Review for WWE The Undertaker's Deadliest Matches

This is an odd disk. It's not exactly a greatest hits and really should be called 'Undertaker's Stipulations'. The twenty matches includes Body Bag Matches, Coffin, Casket, Boiler Room Brawl, Buried Alive, Inferno, Concrete Crypt, Hell in a Cell, Last Man Standing, First Blood, Last Ride and Steel Cage. The matches included are themselves odd to say the least, not because of what they included (although they have decided on the awful Casket Match against Heidenreich, embarrassing Concrete Crypt Match against The Dudleyz an odd match against Bigg Daddy V and the dull Casket Matches against Kama and King Mabel), but more because of what they missed out. The fact that there is not one Shawn Michaels match (Considering they were involved in one of the best Hell in a Cell, Lumberjack and Casket Matches), but also the shock is that the Hell in a Cell against Mankind is missing. This match with the sight of Undetaker throwing Mankind from the top of the cell is possibly the most iconic moment in his career or from wrestling in general.

The other odd thing is the weird time lapses between matches with none from 1993, 1994, 1997, 2000-2003 and 2009. Surely he had a good match in these years, I can think of a half a dozen from 1997 alone. The inclusion of many of the vignettes to promote the matches are great and I forgot just how great the build to some matches, such as the ones against Mankind and Stone Cold. Though it would have been nice if they had been available to watch in full as an extra.

Of the matches here, none are totally unwatchable and there are some great classics here. The Body Bag match against the Ultimate Warrior is great, the infamous (though vastly overrated) Boiler Room Brawl against Mankind is (as I say) great though overrated. The set also includes the wonderful Buried Alive Match against Stone Cold, the Raw match against Big Show which is a shocker. His Hell in the Cell matches against Randy Orton and Edge are great to watch and he even manages to make a match against Batista watchable.

What this DVD highlights more than anything else, is just how much the WWE has changed since going PG. The sight of him covering Mr. Kennedy with blood, hanging Stone Cold from a symbol and the many other extreme moments on this set could never be done today and although that could be a positive, it also feels like a negative. The extremes of a character like The Undertaker (who is still in the company) can never be repeated and though I'm not suggesting that the blood and violence is needed, it's something that in moderation makes it more exciting. The Undertaker's Deadliest Matches is not the best set from him, but if you have all of his others it certainly compliments them enough for me to recommend it to you.