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[1998-01-18-WWF-Royal Rumble] Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker (Casket)


Loss

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  • 1 month later...

The opening part of the match, with Undertaker beating Michaels all over the place, is surprisingly weak here. There's some awkwardness between them, but for the most part the spots are good; they just just don't seem to flow from spot to spot very well. As an example, at one point Michaels counters a chokeslam by grabbing onto the ropes and hitting a moonsault. They pull that spot off better than you'd imagine, but Undertaker ends up in control again just moments later, so it doesn't really accomplish anything.

 

In another surprise, the match actually picks up once Michaels takes control. He doesn't have any great offensive moves (other than the awesome piledriver on the steps), but they just seem to find their groove during this part. I guess it just feels focused, and Michaels never seems to be killing time out there. The casket teases are good for getting the crowd into the match and then, when Undertaker fights his way out, thinking they're seeing his comeback. Towards the end, Michaels does a flying elbow onto Undertaker, who's in the casket, and it's kind of the inverse of the moonsault spot - it sounds good on paper, ends up looking kind of iffy, and works anyway because it fits in with the flow of the match. Why does Earl Hebner close the lid when they're both in the casket? Of course that doesn't sort anything out, so he tries it again just seconds later.

 

The ending is lame but amusing - they've had four years to improve upon their original finish for having Undertaker lose a casket match, and all they could think of changing was not having Undertaker fly to the top of the arena. I guess I'd never watched until the end before, because I used to give them credit for axing the disembodied promo, but, no, this match has one of those, too. This pretty clearly slots in between Badd Blood and Ground Zero in ranking the three matches these two had around this time, and because I didn't like the WrestleMania match I'd call this Michaels' last good match for a while.

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Great video package to set the stage for this one. This matches features some stunning memorable visuals. The scared look Michaels has when Taker turns the lights back on. Shawn's piledriver on the steel steps with Takers head smacking off the steel. Shawn's career halting bump when he grazes the casket on the back body drop to the outside. Shawn being grabbed by the nutsack as he is straddling the casket. THE CASKET IS ON FIRE. That is a pretty good track record of memorable spots for one match and doesn't include the moonsault and elbow drop spots Gregor mentions before. The memorability along with the hatred helps push this match in the very good category for me. There was still something missing within the transitions though to push it into the great level. In the 1997 comments, I seemed to like Ground Zero more than anyone else based on the out of control feeling in portrayed. This match tried to split the difference between that and the stunt show that Hell in a Cell was for much of the duration. You cant find the match disappointing but those flaws do make it #3 in their PPV series for 1997 and 1998. (***1/2)

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is the problem with Russo booking - why have Kane pretend to be on the Undertaker's side, other than to set up a "swerve"? The only thing I could think of is that by pretending to be on his side, it made it more painful when he cost him the match, sort of an emotional attack. Except that Kane had already cost Undertaker plenty of matches, and had had plenty of opportunities to pretend to be on his side.

 

This is reason #76 that Vince Russo is the worst.

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I thought this was a great match. Obviously not at the level of HIAC, but I would put this above Ground Zero pretty easily. Yes, there's a ton of bullshit with all the run-ins, but I liked that they gave them plenty of time to work a match before getting into all of that. I really liked the actual wrestling portion of this match a lot, and I agree with Chad on the sheer number of memorable visuals being really impressive. The finish was shitty because Shawn was such an afterthought, but otherwise, I liked this a lot.

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If I’m not mistaken the bump that did for Shawn’s back comes really early on in this, in which case credit must go to Shawn for continuing to bump around like a loon for Taker. The turning point comes with a fun little mugging from Shawn and Hunter, with Shawn busting out the piledriver on the steps to good effect. The match ends up turning into more of an angle by the end, with Kane coming out to help, and then turn on, his brother (complete with hokey post-match), but the meat of the match is really quite good.

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Great, great match. Shawn pinballs around early before he clips the casket on a crazy back body drop out of the ring. He had a long way to clear the casket there. He seems a touch slower after and they are a touch lost for just a sequence or two before Shawn uses powder out of the casket to take control. I loved the idea of DX planting stuff in the casket, and since HBK wouldn't want a heavier planted weapon used against him, he goes with the disposable powder. Piledriver on the steel steps is real impressive as well as the moonsault. Then we get all the casket spots: elbow drop from the turnbuckle into the casket, the Tombstone from the apron into the casket, just awesome. Undertaker fights off interference successfully until they just take out the ref and the Outlaws, and Boriquas come down. The Kane storytelling is what it is, but I'll admit, back in 98 when Kane cleared the ring you gave a sigh of relief, thinking Taker may actually win (for a brief moment). ****1/4

