With the WWE Survivor Series this weekend marking the 22nd anniversary of the Undertaker’s debut, we thought we’d take a look back at one of his best matches and one Chris Jericho considers the best of his career.
It didn’t take place at Survivor Series, but on Smackdown in Sheffield, England on November 10, 2009 in a non title match.
Remembering Chris Jericho’s Favorite Match Against the Undertaker
We’re used to remembering matches like these from pay-per-views or some other special occasion, so this was a treat for them and fans.
The titles were put on the line semi regularly during the late 90s and 2000s on their television shows, but in some cases the non title matches were just as spectacular.
The first
What makes this match extra special is it’s the first time the Undertaker and Jericho officially faced each other one on one without any other extracurriculars happening.
Jericho shared his thoughts on the match in his book, The best In the World. Special thanks to @awrestlinghistorian for the excerpt.
“We had a killer match due to our excellent chemistry, something we found out months earlier during our first singles match. It had been in Sheffield, England, the day after my thirty-ninth birthday and I’d tied one on badly the night before, spending most of the day on a couch in a dark room in the bowels of the arena. I set my iPhone alarm to not sleep through the show and felt like I was going to puke at any moment.
“A few hours later, Taker and I tore the house down in a match I consider to be one of the best of my career, and I even included it on my first WWE DVD. The fact that it took us over a decade to get a singles match together was like working in a coal mine for years and finding a was—that it was the proverbial night off to be in the ring with him.
“It was fun to reverse out of each other’s trademark moves, like me spin kicking him in the face as he hit the ropes to deliver his patented corner clothesline or reversing his Hell’s Gate (The Gogoplata, which morphed into the PooPoo Platter) submission into the Walls, which he then reversed into the PooPoo Platter and got the win when I tapped out.
“When I came back into Gorilla, Taker was sitting in a chair with a towel around his neck and a big goofy grin on his face. ‘That was awesome, man! Really fuckin’ great. Vince knows he has something with us.’ I was ecstatic that he’d enjoyed it so much and even more so when he gave me the biggest compliment possible. ‘I would work with you anytime, Chris.’ That was all I needed to hear from one of the greatest performers of all time.”
What do you think about their match? Did it live up to Jericho’s claims to you? Let us know in the comments below.
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