this match back then, I'm not sure how it's holding up after years of garbaging up and down the cards. The turn is very well done and was pretty shocking to me. Funny how WWF evolved in the course of 1996. This kind of garbage match would have been unthinkable the previous year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted January 28, 2011 Report Share Posted January 28, 2011 I love this match. The lack of commentary I think is a flaw, but it's still great. Granted, like I've mentioned, Taker vs. Mankind is probably my favorite WWF feud ever, with Snuka/ Piper right behind it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Evans Posted March 12, 2011 Report Share Posted March 12, 2011 I didn't think this was as good as the Shawn/Vader match but it was still fun as hell. Especially once they got out of the Boiler room. Mankind going head and back first into the concrete is just nuts. The turn was very well executed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victory Posted May 14, 2014 Report Share Posted May 14, 2014 Decent match. Certainly not my favorite of the feud. It gets better as it goes, especially once they get out of the boiler room. The almost zero crowd response while they were in the boiler room was strange until I noticed why. They had four 36 inch TVs placed around the ring for people in the arena to view the boiler room part. Anybody more than 5 rows back couldn't see a damn thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBadMick Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 Decent match. Certainly not my favorite of the feud. It gets better as it goes, especially once they get out of the boiler room. The almost zero crowd response while they were in the boiler room was strange until I noticed why. They had four 36 inch TVs placed around the ring for people in the arena to view the boiler room part. Anybody more than 5 rows back couldn't see a damn thing. WAsn't it on the big screen too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF3 Posted March 20, 2015 Report Share Posted March 20, 2015 I don't think many people could get that good of a view of the big screen. It wasn't a late-'90s style TitanTron. They did react to the big spots, though, and I don't think it was canned. Yeah, this was enjoyable. Not really something with a lot of re-watch value, but it felt gritty and dirty and lowdown, in a way that the WWF rarely was. Mankind as per custom takes some truly loony bumps, and UT gets a nasty cut on his elbow that led to a staph infection--a very good reason not to do this type of match too often. Bearer turns heel as we all know. It's not nearly as impactful as the Hogan turn, but hey--they milked that relationship for 5 and a half years before pulling the trigger on a split. Afterward a Gregorian chant strikes up and some monks carry Undertaker out, in a segment that was almost forgotten about the very next night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soup23 Posted September 10, 2015 Report Share Posted September 10, 2015 Pretty awesome spectacle of a match with the boiler room section being intense with some good weapon shots, the brawl to the ring being more organic than most of those with the wrestlers cheering them on and then the emotional turn of Paul Bearer. Mick is willing to go to extremes to bump and the Undertaker looks more vulnerable here than at any point in his WWF career up to this point. ***1/2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exposer Posted May 12, 2017 Report Share Posted May 12, 2017 This is awesome! I loved the production of this. The camera following Taker into the boiler room. The commentary being mostly silent so that the audience at home can feel the room. The brawl itself is great. The stuff they do is pretty standard but everything feels visceral. It's two guys who hate each other fighting in a fucking boiler room & it works. Mankind's bump off the ladder is insane. The filming makes it because watching I wasn't sure where he was going to land. Had a kick out of the other wrestlers cheering on Taker or Mankind based on their face/heel alignment. Loved the desperation of heaving garbage & random things while trying to make it to the arena. Mankind pouring scolding hot coffee on Taker is nuts. The teases at the ring apron are great. Good lord that concrete bump by Mankind is sickening. The Bearer turn is executed wonderfully. That was a hell of an urn shot at the finish. Mankind's outro music is awesome & made for a great mix with the big Bearer turn. The druids coming out to carry Taker away is fucking awesome. Great moment. This entire segment is a great piece of business. It couldn't be replicated because something like this is so unique. I loved it though. This feud is great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted August 25, 2017 Report Share Posted August 25, 2017 Thought I wasn't a wrestling fan at the time, after revisiting 90's WWF this is definitely one of my favorite feuds. Much more violence between these two than you would see anywhere else in the fed. I not only enjoyed the amount of violence in this match, but how it was structured and filmed. Taker slowly searching the boiler room in complete silence only for Mankind to emerge from the shadows and attack from behind made this feel like a horror movie in the best possible way. Have never seen anything done like that before nor since. Mankind absolutely brutalizes Taker for the majority of this match while the Deadman makes the occasional comeback. They're literally throwing everything not nailed down at each other, and the coffee maker was a brutally nice touch. And while tag teams and managers seemingly break up every year, can only imagine how huge it must have been at the time for Bearer to turn on Taker after 6 years. While the Buried Alive match is the one I usually revisit the most between these two, I would definitely say this is the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickH Posted September 8, 2017 Report Share Posted September 8, 2017 I'm watching this as I typing and all I can say is this is weird. I just realized no one is commentating lol. I'm about 10 minutes in and I cant really describe it, it's just a lot of screaming and noise and now the signal is gone and the fans are pissed, oh we are back, nope out again, ok now we are back. Now Mankind has fallen off a ladder. This is insane. Fire extinguisher to the face of Mankind. Now Mankind is out of the Boiler Room, how the hell do you win this thing? Now they're fighting in the hall with the locker room cheering on. HOT COFFEE THROWN ON TAKER holy shit. Out to the live crowd now, this is great. TVs at ringside, really, too bad it's not 2017 where the tvs are 100 inches. Oh shit, Mankind's head just split on the concrete floor, how the hell has mick survived all this. Mankind with the mandible claw and Paul Bearer has now turned on the Undertaker and then Bearer hands the urn to Mankind and wins the match. "Oh, that's how you win" lol. Well that was something, the boiler room part probably not suitable for a live audience, but at least they weren't afraid to try something. ***3/4 Next, Buried Alive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim Posted December 3, 2017 Report Share Posted December 3, 2017 Normally when WWE/WWF do these long, multi-step out of ringside area gimmicks it's incredibly lame and overproduced, but this was very good and not overproduced at all. For a WWF prop brawl it actually felt violent. Foley's big bump off the ladder was brutal and in general the whole thing came across as these two doing serious damage to each other. This was definitely a star-making feud for Foley. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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