Vince wasn't a fan, we wouldn't see it again. But, it was something different, pretty cool gimmick yeah. John should take something from that and go with a huge character change.
Would be fun for one day maybe. I still think the Undertaker character is going - there will be one more moment of the lights going out and that gong ringing. After he's almost "Retired" I'd like to see it though.
Sure it wasnt his greatest gimmick, but at the time when it was the end of the attitude/ beginning of ruthless aggression era I think it suited more for that time. Not sure how the dead man character would have worked, especially facing off against brock.
It worked and was "over", but I never wanted to buy into it. I couldn't stand seeing Taker entering the arenas on a motorcycle along with Kid Rock/Limp Bizkit music.
Loved it. Wouldn't bring it back but loved it. Found him really entertaining in promos back then, the last 10 years I've kind of hated his character, felt like quite an empty version of Taker. Didn't ever really seem to decide what it wanted to be, not dark enough to be Ministry Taker, not weird enough to be zombie Taker, but not talking enough to be the kind of "real life" persona of ABA/Big Evil. Was something different, but without much padding as a gimmick. Guess you could say by then he was a bonafide legend and didn't need one but still.
Saying that some of his matches have been the best of his career in the most recent gimmick with Angle, Punk, HHH and HBK. When he was the American Badass he had some flat out terrible matches and I can't remember a plethora of great ones. Would have loved to have combined the two at some stage, Takers match quality from the last 10 years, but paired with the ABA gimmick.
TBH though, I'd only want him to bring it back if he came back full-time (Which we all know isn't gonna happen). His Dead Man gimmick works better for part-time appearances IMO.
You can dislike the ABA gimmick all you want, but at least he did something Cena is either too scared to do, or simply refuses to do ... re-invent himself
(and don't give me this "Vince wouldn't allow it" crap, if Cena went to him and wanted to re-invent himself, Vince would do it)
I really enjoyed American Badass/Big Evil Taker, it was a fresh change. He could have stayed as the Deadman but he took a chance and evolved with the times. If you look at his whole run from his debut up to 2003, you could see he was changing over time, looking less like a zombie, he became more vocal, spoke less haunting by 1997. In 1999 he started wearing bandannas signalling a change, it worked perfectly. He became an extension of himself, I remember I was shocked when he showed up with short hair after he turned heel, it was something cool and worked. It fit with the times.
Do I want to see it again? No but I enjoyed seeing him ride to the ring on his cool Motorcycles, it was different but I'd prefer him to stay as the Deadman until the end of his career now.
He had already made the transition to ABA Undertaker before he took time off, to be honest his ABA character fitted him more for the early 00's period. He was also the first person in WWE to use theme music from an actual recording artist, that was groundbreaking.
Great responses guy, seems most people like me loved it.
I thought it was awesome and like i said before and so have other, it was perfect for that era.
I like the idea of him mixing the 2, maybe be the dead man with a hat and long black cloak but ride in a motorcycle from death like a demon or skeleton style from hell.
But this is why he survived as he was able to keep re inventing himself, like other have mentioned cena has only changed once.
Cena needs to change soon, really before its too late. In fact it probably is too late.
But yh the ABA BE was the shit
Look at suck ass cena crap his shorts
And this fight with brock and heyman is classic, pure gold
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