On HBK vs. the Undertaker, Wrestlemania 25

The WWE Network turned up a gem: HBK vs. the Undertaker at Wrestlemania 25 in 2008, smack in the middle of the epoch when I lost track of wrestling. We didn’t even have cable for a while there. HBK came down from above surrounded by heavenly white pyro and choir of angels music, exquisitely dressed in a white western outfit looking at first like a flamboyant man of God and then perhaps like God himself. He even said a prayer, which you know, because it’s HBK, was not just part of the act. The Undertaker roses up from beneath with fiery dark pyro, a massive floor of dry ice vapor sweeping across the ramp fo him to walk through like smoke, as always the sublime embodied symbol of the grim reaper. This was so different for an HBK match because there was no frivolity, no strutting around, no HBK hijinks. The entire match was dead serious. This played out like a mythological battle — Theseus and the minotaur, or some other battle one of the Argonauts would have gotten himself into. And HBK and the Undertaker sold it to the crowd as such – they were so dramatic! There were no ladders, tables, gratuitous acrobatics, or interference from the Authority or other wrestlers. This was top notch wrestling as narrative, old school wrestling for wrestling’s sake. I’ve begun to miss that in the era of Stephanie.

This joins Mankind vs. the Undertaker in pinnacle dark vs. light matches. And once again, the Undertaker won, and much of the crowd was cheering for him to maintain his perfect record for Wrestlemania wins, 17-0 at that time.