Taker sucking… Then not sucking so much…
By Scott Keith on 29 September 2014
Scott,
I was just watching summerslam 2000 which featured the hundredth lame, pace less taker/Kane matchup. Throughout the early 2000s, Taker was such a drain to watch- slow, unmotivated, refusing to sell for smaller guys, working an outdated style and by all accounts protecting the hell out of his spot backstage, arguably to the detriment of the up and coming next generation of talent. The Kurt Angle job at fully loaded springs to mind in particular. Fast forward a few years, taker suddenly seems a hundred times more motivated, working that pseudo mma style he developed and putting newer talent over. Do we know when or how this change began? Was there any talk in the dirt sheets about a change in attitude?
Cheers,
Joe
There seemed to be a combination of things, but mostly it was the change in style to the MMA-patterned offense where he only busted out the high-impact stuff on an occasional basis. Plus being the Wrestlemania guy really seemed to invigorate him, knowing he could go all out one time and then take a bunch of time off to recover. I think probably the Kurt Angle match in 2006 and then the Batista match at Wrestlemania were the true turning points, but it was pretty gradual from the low point of 2000-2002.