Undertaker has earned the reputation of being the backstage godfather in the WWE, what with his eternity of faithful service to the company and the clout that he holds in the eyes of the powers that be. However, while he doesn’t indulge in quite as much power mongering or politickings like some others *cough* Triple H *cough*, he has been associated with the odd 'burial' here and there.
Whether it be due to the wrestler in question rubbing him the wrong way or because he had just been found guilty of toeing the proverbial line of conduct one too many times, the Undertaker has been known to take the law into his own hands and pass judgement when things come to a head.
Unlike in the Wrestler’s Court – of which the Undertaker was also the head honcho – these were WWE Superstars who had erred sufficiently for him to decide to completely kill off their WWE careers.
Ouch.
Diamond Dallas Page
Perhaps it was the mistrust between WWE and WCW Superstars, more than anything, that contributed to DDP’s failure in the WWE but from all accounts, the Undertaker had a big hand in his run petering out.
DDP apparently was in the habit of going through his matches with his opponents meticulously before they actually worked them, but when he was booked in a program against the Undertaker, the Phenom took affront to this approach.
This resulted in DDP portraying a strange stalker-like character whose subject of interest was Undertaker’s former wife, Sara. Needless to say, the Deadman squashed him and no one could take DDP’s run in the WWE seriously after that.
Mabel
Vince’s unhealthy obsession with size when determining which WWE Superstars to push saw a quite a few terrible workers get the nod ahead of more talented, smaller men. Ultimate Warrior, Kevin Nash, Lex Luger and even Hulk Hogan to be perfectly honest...were all beneficiaries of the boss’ inclination towards men who could fill out the screen rather than put on match worth watching.
Another Superstar who received the push for the same reason was the generously proportioned Mabel. He was booked to win the King of the Ring back when the tournament meant something, and subsequently placed in a feud against the Undertaker.
Unfortunately for Mabel, his size worked to his disadvantage when a leg drop on a downed Undertaker went horribly wrong and crushed the man’s orbital bone. Taker was put on the shelf for a couple of months and soon enough, Mabel was out of the WWE.
Not too hard to connect the dots.
CM Punk
CM Punk fell out with the WWE brass on many accounts, but one of the gripes that he vocalized rather strongly was how he wasn’t allowed to break the Undertaker’s streak at WrestleMania. On the surface, it may look like Punk was being entitled, but in truth, giving him the rub of the breaking the streak would have catapulted him into Austin-esque stratosphere – a scenario that was only beneficial to the company on the back of a dreary PG era dominated by John Cena.
Although there is no indication that the WWE were planning on letting Punk actually beat the Undertaker at Mania, what is certain is that the Deadman himself was against the idea. After all, Punk had abruptly dropped the World Heavyweight Title to him earlier on after failing to adhere to dress code befitting to a champion. Yes, you read that right.
Undertaker never warmed to Punk throughout his career, and going over him at Mania just signaled the beginning of the end of his WWE run.
Sim Snuka
Remember this spot? Then you’d also remember how Undertaker took a rather torrid fall, headfirst.
The cameraman, Sim Snuka, who had previously appeared on WWE programming as one-half of Deuce and Domino, was the one charged with the task of padding the Undertaker’s fall.
He was the son of legendary Hall of Famer Jimmy Snuka and the WWE had enough faith in him to give him a run with the Tag Team titles early on in his career. All hunky dory so far right?
Alas, he visibly botched the spot at WrestleMania 25 and the Undertaker had to deal with a concussion that almost cost him the match by count out. Understandably, the Deadman was furious at Snuka’s negligence and soon enough, he was released by the WWE.
Muhammad Hassan
Wrong place, wrong time and definitely wrong gimmick. The Muhammad Hassan character was a notorious Arab gimmick with shades of terrorism associated with it...and if that wasn’t edgy enough, he had (kayfabe, of course) orchestrated an attack on the Undertaker using men in ski-masks just days before the London terrorist bombings in 2005.
The TV networks were – naturally – scandalized and they asked WWE to immediately write the character off programming.
Who else to do the honours but the Undertaker. While we realize that squashing Hassan was a decision taken by Vince, he did engender backstage heat for his arrogant ways and from all accounts – being the custodian in the lockerroom – the Undertaker was only too happy to wield the axe.
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