The Undertaker vs Diesel (WWF, 3-31-1996)

WWF WrestleMania XII, Anaheim, CA

This is a request via Ko-fi. Diesel had cost Undertaker the WWF title at the Royal Rumble, and Undertaker cost Diesel the WWF title at In Your House in February. It was time to settle things, a big grudge match.

The fight starts hot with Diesel coming at Undertaker, face-to-face, and the two trade shots. Diesel with a whip to the corner, big clothesline follows, then a back elbow. Whip to the other side, Taker gets his boot up on a charging Diesel and then hits a clothesline, followed by an elbowdrop that misses.

Diesel clotheslines Taker over to the floor, but Taker yanks him out to the floor and lands a series of uppercuts to the ribs. Diesel throwing shots back. Diesel’s head sent into the steps. Taker crawls back into the ring, met with a boot from Diesel. Uppercut from Undertaker when Diesel makes the cardinal mistake. Undertaker goes for the tombstone, Diesel slides down, Taker off the ropes, ducks a clothesline and hits a crossbody for two.

Undertaker with the arm wringer, right hand to the shoulder, and now up for what would later become Old School. Boot to the gut from Taker, jumping clothesline or … something misses and Taker crashes to the mat. Taker on the apron, snaps Diesel’s neck down over the top rope.

Taker with a right hand thrust, Diesel falls over the top rope but lands on his feet. Undertaker gets a chair, swings it, but Diesel ducks and the chair hits the ringpost. Diesel with a knee to the gut, whips Taker into the guardrail. Diesel breaks the count, then goes back out. Bearhug and he drives Taker into the ringpost. Scoops him up and drives him into the post again.

Diesel stalks Paul Bearer. Taker slow to get back into the ring, where he finds Diesel waiting for him. Off the ropes, Taker runs into a big boot. Diesel saunters around the ring, taunting Undertaker to get back up. Big right hand from Diesel puts Taker back down. Another clubbing right. Crowd chanting “rest in peace” for Undertaker.

Diesel hits snake eyes in the corner, a move Undertaker would later adopt himself. Running rope assisted Mike Enos from Diesel. Diesel with a slow pace, driving knees into Taker’s ribs in the corner. Big clubbing forearms from Undertaker. “If the Undertaker’s hair gets any longer, he’s gonna look like Crystal Gayle,” Lawler says randomly.

Taker fighting back now, but they both land rights at the same time, and then both throw big boots at the same time. Both men down. Bearer cries out, “The power of the urn!” and Undertaker sits up. Diesel right after him, and standing first. Axhandle shot from behind from Diesel, Taker sent off the turnbuckles in the corner, and right into a bearhug, which I hear is the worst move in all of professional wrestling.

Undertaker finally breaks out of the bearhug, but Diesel grabs a side headlock. Undertaker twists him around into a back suplex. Taker up first, but wobbly. He drops an elbow, doesn’t go for the cover. Back up, still wobbly, and now Taker goes up top. Flying clothesline hits!

Taker slow to capitalize, goes for the cover, gets two. Taker commits the cardinal mistake, Diesel smashes him in the back, JACKKNIFE POWER BOMB! Diesel swaggers around and leans on the top rope, catching his breath. Diesel points at Taker and shakes his head, smiling. Diesel kicks at Undertaker’s lifeless body, but Undertaker sits up, which is what Diesel wants. Clubbing forearm to the back, and Diesel wants another jackknife. He hits it!

Diesel again doesn’t cover, he’s confident that it’s over and that he can make this stylish along with dominant. Still no cover as Diesel moves around Taker’s body. He drops down to cover, but gets caught with the GOOZLE. Diesel pummels his way out. Another GOOZLE. Diesel firing right hands, again it’s broken. ANOTHER GOOZLE. This time Undertaker’s sitting up, getting back to his feet.

Taker with the choke, but Diesel swipes the arm away and hits a back suplex. Taker sits up behind Diesel, and Diesel turns around to a surprise. But he charges in with a couple shots. Taker back with a series of punches. Taker’s whip reversed, he ducks a clothesline and hits the high jumping clothesline!

Chokeslam from Undertaker! Not the prettiest you’ll ever see, but effective. Lawler is scared. Diesel struggles back to his feet — TOMBSTONE! One. Two. Three.

Rating: 3.5/5. I’ve always really enjoyed this match. They had a good story coming in, they both worked their assess off at WrestleMania, and it made for a really good co-feature to the Hart-Michaels main event. I also like Nash more than a lot of people do. I don’t know, I just always found him very Cool. He was a Cool Guy. And I especially like(d) him as a heel, all arrogant and physically imposing and suave. This is also Undertaker’s first actual good WrestleMania match; after years of wrestling guys like Jimmy Snuka and Jake Roberts in squashes, then Giant Gonzalez and King Kong Bundy, he got something more substantial, and the time to make a match. Nash was on his way out, but he didn’t dog it his last couple months in the WWF, either. He’d have the best match of his career, arguably, at the next In Your House, putting over new champ Shawn Michaels. And Undertaker would enter into a feud with the newly arrived Mankind, where his career really started changing for the better.