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The first 18m of this was a good brawling style encounter with anything goes. An established and heated rivalry was an important factor. The changes in momentum were well timed. I'd say that despite some fun spots, the stipulation was an impediment overall. Then as we head towards the climax there's a lengthy 3m of interference. Then the result is swept under the carpet as the focus is firmly on the post-match angle. This is a perfect illustration of why my yearly best match lists are hardly overflowing with WWF, or in this case will be ranked lower than it should be. Even the times when they've showed ambition and produced a strong match they have to go and fuck it up at the finish. It's like sportz entertainment has to be opposed to match quality, and there's only one winner in that war.

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Agree with Loss that this was more focused and better than Ground Zero. The big casket spots all really worked; I especially liked the crotch grab as comeuppance for HBK. I get why they did the Kane stuff, though it wasn't very compelling, even at the time. If they were going to go that way, they shouldn't have run the closing video of Undertaker speaking from The Beyond. Would've been better to leave his fate in question. It was also weird how HBK became such a secondary figure at this point, with Taker more focused on Kane and Austin more focused on Tyson. I guess it worked out though.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

Nowhere near the quality of their best matches, but a fun watch regardless. They managed to get a good match out of the hindering stipulation and some of the casket spots are actually pretty cool. I particularly love the Tombstone into the casket. The interference was fine, but Shawn Michaels being an afterthought was not. ★★★¼

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  • 1 month later...

I still think I liked Ground Zero better, but this was another match that was much better than I remembered as I watched it live. Shawn has another bevy of vicious spots here, including the great piledriver on the steps (five years later and he's finally taken up the Brain's "good amateur move" advice!) And a good number of teases and cut-offs to show how well these two know each other and also serves to keep us, the viewer on their toes by switching up some of the usual spots. The tombstone into the casket was an amazing false finish as well--really, the only complaint is Earl Hebner somehow managing to fuck up officiating a match where barely does anything with that business with the lid--what a horrible referee. Now I'm starting to talk myself into thinking this *was* better than Ground Zero, because now I'm struggling to remember a whole lot about that match besides the big post-match plancha--and it had its share of overbooking gaga, too.

 

As for the Kane turn...well, yeah, you could criticize it for being pointless and Russoriffic, but a.) the story was that Kane could not bait Undertaker into fighting him, no matter how many times he attacked him or other people, so you get the idea that he had to try something else, and b.) even if we, the smark audience, saw it coming, the crowd at large TOTALLY bought into it. When the Outlaws and Boricuas are pounding Undertaker down, they're chanting for him. When the lights go out, they pop. And when he turns on Undertaker, they boo. It also should be noted that in the Observers of this period, Dave is *constantly* hammering how much potential money there is in Kane as a babyface, though he does say that they'd have to run the Kane-Undertaker match first before going full-bore with it.

 

The post-match with the axe and the burning casket is over-the-top in another Russoriffic way but it's a cool image in any event. Shawn's an afterthought, but they may have figured that if they ended yet another show with DX celebrating, with the crowd really buying into a possible title change, that there'd be another riot, so they got him out of there for everyone's safety. All in all, this is a presentation that hit just about every note it needed to hit. It's not a top-end MOTY, but it may well place in a WWF or even an American-centric list--it's a good Sportz Entertainment production all the way around.

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I think PeteF3 brings up an excellent point about the Kane turn that is often overlooked. Both at this show and the RAW’s beforehand, the crowd is vocally chanting for Kane, and while potentially somewhat more complex than perhaps wrestling story telling needs to be, the point about Kane not being able to bait Undertaker into fighting him, despite attacking him and other people, so he had to really twist the knife psychologically is actually pretty compelling.

 

Onto the match itself, and I think it’s very, very good. Not on the level of Badd Blood, but that would be hard. As shown when they would go back to back at Wrestlemania 25 and 26, these two have great chemistry, and I think that Shawn is absolutely fantastic in this match. After surviving Taker’s initial flurry – which as pointed out above, is not quite as wild and chaotic as the way it was at Ground Zero and as you would like, he is able to control the match with manoeuvres like the sick sounding piledriver on the stairs, and generally looking like a resilient and intelligent champion, but without ever being overly dominant which wouldn’t be realistic.

 

As Soup highlights, there are so many great visuals, particularly the one of Shawn being dragged into the casket and desperately trying to claw his way from the clutches of Undertaker. After months of Shawn being a dick with little comeuppance, the genuine look of fear on his face (similarly when he jumps at Takers pyro going off in the entrance) is very satisfying.

