When it comes to the business of professional wrestling, there are few who respect the old school rules more than The Undertaker. He always does right by the business and ensures that he uses his considerable reputation to put younger talent over. Except not always.
Even The Deadman isn’t immune to taking a stand and saying no to putting over talent if he disagrees with the decision. These instances are few and far between, but there have been times where even Taker has buried talent (get it?).
There have been a variety of contributing factors which have led to the burial of the names on this list, and most of them have had to do with things going wrong rather than any personal grudges being held by The Phenom – he respects the business too much for that.
Today, we look at 5 such names who were not put over by one of the greatest wrestlers to ever step foot inside a squared circle. So, without any further ado, here is out list of 5 WWE Superstars that The Undertaker didn’t put over:
#5 Rob Van Dam
We star with a relatively tame one. Rob Van Dam came over to the WWE in the early noughties as an indie darling and looked destined for great things with the company. He won the Hardcore Championship and looked set to kick on to bigger and better things. One way for that would have been to get a win over The Undertaker who was in his heel Big Evil persona.
However, RVD ended up losing and dropping the Hardcore Title to Taker, instead. Presumably, this was done to set up a push for Maven who was next in line for a storyline with The Deadman, but there is no question that Van Dam was the more deserving of the two to get put over.
It didn’t really harm RVD in the long run though as he became one of the fan favourites of the Ruthless Aggression Era, but it's fair to say that The Deadman didn't really give him a hand.
Also read: The Undertaker: buried but not forgotten
#4 Heidenreich
Who here remembers Heidenreich, the overly muscled man with little to no wrestling ability? Well, he was hand picked for big things back in 2004 when he was put in a program with The Undertaker after costing The Deadman an opportunity to win the WWE Championship.
This was supposed to be the program that launched Heidenreich into the main event scene with an eventual Wrestlemania match against The Phenom, but things did not turn out that way for the former WWE Superstar. His lack of in-ring ability and promo skills were quickly exposed, and he looked well and truly out of his depth.
Taker quickly put a stop to any plans of a Mania match with Mr Heidenreich and buried him in a casket match at The Royal Rumble. The Deadman instead went on to face Randy Orton at that year’s Mania, in case you were wondering.
#3 Diamond Dallas Page
One of the major storylines for The Invasion angle involved a masked stalker targeting The Undertakers then-wife, Sara. The masked man was soon revealed to be none other than Diamond Dallas Page, who joined up with the rest of the invasion faction.
The perfect way to make it seem like the invasion was going right for the invaders would have been to have DDP win this feud and create an air of tension. Instead, he just lost to Taker, and that was that.
It remains one of the biggest missed opportunities despite the atrocious set up for the feud. A win for DDP could have been the spark to ignite The Invasion storyline, but it never happened, and we were all left quite unsatisfied with how things played out.
#2 CM Punk
When CM Punk and The Undertaker engaged in their feud, no one expected Punk to break The Streak, and that was quite alright. You don’t need to break The Streak to get put over by The Undertaker. Fans expected at least one victory for Punk, though.
Well, we did get one victory for The Cult of Personality...kind of. In a recreation of The Montreal Screwjob, Punk won but lost every other match in the feud and hence did not get over in any way, shape or form.
This was perhaps due to personal issues between the two men stemming from the fact that Punk had a problem with Taker after being told he had to dress and present himself in a better fashion since he was World Champion.
#1 Muhammad Hassan
Muhammad Hassan was in the midst of a monster push when he was paired up against The Undertaker and was supposed to go over The Deadman. Then the terrorist angle coincided with The London Bombings of 2005, and everything went to hell in a handbasket for Hassan.
He was soon pulled from TV and was buried by The Undertaker, never to be heard from again. It was a sad case of real-life issues dictating the results of an in-ring feud.
Send us news tips at [email protected]
What makes Sting special? His first AEW opponent opens up RIGHT HERE.
