Gimmick Some Lovin': WrestleMania X8 No Disqualification Match

The Match

This is the least bloody image from this match. Enjoy that while it lasts.

There's a lot to enjoy in this match, if you can get over the guilt of enjoying it; after watching Flair's documentary and seeing the latter (and more violent) portions of his career portrayed in a sadder light, the image of an older bloodied Naitch is a bit harder to take than it was at the time.

Yes, this match is bloody. The juice flows early and amply, and everybody save referee Charles Robinson wears the crimson mask by the final bell (including Anderson, who makes a run-in for possibly the single greatest spinebuster in this century). Taker gets a cut on his cheek and responds like "You made me bleed my own blood" Simpsons bully Nelson Muntz, battering his blonde nemesis in the announcer area (however, Flair fights back with fists of his own, much to the absolute delight of the men sitting front row).

Double-A hits this spinebuster, but Triple H still has the nerve to think he can do his in the main event.

Ric's hair was made for blood, and this was before it began thinning in a near-overnight transition from silver fox to the old man about a year after this match. He calls to mind his bout with "Macho Man" Randy Savage from a decade before, bleeding profusely through poufed-up locks for much of the contest; this time, however, his theatrical selling was designed to garner sympathy rather than heel heat.

Whether due to nostalgia or Undertaker's evil actions (or a mixture of both), Flair is positively revered in the Skydome. He cuts his own entrance short to attack the Deadman to thunderous applause, and his chops grab "Woooo" chants which are deafening even from the couch (also, unlike the Road Warriors and Nikita Koloff, Undertaker's torso is not impervious to Flair's palms).

Undertaker, meanwhile, embraces his heel role with gusto, breaking up at least two of his own pinfall attempts and grinding a forearm into Flair's bloodied forearm until Taker's own limbs were a solid red. He breaks out some spectacular big moves made only more fantastic by the massive setting; my favourite thing about Mania's pre-smartphone stadium era is the explosion of tens of thousands of flashbulbs greeting a top-rope superplex and guillotine legdrop.

Immediately in between great Flair theatrics and more murder is one of the best Undertaker situps you'll ever see.

Those are great visuals, but the crowd brings a next-level aura with their reactions to Flair's valiant attempts to fight back. Flair interrupts a chokeslam attempt with a swift kick to Undertaker's yard, grabbing a massive reaction topped only by a bloodied Flair "Nature Boy" vamping this way through a Figure Four Leglock.

That sets up the finish rather elegantly; Undertaker is too exhausted, and his leg too pained, to fully lift Naitch into a Last Ride powerbomb attempt, so he thinks better of it and spins Flair into a Tombstone Piledriver, which hadn't been seen in years, making the crowd temporarily forget that Undertaker is the heel.

Fun fact: after this spot, Undertaker has a massive pool of blood on his leather pants, which is a simultaneously amazing and disgusting visual.

The Tombstone, of course, gets the three. Robinson goes to lift Taker's hand for the ceremonial victory pose, but Undertaker absolutely murders him with a clothesline while I pause writing this article to email the 2K development team to ask when this will finally be an option in the games. Leaning against the ropes, he then counts to ten on his fingers, but The Streak at this point is more trivia than a character-defining trait.