By Mike Grindle@MikeGrindle

Tales from The Vault: The Undertaker vs. Yokozuna Casket matches

It’s perhaps the most WWF/E-esc pair of matches ever conceived; a patriotic seven foot zombie battles an evil Japanese sumo wrestler (played by a man of Samoan heritage of course), in a feud that involved messiah-like ascensions, a famous Karate expert, about a dozen evil henchmen and a slew of 90’s special effects. While not the first casket matches and certainly not the best in-ring wise, Undertaker vs. Yokozuna’s two casket matches are perhaps the most memorable this unique type of match has ever produced.

Undertaker: Dead, Magical & Patriotic?

It’s 1993 and the WWF are building towards their big thanksgiving event, Survivor Series, where the biggest match on the card pits the patriotic All-Americans (Lex Luger, Tatanka and the Steiner Brothers) against the evil Foreign Fanatics (Yokozuna, Ludvig Borga, Quebecer Jacques and Quebecer Pierre, the latter of which is later replaced by Crush). Those damn scheming foreigners don’t play fair though, and they injure Tatanka before he can make it to the event, with Yokozuna delivering a pair of huge Banzai drops injuring his ribs. This leaves the All-Americans in need of a fourth partner, and thankfully for them, they find one in the Undertaker of all people. This is still many years before the Undertaker was known for being an ‘American badass’ though, and he seems an odd fit for the team. In a wonderfully naff moment however, the dead man cuts a promo reveals on how he is actually a huge patriot, and then proceeds to reveal the underside of his coat, showcasing the American flag lining within. On the night itself, it is the Undertaker/Yokozuna portion of the match that steals the show, with the Undertaker entering late in the match and taking the fight to the huge Yokozuna. Undertaker proves here he’s more than a match for sumo wrestler, though in the end both men get counted out (with Luger defeating Borga to pick up the win for his team). Following the PPV and his dominant showing on the night, the Undertaker would challenge Yokozuna, with the match being made into casket match soon after. In the weeks leading up to the Royal Rumble, we discover that Yokozuna is in fact terrified of caskets, and Paul Bearer and the Undertaker set about building one such casket big enough for a huge man like Yokozuna.

The First Match

On the night the Undertaker again proves to be the more dominant star early on, and he quickly has Yokozuna reeling. Yokozuna tries to use a steel chair as an equaliser, but this comes back in his face (literally) as the Undertaker blocks Yokozuna’s strike and ends up using the chair on him. Yokozuna’s old trusty salt comes in to play, blinding the dead man and allowing Yokozuna to get some offence in. Yokozuna manages to get the Undertaker halfway into the casket but then the Undertaker ‘springs back into life’ and after the second worst chokeslam you’ve ever seen (the worst being Undertaker’s chokeslam to Hulk Hogan many years later), and a DDT Yokozuna is in the casket. Before Undertaker can shut the casket however, out comes Crush to interfere. Undertaker soon fights off Crush, but then out comes the great Kabuki and Tenryu, then Bam Bam Bigelow and soon Adam Bomb, Jeff Jarrett, Samu, Fatu and Diesel are all out there too beating up on the Undertaker. You’d think at this point some faces will come to help, the Undertaker’s Survivor Series partners at least, but no they’re a bunch of two-faced cowards apparently. The rest of the match goes through a cycle of the Undertaker fighting off everyone, succumbing to the numbers and Paul Bearer using the Undertaker’s urn to give the Undertaker extra life to fight back again. Finally, Yokozuna grabs the Urn off of Bearer and strikes the Undertaker with it. Green smoke then starts coming out of the Urn as the heels take turns hitting aerial moves on the Undertaker, before finally placing him into the casket and shutting the lid. The match is officially over, and Yokozuna is still the champ. As the heels push the casket away however, the lights go out and an image of the Undertaker inside the casket appears on the Titantron, showing the Undertaker ‘returning to life’ once again. Undertaker cuts a foreboding promo on the men who attacked him, where he talks about an eternal spirit and warns them of his ‘rebirth’ and that he will not rest in peace. The image turns into a negative and scrolls up the screen. Undertaker (or in reality of course, someone dressed as the Undertaker) is then shown ascending above the Titantron and into the heavens. For its time this is actually quite a cool effect, although the whole thing gives off more of a risen messiah vibe, rather then something you might expect from a reaper of souls.

The Undertaker returns

The first Undertaker/Yokozuna match served multiple purposes; it wrote the Undertaker off TV for a while, allowing him to heal up from some nagging injuries, it created a marquee match to fill the space between Yokozuna vs Luger/Hart at mania, it got the Undertaker even more over as an indestructible force and it meant the Undertaker and Yokozuna had a feud set for Undertaker’s return. When the Undertaker did return however, rather than going straight after Yokozuna, we got the awful Undertaker vs. Undertaker’s copy match at Summerslam 94 (that is a whole different bag of crazy we’ll get into at some other point). After the Undertaker won that dud of a match and the WWF decided to put that feud to bed, he set his sights back on Yokozuna. Yokozuna had lost his WWF title at Wrestlemania to Bret Hart and in all truth his main event status was beginning to fade. Still what was going to stop the match being a repeat of last time, with all of Yokozuna’s buddies coming out to help? Well Chuck Norris of course!

The Rematch

Yes, everyone’s favourite Karate expert Chuck Norris, was brought in as the special enforcer to ensure Justice was served (As if things weren’t bizarre enough yet). Yokozuna is more petrified then ever of the Undertaker here, and while he does get his fair share of offence in, Undertaker springs back to life each time and following a lariat from the top rope, Yokozuna seems to be finished. King Kong Bundy and Bam Bam Bigelow then come out and have something of an awkward stand-off with Norris, this is just a distraction to let IRS attack the Undertaker from behind and take him out with a sleeper hold. Undertaker is left seemingly passed out in the casket, but just as Yokozuna goes to close the lid, he comes to life once again, choking out and then landing strikes on Yokozuna. Jeff Jerrat then makes an appearance and does the most wonderful oversell ever to a kick from Chuck Norris. Back in the ring the Undertaker hits a lariat, DDT and then a big boot to Yokozuna, knocking him outside of the ring and into the casket The Undertaker takes hold of Mr Fuji’s flag of Japan, snaps it in half and throws it into the casket with Yokozuna before shutting the lid for the win. Undertaker and Paul Bearer celebrate in the ring, while Norris continues to just stare blankly, probably still rather confused at what he just got himself involved with.

Worth watching back?

Undertaker and Yokozuna’s pair of casket matches came during a time when WWE’s focus was very much centred on the pre-teen audience, these were cartoon like main events that, outside of some brilliant Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart matches, reflected what the company was all about in 1993/94. That said, the sheer spectacle and bizarreness of the whole affair, especially the first match, is still quite the sight to behold, and anyone who hasn’t at least seen the Undertaker’s original “Rebirth” should look it up, if only for a chuckle.