There are moments from the Undertaker and Mankind scattered throughout this day in wrestling history moments, and it just shows how big an impact their feud had on fans.
It’s hard to point to a feud that was more fun and went to the highest levels they took it, and it wasn’t supposed to happen.
To be honest, Mick Foley was never meant to or supposed to succeed in the WWE. He was most likely going to be a dark mid card character (Mankind) and maybe a few others.
But his feud with the Undertaker changed that and propelled him into the stratosphere as they broke boundaries and new ground. The first ever buried alive match took place in the In Your House pay-per-view series on October 20, 1996.
Going deep
Since this was the first time doing a match of this nature, there had to be a few snags they had to work through, and Mick Foley explained some of the details. Involved.
Special thanks to @awrestlinghistorian for the excerpt.
“Coming off the heels of Mind Games, I was pumped for my next Pay-Per-View engagement. This time a main event with The Undertaker called Buried Alive. The goal was simple: Take your opponent from the ring to the graveyard, which was located by the entrance, and bury him alive. Now obviously, no one was really going to die, but we had ourselves a Hell of a match anyway.
“I actually lost the match after being partially buried, but with a little help from Terry Gordy as The Executioner was able to put The Dead Man in the ground.
“At one point, the office wanted me and Terry to fill the hole by ourselves, but I thought the prospect of filling a six-foot-by-four-foothole with two guys might be a little unrealistic. As it turned out, my intuition was wise because not only was I exhausted from wrestling for twenty minutes, but my partner, The Executioner, was filling the hole in the same manner that a cat covers up poop in a litter box. Thankfully, every bad guy in the company helped out, and even with all that help, we still only got the hole half filled. Then, dramatically, a lightning bolt hurtled through the audience and struck the grave, and The Undertaker’s gloved hand broke through the earth as Jim Ross yelled, “He’s alive! He’s alive!” as we went off the air.” – Mick Foley, Have A Nice Day book.
This was one of the most memorable matches I can remember, and it was so awesome to see the Undertaker’s hand come through at the end and it was perfect with Halloween right around the corner.
We do have to issue one correction and all due respect to Mick Foley, but it wasn’t Jim Ross Announcing the match but Vince McMahon. McMahon was an awesome announcer, as was Eric Bischoff in the beginning of WCW Nitro.
It doesn’t take away from this day in wrestling history, and this is one of those matches we never get tired of rewatching.
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