WRESTLING COLUMNS

October 1997 Bad Blood PPV The Undertaker v Shawn Michaels in the Hell in the cell. The Hell in the Cell was a first in the WWF never seen before and rarely seen since and its main purpose was to keep anyone from entering and anyone from exiting. During the match however Michaels did escape but this is not about Hell In the Cell this is about Kane. For weeks Paul Bearer had threatened The Undertaker with a promise that his brother Kane would return, as far as Taker knew Kane was dead and Bearer was bluffing, but Bearer was insistent that Kane was coming and he was coming after The Undertaker. The end of the match against Michaels and Michaels was out of it, Taker gave the signal for The Tombstone and Takers vengeance was nearly complete. Michaels had cost The Undertaker the WWF title at Summerslam when he inadvertently hit him with a steel chair in his title match against Bret Hart, Michaels was the referee for that match and was forced to make the three count under threat of suspension if he called the match unfairly and Taker had been after revenge for months. After countless ambush attacks by Michaels and the other Members of Degeneration X the World Wrestling Federation concocted the Hell In The Cell to keep them out. As The Undertaker gave the signal for the Tombstone the lights went out and The Arena was filled with the music of a church organ. What the hell was going on, with this feud between D-X and The Undertaker the issue of Kane was second thoughts on the mind of the fans but when the organ played the attention of everyone was turned to the entrance. Who was this coming down the entrance way, he was huge, a seven footer was heading to the ring accompanied by the maniacal Paul Bearer we couldn't see any details all there was to see by was Red lighting. It must have been, no it couldn't be, had Bearer been telling the truth, was it Kane. This monster walked towards the Cell with Taker stood inside Shawn Michaels lying motionless and he ripped the door from the cell. As he stood toe to toe with his Brother the sheer size of this man was apparent for al to see, he was taller, he was bigger and he was scary. As Kane and The Undertaker stared at each other for more than 30 seconds a feeling of anticipation filled the Arena, The Undertaker looked perplexed, he couldn't believe what he was seeing, it was Kane, the brother he thought was dead, he'd not seen him for twenty years, how could he explain this. Kane stood motionless, staring at his brother and suddenly he begun to lift his arms, and then, boom Kane dropped his arms and all four ring posts exploded shooting Flames from each Turnbuckle and light once again filled the arena. Kane kicked The Undertaker in the stomach and picked him up onto his shoulder and delivered the most devastating Tombstone Piledriver we had ever seen in the WWF. It was more fierce, it was quicker and it left The Undertaker motionless. Kane left the ring and disappeared to the back, Michaels made the cover and we left the air. The next few weeks were explosive as Kane came out every single week and laid out an innocent victim, time after time threatening The Undertaker with more innocent victims unless he faced Kane and Taker continually refused to face his brother. The Headbangers tried to fend themselves, smashing their boom box over his head, but it didn't faze him and they both ended up out cold on the mat. Eventually Taker did come to the ring to try and reason with his brother but he ended up in the same way as all the others, beat down and out cold. This was amazing; we had never seen The Undertaker dominated this way, not even by Mankind. We were in awe we couldn't believe this was our Phenom being destroyed in such a way, what the hell was going to happen next? January 1998 was not a good month for The Undertaker, the week before The Royal Rumble it seems as though the two brothers had made a truce pact raising their hands to each other in their own personal style. But a week later at the Rumble Kane did the most horrifying thing to his brother. During The Undertakers Match against Shawn Michaels, a casket match, Kane helped Michaels retain the title and stuffed The Undertaker in to the casket and before the entire world set alight to the casket. This was shocking, as the whole world looked on Paul Bearer and Kane laughed and laughed as The Casket containing The Undertaker burned. After that, the Undertaker vanished from the Federation for over a month. In February, Taker finally returned much to the surprise of Kane and Paul Bearer. For months, the Undertaker had vowed he would never fight his brother, but upon making his return that February, the Undertaker said he would indeed face off against Kane for the very first time at WrestleMania XIV. At WrestleMania XIV, the Undertaker took on Kane for the first time. The older brother prevailed in the match, as he tombstoned Kane three times for the win. The Undertaker had won the first of the battles to come. At Unforgiven In Your House, Taker and Kane battled once again, this time in an Inferno Match. The Idea of the Inferno match was that the only way for an opponent to win was to set the other on fire. In this match, the Undertaker actually set his younger brother on fire to earn the win. Kane certainly had flashbacks of his childhood disaster, but this time, the Undertaker didn't feel bad for him. The brothers would again butt heads on the June 1, 1998 episode of RAW, in a match which would determine the No. 1 contender for the World Wrestling Federation Championship. Kane won the match and headedto King of the Ring to face Stone Cold Steve Austin in a First Blood Match for the title. Kane vowed that if he didn't win the title, he would set himself on fire and breathe his last breath! Despite the tension between them, Undertaker vowed he wouldn't let that happen, and at King of the Ring, it was the Undertaker's chairshot to Stone Cold that would help his brother become Federation Champion even though Kane lost the title back to the Rattlesnake the next day! They say that blood is thicker than water, but Mr. McMahon would soon prove that money is thicker than blood, as the Federation chairman emptied his pockets to the brothers to get the title away from Austin. The two brothers were now on the same page, and at the Breakdown Pay-Per-View in September 1998, the two brothers took the championship from Stone Cold in a Triple Threat Match. But with no clear champion decided (both men pinned Austin for the title at the same time), a match was made between the two brothers at Judgment Day the next month to determine the clear champion. When no winner was announced there, the brothers faced off in the second round of the Deadly Game Tournament at Survivor Series 1998. The Undertaker picked up the win after Paul Bearer turned his back on Kane and rejoined the Phenom! From there, the Undertaker and Kane would drift apart a bit. The Undertaker was in the midst of forming the Ministry of Darkness, while Kane was more concerned with defending his and X-Pac's Tag Team Championship. At SummerSlam 1999, the Undertaker and the Big Show took the Tag Titles from Kane and X-Pac. The Undertaker walked out of the Federation in September 1999 and didn't return until May 2000. Upon his return, he and Kane seemed to be tight. The reunion seemed complete. But Kane again turned on his brother. These men have proven time and time again that when they are in the ring there is a war. Taker goes for a ride at the hands of his brother. But at the beginning of this year something strange was happening the brothers seemed to be on the same page, surely not, they were not reuniting were they, after everything that had happened, YES THEY WERE. At the Royal Rumble this year we saw the brothers of destruction unite and form one of the most devastating teams in the History of the WWF. On Raw on the 23rd of April 2001 they became the WWF tag team champions only to lose the titles again the following week at the monthly pay-per-view Backlash. Another split for these two monsters is on the cards and when they do expect there to be an explosion and some more incredible matches. The Undertaker: [Profile] - [Image Gallery] Kane: [Profile] - [Image Gallery] Brothers of Destruction: [Profile] - [Image Gallery] wrote: wrote: