Imagine you've been a WWF/E fan for years. You get to go to your first show, and are looking forward to seeing THE UNDERTAKER. You know the gong. You know the walk. You know the mannerisms. And you get to see it for the first time live and in person! And then Mark Calloway comes out on a bike.
The American Badass gimmick gave the Deadman gimmick the break it needed and when it returned in 2004 it was able to last for over 15 years as he transitioned to a part-timer.
Undertaker would've been finde. By that time he was so well established that the gimmick just worked on legacy alone. When he became that idiotic biker it was just sad and he never really returned to the original Undertaker gimmick. From 2004 onwards he was this weird mixture of both gimmicks that just looked stupid. If anything, that whole charade just hurt his legacy at least a bit.
You made us all gayer with that statement. No one in that time thought of Undertake as "the Deadman gimmick". He was the Phenom and the Dark Lord of the Ministry.
My favourite undertaker was actually the ministry of darkness undertaker, he never wore the hat as the ministry taker anyway. I just felt he was more intimidating and felt less like a gimmick.
I didn't enjoy Bikertaker nearly as much as the classic Undertaker, but to me it got a lot better when he turned heel and did the Big Evil version. The most memorable parts were putting over Jeff Hardy really big, and squashing a returning Brother Love. The look on Taker's face when Prichard came out of that box was priceless. Mark's several departures to heal up as well as cosmetic makeovers had kept the character fresh, but a stretch of being on TV minus the gimmick helped too. When he switched back, It got fans excited for something we had maybe started to take for granted.
Undertaker had a 30 plus year career because he made changes when he needed to. His legacy shows how the American badass gimmick helped his career which is a career that no one else has had
ehhhhhhhhh Changes? when he needed to? out of his career he spent 2 years as something else than the actual Undertaker. I dont know what this change is that you are yappin about. Sure they updated his gear and theme as tech and tailoring got better, but there was nothing about the taker that changed until the American Badass gimmick and it wasnt really that good. as WWE wrote it. He was larger than life, and then he was just Mark for 2 years. then he became larger than life again.
I didn’t mind the biker gimmick I just wish he’d brought more of his dead man persona come thru, like come out with a customized purple motorcycle with skulls and reapers or something.
Theres more than 2 or 3 versions of UT... it was the creepy UT... Then he became one obsessed w the urn(cuz he didnt have it, nor Paul Bearer at first)... then he became somethin akin to the deadman but he was alive and talked... then he was a cult leader... eventually Biker UT... different iterations of that. The nickname Big Evil as a face never made sense to me but I digress... then he got killed as Biker UT... and the Deadman was an amalgam of Biker UT and Urn loving UT. Then he had variationa of that. The best version imo... is the one precult leader and when he turned back to being a face before going to Biker.
I do not believe the American Badass gimmick would have gaine ANY traction had Undertaker never existed. Undertaker is so iconic and cemented in legendary staus that fans allowed the biker gimmick to work. We were all so loyal and knew who we were watching.
They started out, breaking the Undertaker persona, when Taker came out to the ring in his jogging suit and Vince referring to him by his real name and Taker does this promo. That was different but it was okay. When Taker showed up on the bike at Judgement Day I think we were all excited about the new character. When he cut his hair and shifted into "Booger Red" with Sara I can't imagine any of us liking it.
I think this version of Taker made the deadman more iconic. Got a break from it then when it returned just that much sweeter. Still my favorite line when he owned the rock with “I might not dress like devil anymore but I will go medieval on your ass”😂
The American Badass was fantastic. He was still the Undertaker, American Badass was like a title. The gimmick fit perfectly in the era. I can understand not liking it, but he was nowhere close to "embarrassing himself". And he was extraordinarily well received as well.
That's the problem. It fit the era. Undertaker was always utterly different. Even in the early 90s with all the cartoonist gimmicks, Taker was so beyond and different. The Badass gimmick was way too little Deadman.
Yes people forget the that guys like austin rock hhh y2j can work the mike. His deadman gimmick at the time wasn’t allowing him to do that. His biker gimmick gave him more leeway there
Well, if we wanna be critical undertakers, american badass/big evil gimmick stayed more true to his character than kanes. Glenn sacrificed his demonic self over the course of time compared to taker. The biker persona was a more human deadman, in my opinion, and we got glimpses of it early when he was in the ministry anyways lol
The problem with the American Badass gimmick is that it really wasn't much gimmick at all. It was just Mark. Him being himself. That's why he still does it now when he shows up on WWE tv. Because even Mark knows he's pulled the curtain back too far now to ever go back to Dead Man.
the biggest pops Taker got was when he returned to the Phenom gimmick and just started feeding him Smackdown villains. Every time someone mouthed off, the fans waited for that gong
I hated it at the time and still have my feelings about it, but I think it was a wise career move. The Ministry of Darkness Undertaker was so extremely evil that there really wasn’t much farther to go with the OG gimmick. It had to go away to make a comeback.
I share in your sentiment. Although I still choose to headcanon it out of existence by saying "that wasn't actually Mark Calloway, it was Chainz playing The Bikertaker while Calloway was recovering from an almost career-ending injury". At least Chainz got his huge break.
@@stephenjones1488 naw son, delusions of grandeur would imply that I see myself as future President of the United States. When I say that Bikertaker was played by Chainz, I am engaging in deliberate self-delusion to smooth out an unpleasant memory.
I enjoyed the biker gimmick. My favorite shirt was the Big Evil Pain Syndicate one at the tail end of that run where he started bringing back the Undertaker style gimmick
nah DUTCH the Dead Man American Badass Gimmick WORKED that why it lasted for 2 yrs and not a couple of months... you gotta EVOLVE w/the times old man or Get Left BEHIND... i guess like how you did......
@@markv1274 nothing wrong with that gimmick.. it lasted for 2yrs like i said AND he brought it back when he faced A.J. Styles in that bone yard match they had a few yrs back so you are just another RANDO yt commentor posting a MINORITY Opinion that has NO Base or Value... you get an F Grade... DISMISSED
@@markv1274 also to be CLEAR since I'm SURE you'll get Confused over the bone yard comment, you D.A's out here LOVE getting confused, he((TAKER))was rocking the bike and bandanna AND had Dialog... all of which he does NOT Do when he's in full Undertaker Character Mode and if you're honest you'll acknowledge that.. so AGAIN its a gimmick he returns to every so often, like recently in nxt last week i believe... but i'm sure you'll dismiss all of that and come up with some nonsense that'll just make me laugh at you
I liked Bikertaker, but my favorite incarnation will always be mid 1998 when he was a tweener feuding with Austin. There wasn’t much of the zombie/supernatural stuff, and he wasn’t into full on evil cult leader Ministry Taker yet. In a way, he was kind of like Bikertaker, but still with the Deadman gear and entrance. That and the version of his theme that they used for only a few months that was the traditional Taker music with some guitar riffs thrown in was perfection.
I loved the gimmick. Especially gave a ton of great lines such as “This Sunday, you better give your soul to the Lord, because your ass belongs to me!”
The taker of 91/92 was the best, all the other version afterwards didn't have me glued to the tv like the first incarnation, he wrestled like a Zombie which was so different to anyone else, once he started to sell and show pain he wasn't the same for me.
I loved 91/92 taker, and there's a lot of things I wish they'd kept the character doing. I've seen at the end of some matches, Paul Bearer would offer a bag to the Undertaker. He'd reach into it and pull out some dirt, then sprinkle it on his fallen opponent "burying him"! I know this is a little bit further ahead, but I also loved "Woodshop Taker" when he would do promos, while building a casket for his opponents in some old wild west looking wood shed. It was just eerie and awesome watching him shave the wood and hammer the nails while Bearer talked about what he was going to do in the match, ect!
I also hated biker Taker. It never made sense and I'm pretty sure there was never any story explanation for it. It completely broke continuity. Mark Calloway still had charisma and was intimidating, but he was just portraying a normal guy at that point. I suppose it allowed Mark Calloway to show a some humanity, but I think one of the best things about classic Taker was his inhumanity.
Nobody will ever have that iconic change like the deadman. His acting and evolution over the years is what made it special His legendary matches include:Buried alive, the last ride match, casket match, body bag, hell in a cell, biker chain match Also nobody in the history of WWF/WWE has an arsenal quite like the undertaker 1) Chokeslam 2) Tombstone piledriver 3) The last ride 4) Old school 5) TCB (taking care of business/dragon sleeper 6) Triangle chokehold 7) Armbarwrench 8) Hells gate 9) Snake Eyes 10) Gulitone leg drop 11) Deadman dive (over the top rope) 🤩🙌🏽👊🏽✨️💞🖤🔥🇺🇲🪦⚱️💀⚰️
I would like to say what the hell are they talking about the American Badass gimmick was amazing the way he came out and got huge pops riding that motorcycle come on. Every wrestling event I've been to when he was the biker Undertaker people were going crazy his merch was selling like crazy. Undertaker felt that the dead man character got stale he wanted to do something different and it helped him stay relevant and this is from The Undertaker's mouth. And him being that new character brought out new amazing matches with the top new stars and legendary moments so you can hate the gimmick all you want to Millions loved biker Undertaker forever go down in history as another amazing character
@@RobTheUndertaker Absolutely. I call him Taker Prime lol and yes, he was terrifying. I was only 6 when Taker Prime came out. I was still young enough to be terrified. Ill never forget watching him stuff Ultimate Warrior in the casket.
