[1997-05-19-WWF-Raw] The Undertaker and Paul Bearer

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Paul Bearer announced last week that he had a secret to unveil to the world about the Undertaker. Vince asks him if he would like to respond, and Undertaker dodges the question. He'd rather talk about Faarooq and a poorly hyped PPV main event where Faarooq cried racism and Undertaker accused him of playing the race card. Vince asks him again at the end and Undertaker says now is not the time.

 

Paul Bearer interrupts on the Titantron, completely covered in a face bandage and screaming. Tremendous. Bearer talks about the burial of Undertaker's parents and a secret that he promised then he would never reveal. Undertaker asks him to wait, and Bearer gives Undertaker one week to return to his side or he will "open Pandora's box" and reveal the big secret.

 

I look forward to tracking the supposed history of the Undertaker/Kane relationship EXACTLY as it's told to us.

[Kevin Ridge]

Undertaker ain’t white! He will be facing Faarooq at King of the Ring. Bearer doing his Mummy impression. He talks about a huge secret regarding Undertaker. The Undertaker is a loss for words about this and doesn’t want Paul going there with this. Undertaker showing some weakness. He needs more time before responding to Bearer. I'm not as eager as Loss trying to follow the history of this feud.

[Robert S]

Undertaker using the term "race card" is a proof that WWF wasn't doing everything right at that point, an idea you might get just by watching the Hart Foundation - Austin - HBK stuff.

[soup23]

We finally are starting to get the hints for Kane. Still am surprised they had a world title match with Faroqq.

[PeteF3]

Undertaker talks about Faarooq playing the "race card"--UT, like Stephen Colbert, doesn't see color. Not a particularly good way to go with this promo, but what do you do to hype an Undertaker-Faarooq match? Undertaker refuses to address the secret that Paul Bearer revealed the existence of last week. Slow-burn storytelling, whatever happened to it? It's mid-May and we're beginning to hype something that won't be paid off until October and won't *really* be paid off until March! Bearer is about to spill the beans about the death of Undertaker's parents, but Undertaker, in a rare position of vulnerability, asks Paul for more time. Bearer graciously gives Undertaker another week. Of course this whole storyline was ridiculous, but it ended up working against all odds, and we're at the beginning of what may be the run of Percy Pringle's career.

[Exposer]

Taker gets on Faarooq for using the "race card" & says Faarooq won't be the WWF champion because he's black, it's because he can't beat The Undertaker. I actually liked that line. Well said. A feud about race is always going to be a risk though & Taker being involved in one is just bizarre. Vince tries to get Taker to talk about his secret that Bearer is threatening to reveal. Taker says it isn't the time but Bearer shows up & starts mentioning burying Taker's parents & saying he's going to "open Pandora's box." Taker asks for more time & Bearer gives him one week to rejoin his side or else. Intriguing segment. The Kane saga is upon us.