Battle of the Gimmicks Prelims #3: The Undertaker

I thought this could be quite fun. Every few days I will post a thread for a wrestler and you must vote on which is their better gimmick. There will be 32 wrestlers in total and these 32 chosen gimmicks will go through to a bracket style tournament. Where we will crown the greatest gimmick of all time.

And our third pick shall be...

Mark Calaway AKA Undertaker

Undertaker has had many persona's during is career, but which one do you prefer.


The Undertaker (Original 1990-1994)

The Deadman (1994-1997)

The Ministry of Darkness

The American Bad Ass

The Phenom (2004-)

Now I don't just want you to vote. I want a reason for your vote. I want to hear your opinions. So I will tally up posts with votes. If there are more votes than comments then they not count. So to make your vote valid I need a reason for your picks. You don't have to write loads but something more than saying "Mankind" and nothing else. Etc...

I will start off and make my pick.

I choose.. The Phenom (2004-)

The Undertaker is like Shawn Michaels in that I feel the best part of his career was the latter half. His return to fight Kane was pretty awesome and to be honest I think his biker gimmick was starting to wear thin.

In the following years eh was known for his yearly feuds to push starts to greater highlights including Orton, Kennedy, Punk, JBL, Batista and more…

But during this time his legacy was Wrestlemania. Before it was just a streak but now it was an ATTRACTION at Mania. He just had to compete and we couldn’t wait to see who would take on the streak. He had a number of decent matches with Orton, Batista and Edge before he truly showed why he is a legend. By holding back to back epic matches with HBK which can both be put in the frame as greatest Mania match.

In my opinion Undertaker has done his best work since returning as The Phenom.

So that's what I think, what do you all think?

Not to nitpick, I'd think that 1990-1996 would all be one character while late 1996-1998 would be another one since that's when he altered his style a good deal.

The main difference between 1992 Taker and 1995 was just different colored gloves.

I'm a Phenom guy.

I am CERTAINLY not an American Badass guy. I understand why he took that turn to become a Face, but I wasn't keen on the gimmick. Got boring very quickly I thought, and a bit of a Diesel rip off, which is never good for someone as great as Taker.

Phenom for me, best work with his career, albeit that has a lot more to do with the opponents hes fought.

Phenom gimmick I think wins out for me. I just didn't buy his American Badass gimmick, really didn't find any enjoyment and it got really boring really quick there. His MoD reign was interesting but nowhere near his original Undertaker/Deadman and his Phenom gimmick runs. Just in my mind the Phenom has the overall best match quality with the likes of JBL, HBK, Orton, Edge, etc... be it more so the quality of his opponents I think. Either way my favorite wrestler of all my time since I started watching wrestling 25 years ago, no matter the gimmick.

I understand why everyone's picking The Phenom Gimmick, but I'm going for American Bad Ass. While he wasn't as scary as he is now, I just loved the gimmick.

The bike, the interaction, the theme, everything.

Taker's my all time favorite wrestler and I love every phase/gimmick of his career but I have to go with The Ministry version just cause I really loved that angle til it all went to ****. Match wise Phenom era is better but gimmick alone I prefer Ministry.

The thing that sticks out to me from my childhood was Bad Ass Undertaker. I loved his gimmick, his persona, his bike, the Brothers of Destruction, everything.

Seeing as how I didn't really start watching wrestling until around late-mid 1998, and around that time he had The Ministry thing going on so I'll go with that one.

Don't get me wrong I love all the incarnations of the character, but I just really liked him in the Ministry. I loved that robe he wore during his promos, the theme music he had at that time was awesome(quite possibly my favorite Taker theme ever). There's one thing I'll always remember with Ministry Taker, and that was his feud with Austin. That was just such an epic feud with so many great moments.

Like I said before I love all of the incarnations of him since he's one of my all time favorites, but Ministry takes it for me.

american badass verison for me thats the taker that made me a fan of him.

The reason I ever got into watching wrestling was because of The Undertaker's appearance in Survior Series 1990. I mean, I remember watching that match & just thinking this guy is unstoppable. I was young & immpressionable & I loved it. My only source for WWF matches was old VHS' that my local video store rented & I immediately rented every VHS with The Undertaker on it. I appreciate every gimmick he has had over the years, & I've never thought Taker has ever been dull. Even in his old age, he is still able to bring the moments time after time. But I really cannot compare anything to the first time he broke into the business. His match with Hulk Hogan & Ric Flair still make me remember how dominating he was. For as long as I live those moments will always be the wrestling moments I remember most vividly.