Would respectfully disagree either that it failed "right off the bat" or didn't prove a major attraction thereafter. When Taker Retuned at Judgement Day in 2000, the crowd's reaction could be heard by Martians vacationing on Uranus and I'd argue he remained a huge draw - even alongside Austin & The Rock at the peak of their popularity. He also had one of his most memorable feuds with HHH during his "biker" era", culminating in their now legendary match at WM17, which arguably upstaged the main event. I've little doubt that the vast majority of Taker's fans, especially those who'd long known and grown to love him as the "Deadman" were all hoping he'd eventually resurrect this incarnation. But no matter which character he assumed, he was able to adapt both his wresting style and mic rhetoric to embody it with equally convincing aplomb which if anything, further cemented both his reputation and legacy as a unique all time great performer within the ever mercurial pro Wrestling industry.
I'll be honest, I despised the "American Badass" persona. Don't get me wrong, I love my country and have no problem with showing that, but it was way too far of a leap for such an established character. If he wanted to ride a bike, that's fine, it was around a time with American Choppers, I think he could have worked a spooky bike into the mix and integrated that sort of update, maybe even his own colors. Could have had his own chrome shovel on it with a gimmicked copy he could smack people with. There were ways to update without completely destroying the spooky nature. Even after the fall of the 4th wall, when he his costumed up, he is a terrifying character. Cheers.
…..WHAT?! This is the first time I’ve ever audibly said what, and had a look of disbelief and shock when watching on any RU-vid podcast because I couldn’t figure out if it was a rib or if he was being serious Dutch… What the hell were you watching? you weren’t watching Thursday night SmackDown/Friday night SmackDown during the SmackDown 6 era, that’s for damn sure, undertaker was the one who put Brock Lesnar on the map as a main eventer, The undertaker was the very first person to hold the physical undisputed championship belt, which became the WWE championship, the one Cena won off JBL, undertaker was the first ones ever hold that title, and a little while ago the American bad ass blew the roof off the place when he came out to Kid Rock on the Harley, in one of Bray Wyatt‘s last appearances, he was over as hell! he was more over actually than he was as the deadman, and people who were born in the early to mid 90s became fans during the SmackDown 6 era, we all prefer biker taker, and think the dead man is cheesy as hell, which is why he was done holding titles once he reverted back. Also, sidenote, you made it a big point to mention his attire and not liking it. I’m guessing the version of the American badass that you’re used to seeing was the Version 1/2000 version, when he first debuted that character because starting in 2001, as he debuted second version, Version 2/Big Evil in 2001c and he’s dressed the same in the ring when he returned as dead in 2005, the leather pants, singlet & moveset was originally for the second version of the American badass,there’sa reason us who grew up with both refer to what he became as a hybrid taker because the entrance attire and the theme are literally the only thing that was deadman everything else that moves the clothes in the ring that was all the American badass stuff, so how can you really say you didn’t like it when it’s literally the same?
It wasn't so much the initial American Badass, but the evolution into Big Evil/ Deadman inc. I really enjoyed. Even when he was the American badass w/ the brothers of destruction vs. The two man power trip I enjoyed
I have always believed that they went away from the deadman gimmick shortly after Owen Hart's accident because they didn't want to focus so much on death.
I think it helped to do the gimmick cause he took some losses as the American badass that helped at the time, and when the undertaker came back to phenom taker, it was electric.
They should have had a storyline reason for his change. They could have had another supernatural character that took Undertaker's power away. Now he has a reason for this change.
As far as I remember, there was never a story explanation for Taker going from supernatural western zombie cult leader to biker guy. Pro wrestling is storytelling and should still have some kind of coherent continuity. That's how WWE continually ruined Kane.
