7. What Was Big Show’s Phase Two?
via: comicbook.com
Remember when Undertaker was training Big Show as his protégé? That didn’t last very long, did it? In reality, The Undertaker suffered an injury and needed to take some time off, stalling the Big Show/Undertaker storyline right in its tracks. The two behemoths had formed a powerful alliance back in 1999 and were dominating the ranks as a tag-team; with the legendary Undertaker taking the relatively fresh Big Show under his wing as a “disciple of the dark arts.” Taker’s conditions were simple; if Big Show proved himself worthy of Taker’s time and energy, then the giant would graduate to Phase Two of the Undertaker’s teachings.
For better or worse, Phase Two never happened because The Undertaker took a leave of absence for nearly a year and returned as a completely remodified persona: the American Badass. While rumors of “leaked scripts” state that Phase Two of Big Show’s training would have included darker elements of magic and mysticism, no one knows for sure what would have happened had The Undertaker not been injured at the time.
6. Was The Undertaker Running From The Dark?
via: ytimg.com
Speaking of the American Bada*s, we all know why The Undertaker returned to WWE with an overhauled persona back in 2000; the company was slowly moving away from the bizarreness of the Attitude Era and began forming more realistic characters, and the Bada*s was a huge element of that movement.
But in terms of storyline, there was more to the American Bada*s persona than WWE led us to believe. For instance, before his Buried Alive match against Vince McMahon in 2003, The Undertaker taped a promo at a graveyard and explicitly stated that he deliberately kept away from the darkness for a reason, and never expected to return. The match itself would be his final appearance as Big Evil, and he would eventually return the as classic Undertaker at WrestleMania XX. In the early 2000s there were rumors about WWE wanting to highlight The Undertaker’s conflict with his darker persona as a way to explain his change in character but it just never happened. Apparently the real reason behind Taker’s drastic shift in character – something that was meant to be a major storyline – was shelved and never explained.
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