Gimmick Some Lovin': WrestleMania X8 No Disqualification Match

My Rating

Lil' Naitch is about to leave Toronto in an ambulance.

It's strange how matches from this era of Undertaker's career are often left out of coverage of "The Streak". Between a great brawl with Triple H at Wrestlemania X7, the bloody trainwreck here, and a match at Wrestlemania XIX that...happened...the biker period doesn't seem to get as much retrospective respect as the matches featuring Taker's otherworldly persona (for what it's worth, that XIX match at least deserves more love than the Giant Gonzalez match from Las Vegas).

Jim Ross makes a few mentions of Undertaker being unbeaten, but it would be at least another three years before that unbeaten streak would become a defining part of his Wrestlemania storylines; that's freeing, in a way, because one of the most frustrating things about latter Undertaker matches on the Grandest Stage are the near-falls toward the end where both Taker and his opponent seem amazed that someone could kick out of a finisher (despite this being post-Attitude Era wrestling where at least three finishers are needed to actually finish a match).

Undertaker's "how did he kick out of the Tombstone" face thankfully doesn't make an appearance, as it would in nearly all of Taker's remaining Mania matches.

That simplicity saves this contest; there are two finishers (three if you count the spinebuster), and the match doesn't overstay its welcome. The Undertaker pummels Flair like Hawk and Animal did in War Games, but the change in heel/face alignments adds an extra layer of enjoyment; the thunderous applause for Flair's old-school heel tactics foreshadows the Toronto crowd's later embracing of Hogan, which also, unfortunately, also overshadows this bout.

Ignore the commentary (it hasn't aged well; parts that were ill-advised at the time, like Jerry Lawler saying that "the Flair family tree could stand to lose a few branches" have rotted in the past 15 years) and enjoy a fun meld of Undertaker's hard-hitting biker heel approach with Flair bumping like it's 1986 all over again.

Not only is there a lack of coffee and snacks, but there's also Limp Bizkit, so Ric's in for a bad night.

The blood works and the violence aren't overdone. This isn't Flair-Steamboat or Undertaker-HBK, but it's still better than its status as relatively forgotten. It places well in its story and allows Flair to fight back with gusto without stretching believability by having Undertaker seem too vulnerable.

The pair makes the most of the stipulation, and it fits both the story (both characters have plenty of motivation to bloody their foe, and McMahon's evil intentions in making this one a No Disqualification match come to bloody fruition, although Flair's co-ownership would be reinstated, leading to the first WWE brand split later on), as well as the performers (neither of these men is capable of leaving anything in the locker room in late March or early April).

Mostly because of the surprise of how enjoyable this one turns out to be, I give the Wrestlemania X8 No Disqualification Match 8/10.

Meltzer Says

Dave gives this one a middling three stars, which suggests to me that he missed Double-A's spinebuster. However, that also puts it into a three-way tie for the highest rated match on the card (which might say more about Wrestlemania X8 than it does about this match).