WWE Legend Claims Iconic Match Was “Freaking Preposterous”
A former WWE World Champion didn’t enjoy an iconic match.
At WWF In Your House 11: Buried Alive, The Undertaker and Mankind contest the first Buried Alive match in company history.
After making his WWF debut on the night after WrestleMania XII, Mankind immediately set his sights on The Deadman. This saw the pair brawl at King of the Ring and SummerSlam in the first-ever Boiler Room Brawl.
At In Your House, it was The Undertaker who took victory, but he ended up getting buried alive after The Executioner, Goldust, Hunter Hurst Helmsley, Bradshaw, and Crush all got involved. The show went off the air with ‘Taker’s hand shooting back up out of the dirt to prove that he’d survive.
WWE Hall Of Famer Wasn’t Impressed
On the latest episode of the Something to Wrestle With podcast, Conrad Thompson and JBL looked back on that famous night in Indianapolis for the 30th anniversary of the show.
When it came to the main event and the unique match type, JBL held nothing back.
“I mean, this was a horrible idea. The whole thing was freaking preposterous.”
Despite his initial damning verdict, the veteran said that the match was still a success, but only due to the efforts of one man.
“No, it’s the power of The Undertaker 100%. It worked because of the Undertaker. I mean, the burial guy alive, and you see that hand coming up at the end, that place went crazy.”
JBL went on to recall his own involvement in the match, helping shovel dirt on The Deadman. He noted that the atmosphere in the arena shifted because fans thought they were witnessing something truly horrific.
“I was there, and you think, okay, no one’s going to believe you’re actually burying a guy alive. The fans were in shock and horror about this. They thought we were burying him alive. I mean, as crazy as that sounds, they thought we were putting a human being in the dirt and burying him alive.”
The Hall of Famer added that trying to fill the ‘grave’ using a gang of veteran wrestlers with shovels was also a “horrible idea.”
“The worst thing was we tried to bury them with f*cking shovels. I mean, watch the tape? We didn’t get a foot of dirt in that grave… Crush is so blown up at one point, he’s standing on his shovel and he’s yelling at the crowd… we’re so blown up, we have no chance of filling up this grave. We didn’t even get enough dirt in there to hardly cover up the casket or whatever the hell it was.
After this, they used the backhoe to fill the grave up because they realized trying to get a bunch of guys, a bunch of old wrestlers, to fill up a grave in a few minutes to end the pay per view. It ain’t happening. It was a horrible idea. I was so freaking blown up.”
The rivalry between The Undertaker and Mankind would continue on and off for almost another two years. Things eventually hit a very famous flash point at the 1998 King of the Ring inside, or rather on top of, Hell In A Cell.
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H/t to WrestlingNews.Co