@@CarlyDayDay The difference was that Godfather wasn't supposed to be the same character as Papa Shango (or his Ultimate Fighter gimmick) Just like how Kane isn't supposed to be the same character as Jerry Lawler's evil dentist, despite being played by the same wrestler. Biker Taker was supposed to be the same character as zombie/cult leader Taker.
Bikertaker was cool af at the time for however long that gimmick lasted and it gave way for Undertaker to show more dimensions to his character. He was badass. When he went back to the Deadman gimmick, it was right for the time too and that story and feud with Kane was perfect.
From what I understand from other people's shoots the Bikertaker was done because he was nearing a contract negotiation and he knew if he went to WCW for a payday he wasn't going to be able to take the undertaker gimmick with him, but he could always be a biker under his own real name or whatever if he needed to.
That was my bike that Taker was riding in the beginning. WWE had a deal with Titan Motorcycles. Titan called me and asked if they could use my bike. I took the bike to San Jose then Oakland. Titan asked if I would send the bike with him and I declined. Mark was a nice guy, loved my bike.
Nothing beats Dead Man Undertaker. The guy that doesn't feel any pain and always sits up from everybody's finishing moves/chairs shots. Submission moves have no effect on him as well. That was the most dominant character in WWE history by far.
We don’t get 30 years of Taker without the American Badass gimmick. We get half that, and he starts jobbing out during the Attitude Era. The haircut and the blue denim shirts are what pissed me off. Long hair/black clothes should’ve stayed throughout.
I didn't have a problem with the biker gimmick. My only issue with it was how stupid the name was. I was like really, "The American Badass"? To me that sounds like a nerd wishing they were cool. Who calls themselves a badass? If he picked a different name or hell, even just went by Mark Calloway, I think it would've been much better
They should have brought Dutch in with Undertaker at some point as a Pirates of the Caribbean gimmick as "The Flying Dutchman" and he could have been an undead pirate. I'm only half joking.
I thought the Biker Taker character had some trouble getting off the ground which is normal for such a drastic character change that came all of a sudden rather than giving any buildup or explanation, but once they started adding some layers to the character, particularly after he became “Big Evil”, it was pretty enjoyable imo. And I don’t know that the Deadman gimmick has the longevity it had without the break that we got from it. The character lasted another 15 years so it piaf off as far as I’m concerned.
I agree with Dutch. I hated it. When he first came back with that I was so disappointed. Then I tried to get used to it and after a bit I got over the initial disappointment and got over it but then it just felt like it went on forever and I was relieved when he came back at WrestleMania XX.
i was at the age of 21yo or so when he went to the ABA so i was only watching every great once in awhile since 94' at that point but i remember beingconfused as shit when i saw ABA for the 1st time
The worst matches Undertaker had when he wasn't the Zombie Undertaker, was The American Badass, then calling him Big Evil becaise he was a heel was stupid too. The Buried Alive match and then comeback stuff from Rumble 2004 onward was awesome.
That time period motorcycles where they thing. Biker build offs and OCC where HUGE. I didnt like the gimmick but I did see him live during that time. He still got pop, just not like the Undertaker pop. Being in person and hearing that bell will give you chills.
I actually really liked undertaker as the American Bad Ass. I agree with James, when he cut his hair and became Big Evil & started using ‘You’re gonna Pay’ instead of ‘Rollin’ was when I got turned off.
As a life long fan of the undertaker, I was disappointed now that I look back but also was just happy to see him back. I think if they had an amalgamation of a ministry/evil undertaker and a biker taker before he just came back as the ABA, it would have been a little more acceptable. But still, I was an undertaker fan my entire life. Never stopped rooting for him. But that’s just my opinion
He had the Undertaker go away because we could not miss it unless it went away. Then when he brought it back people were happy it was back and the biker was gone.
I really liked debut Undertaker in the early 90's and then of course when Kane got introduced. At some point tho with the cooperate ministry and the unholy alliance (big show stuff where he started coming out in street clothes), I felt it was getting a little too hokey and the American Badass/Big Evil stuff was a nice change. Nothing truly felt like Undertaker with Paul Bearer, but his return as the hybrid of sorts really put things together well. I actually found myself disappointed that he didn't come back as one of the biker takers for his 2nd big match with Brock around the streak angle, especially since it seemed hinted at lots.
Hasn't Taker said something like the less confident he was about a match, the longer he'd take to get to the ring? The idea was if the match was sub-par, at least the fans got to see a cool entrance.
