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I attended the Undertaker one man show on Saturday afternoon at the Agora Theater in Cleveland, which was also where Sami Zayn performed the night before. (Undertaker made a few comments about getting "bumped" from his spot, and how he likes the night shows better)
The show was cell phone free, which was nice because it allowed for some more "risk free" moments, though you could tell he was still being careful about what he wanted to say at times. (Particularly when it comes to the current lifestyle of the talent, and also treading lightly about VKM, and almost hesitating to mention Jonny Ace at one point)
The show began with Undertaker running through the card for Summerslam and putting it over as a loaded show. He polled the audience to see who they liked in each match while also giving his opinions, notably saying how he thought LA Knight really needed the win or else he'd be dead in the water moving forward. He also put over Gunther and Priest, stated that "Liv was going to get destroyed" and figured there would be some chaos in both title matches.
He then talked about how everyone knows the Mania streak, but that his Summerslam record was far less impressive. (Take the time to look it up, you will surely agree). He told a fun story about Leslie Nielson spending that entire summer doing the "Where is the Undertaker?" vignettes, all for the big blowoff to be cut down to 5 minutes because Bret and Owen went long in that fantastic cage match.
Then, when he got to one of the worst matches, Taker and Kane vs. DDP and Kanyon, he brought out Kane, and they told a fun story of trying to get DDP and Kanyon over on the house shows, and it just wasn't happening. When it came time to have the big match at Summerslam, Taker asked Vince how he wanted the match to go, to which Vince replied "kill them." When he confirmed that he wasn't joking, he told Kane that "Vince says we have to f***ng kill them, so that's what we did." He then told a fun story about the one time Kane actually had too much to drink in Germany, and they each spoke highly about each other before Kane left.
From there, Undertaker called three fans up to do impressions, with the winners earning a signed program, a T-Shirt and first prize, a shot of Jack Daniels backstage with the Undertaker. He brought up Victoria as a guest judge, who was in the audience watching the show. She spoke highly of Undertaker as a father and a husband, and credited him with giving her the Black Widow moniker. Undertaker gave each contestant a scenario they had to respond to as their impression. The first was an AMAZING Steve Austin finding out he got an STD. The second was a Randy Savage trying to get customer service while being held back by a language barrier, and the third was another Randy Savage, who was told he had to put Hornswoggle over in 2/3 falls match. This guy had no idea what to do, then "went into business for himself" and talked about how he was just going to take the shot there and stage and DRANK RIGHT FROM UNDERTAKER'S BOTTLE OF JACK! I thought Taker was going to make this guy famous, but he no sold him and basically moved on. Very professional.
Finally, he did Q and A. Some highlights I remember:
*Best Batista match was Mania after they each potatoed each other. When they settled down, they were happy with the match, and Batista went backstage to Gorilla and screamed "FOLLOW THAT MOTHERF***ER!" To which Taker said "slow down big guy- Shawn hasn't even gone out yet."
*Dream opponent was Andre. Said in their brief time overlapping, Andre told him he wanted to work a program and had a great idea, but he never got healthy enough. Said he wouldn't tell him the idea, and also never told Tim White.
*Best feud as Mean Mark was "Ole Anderson!" (POP). When asked if he ever took back the "no one will pay to see you" comment, Taker said he never spoke to him again.
*A match he could change/redo was Brock at Mania, not because he lost, but because he was concussed and can't remember it, and wished he could have given a better match for such a meaningful moment.
*Asked if the streak ever became a burden, he said not the streak, but sometimes finding the right opponent, especially when it became as important as a title match. He even brought up how Vince wanted to have Kozlov beat him!
*Asked about an embarrassing moment, he told a story about slipping during Old School and crotching himself, and he was so embarrassed he didn't know what to do. Bruce Prichard as Brother love ran over to him and said "do it again, they will fix it in post" and it came out perfect on TV.
*Toughest opponent was HHH, Yoko or Brock. I think they person was expected like a Giant Gonzalez or Greak Khali answer but Taker took it another way.
*Gave a soon to be dad the advice of being present for your child.
At the end of the show, he wanted to salute the troops and first responders. Ended with a nice quote about good times, bad times, strong men and weak men. He stopped himself in the show from getting political, but couldn't stop himself from making an Undertaker/Kane 2024 comment, and a Kamala (wrestler) and Kamala (Harris) tongue in cheek comment, but it wasn't malicious.
Overall a great experience and I happy I went, and even happier I didn't witness Undertaker get arrested for giving the guy that drank his booze a tombstone.
Great Summerslam Saturday!
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