 

The ending with Kane and the burning casket is of course way over the top, but sort of works in the bizarre universe that Taker and Kane exist in, and who can *just about* get away with this sort of thing. Again, the casket on fire is a very cool visual. I enjoyed the match a lot though and would call it a *** ¾ job. It’s a real shame that HBK gets that injury in this match, or that this bump exacerbates long standing issues, as I would argue he is in a real groove both in and out of the ring post heel turn in 97, and really liked the style of match that he worked here, Badd Blood, One Night Only and Survivor Series. It’s one of his strongest in ring runs.

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  • 1 month later...

I couldn't care less about Kane and why he turned or the logic behind his turning, blah blah blah. The bottom line is this is the way they chose to setup Kane v. Undertaker match at WM. For all of Shawn's goofy shit (see RAW the following day) he put on a hell of a show here. This is even after he cracked his back on the casket early on. That has to be applauded no matter your thoughts on the man. I hate the finish, but everything before the run-ins was really good. Not HITC level, and maybe not even there best "regular" match, but very good nonetheless.

 

RATING: MOTY so far in January 1998 WWF.

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  • 1 year later...

The video package is great. No wrestling company will ever match WWE in video packages. The early going is famous for Shawn taking the back body drop onto the casket. We don't see the slow motion so it doesn't look as bad in regular speed. He must have been hurting a lot after the match. Taker takes a huge bump into the stairs. Pretty brutal one in fact. Shawn beats him with the stairs & piledrives him on them like he did at Badd Blood. The match slows down to a halt & gets pretty uninteresting for a few minutes until the casket teases start to come into play. The teases & false finishes are great here. Shawn signaling for the crotch chop only for Taker to grab his nuts is a great spot. Taker makes a comeback but misses his flying clothesline on a good cut off. He rolls into the casket & Shawn hits his flying elbow drop into the casket. Great spot. Hebner closes the casket on both guys like a dummy which confuses the crowd. Closing the lid as both competitors are in the casket is stupid. It only makes sense to wait until one of them crawls out. They do this twice before they battle back into the ring. Taker hits a tremendous chokeslam on Shawn. Shawn got great height on that. Taker signals for the tombstone & hits it from the apron into the casket in an amazing spot. Totally insane. That looked awesome. Taker's about to win when the NAO & Los Boricuas show up & attack him. The fans chant for Kane & he shows up to a big pop. Kane clears the ring as HHH & Chyna remove Shawn from the casket. Kane does his hand taunt. I'm not sure if fire was supposed to come out of the turnbuckles or not. Either way, it was a bit awkward because the crowd & I were expecting it. Kane turns on Taker though & chokeslams him into the casket. Fans boo. Shawn retains & DX get out of there. Bearer shows up & he & Kane lock the casket. They drag it to the entrance where Kane destroys the casket with an axe. In a classic moment he sets the casket on fire in a tremendous visual to close the show. Solid match with a hot finishing run. The post-match is very famous. This Rumble is a successful one, because I'm left intrigued moving forward. Austin-DX & Taker-Kane are two very hot programs with Tyson being in the mix really making things interesting.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1998-01-18-WWF-Royal Rumble] Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker (Casket)
  • 2 years later...

Just watched this again and as much as I think Shawn is an all-time asshole at this point, I gotta hand it to him. He goes for broke despite the early back injury. There are times when he is walking gingerly between spots and openly wincing (like when he's hoisting the ring steps over Taker during that section) but it's played as normal selling and I definitely didn't know anything was up as I was watching it live. The ending was kind of a letdown with Michaels not even being involved but I guess Michaels vs Austin for the title sells itself and they were trying to set up the second biggest match for Mania with Kane vs Taker.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Out of all their matches, this gets forgotten about (despite the back injury that HBK occurs early on) but it's a very good edition. It's better than the Ground Zero match for sure. Shawn Michaels looks fairly strong in this being the aggressive and most controlling out of the two. I suspect it was a decision to make Michaels look like a resilient, worthy champion for Austin to the new influx of fans that are tuning because its usually the opposite. But he did a fine job. He kept his offence to hard punches to the head and stomach while using the aerial moves sparingly. And when Taker gained back control, Michaels pin-ball’d himself around the ring. Sometimes it was over the top but it was reserved mostly. Then the finish with Kane attacking Taker after initially helping him from goons (The New Age Outlaws & Los Boricuas) and then setting the casket on fire. Super good main event with a strong finishing angle. ***1/2

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