Gimmick Some (Wrestlemania) Lovin': Hall of Pain Edition

The Match

Death itself flies straight into the Hall of Pain.

For starters, finding this in the Wrestlemania broadcast lets you sit through the heavily-edited end to Mickie James vs. Trish Stratus, and a McMahon family prayer summit in preparation for Vince's clash with Shawn Michaels, and nowhere is the stark difference between 2018 WWE and 2006 more apparent.

Druids straight out of your local pop-up Halloween store struggle to manoeuvre the casket down to ringside as generic chanting plays before Henry highlights just how great his Three-Six Mafia theme is by entering to generic sludgy nu-metal guitar riffs.

Undertaker is aided by the powers of fog, flame, and awful CGI lightning; the stark contrast here between entering Wrestlemania in a normal arena and his later stadium spectaculars is on full display. It's a great deal more than his usual pay-per-view entrances but doesn't feel Wrestlemania like his later productions would.

One of many futile attempts by Big Evil to put The World's Strongest Man down.

Henry attacks as Undertaker disrobes and controls with the generic big-man offence; Undertaker tries to knock the World's Strongest Man over but gets clotheslined, choked, and guillotined on the second rope for his efforts. The story is Henry controlling with heavy forearms, headbutts, and chokes, while Taker occasionally tries to gain control and fails mightily.

After blocking Henry's first attempt to put him in the coffin, Undertaker nails Old School on his second try but gets dispatched again with a Henry STO. The Hall of Pain tries another guillotine but slides directly into the casket, and the two men brawl there. The image of two 300+ pound men brawling in a casket is an interesting visual but doesn't provide the best wrestling action.

Very cool as a picture, not so great as wrestling goes.

Undertaker attempts a flying cross body, which Henry counters with a World's Strongest Slam; Henry pulls a Tully Blanchard and forgets that pinfalls do not count before pushing Undertaker into the casket where the Deadman miraculously recovers.

Undertaker brings all of Chicago to its feet by improvising the Last Ride Powerbomb (albeit a sloppy one) to counter a ten-punch in the corner, then flies over the ropes, the refs, and the casket with a plancha to the floor before rolling Henry back into the ring for a Tombstone. It's academic at this point that Henry is rolled directly into the coffin at this point, which closes with no fight from Sexual Chocolate.