Board 8 > Do you like this character? Day 1536: The Undertaker (WWE)

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'd say Taker was average in ring, below average on the mic, but with great presence.

The presentation of the character is what was truly great, and Taker had a really good look and a cool sounding voice. That's what carried everything imo.

Good matches are nice to have. Presence is a requirement

I think his presence and character work elevated a career with a lot of meh ring work and promos, and some standout matches to firmly "good" even if yeah he had a lot of bad stuff there (even though I'd say most of the truly bad stuff was before the attitude era)

I think it's all under the same umbrella though. Taker having a compelling character MADE matches and promos better. I think it's dumbing down wrestling as an artform to just try and isolate the character from these things entirely.

Now if you hated the character it becomes harder to say this guy was good in the ring or on the mic but at that point you're not really trying to be objective about it and it's just your preferences. The character was legendary and his performance at it was legendary.

Which I mean you can absolutely say no in spite of this, this topic series has nothing to do with being objective. I'm just taking umbrage with him being called "bad in the ring"-- he probably shouldn't really be considered that by any objective measure that is taking the total package into play.

This isn't to say every wrestler with a strong character is automatically good in the ring as a result. Like Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior had incredible characters but were that much worse in ring than Undertaker so couldn't be helped most of their matches were bad anyway.

I just think discarding it entirely shouldn't be done either. There's more to good matches than workrate

Taker is spooky Goldberg.

MarkS2222222222 posted...

Good matches are nice to have. Presence is a requirement

Taker's got so much presence that I could watch full episodes A.P. Bio during his ring entrances at Wrestlemania and not miss anything.

Maniac64 posted...

Taker is spooky Goldberg.

I'm pretty close to agreeing with this. I think Undertaker is a bit better in ring characters out of the equation but it's a decent comparison

I would say Goldberg is definitely at least slightly good in the ring in the sense that you want to watch his stuff cause his character makes it fun, which is basically what Taker is at his core.

You can't do that Goldberg / Brock match with just anyone.

Yes