(Almost) 5-Star Match Reviews: Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker – WWE SummerSlam 2015

“I WILL KILL YOU!” – Brock Lesnar. “YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE TO!” – The Undertaker.

Who needs longwinded promos with recycled verbiage conjured up by unenthusiastic writers when you can tell an entire story and sell an entire arena out with those two simple phrases?

The last time Brock Lesnar faced The Undertaker the two men had a shitty match that, despite its shocking conclusion, had a deflating effect on the atmosphere. Part of that was due to the combination of underwhelming hype and a bad performance stemming from an in-match injury that neither guy really managed to overcome or work around in the moment. But that was a bad note to end things on, which is why Undertaker came back to try and finish his feud with Lesnar on a much higher note. But could he?

The Story

This was almost a year-and-a-half in the making. Lesnar ended The Undertaker’s WrestleMania Streak in underwhelming yet still shocking fashion. To this day that win is arguably the most talked about, revisited, and memorable moments in modern wrestling. It’s up there with the Montreal Screwjob and WrestleMania X-Seven with Steve Austin shaking hands with the devil as a moment that creates tons of discussion debate, and discourse. And from there Lesnar’s stock only went up.

Lesnar was already a guaranteed Hall of Famer who had a special aura and magnetism about him. Even if his appearances were few and far between and his actual matches weren’t as deep or complex as they were when he was a rookie, he was still presented as a once-in-a-lifetime specimen. So after ending The Streak, Lesnar went on a warpath. He mopped the floor with John Cena – WWE’s unstoppable golden boy – at Summerslam 2014. He became a part-time wrestler that fall and basically said ‘FUCK YOU’ to critics and naysayers for him appearing less because he was worth every penny and more for the company. It took John Cena and Seth Rollins briefly putting their differences aside to try and stop him at the 2015 Royal Rumble but those efforts failed. And as if Lesnar dominating both Cena and Rollins by himself wasn’t impressive enough, there was one spot in that match where he German suplexed both Joey Mercury and Jamie Noble at the same time, one in each arm. I defy you to find me anyone else in modern wrestling who is able to exude such exceptional badassery by manhandling smaller people around him so effortlessly.

Anyway, Lesnar lost the WWE title at WrestleMania 31 but only because Seth Rollins cashed in his MITB briefcase and turned a singles match into a triple threat match. Naturally Lesnar wasn’t happy about losing and decided to take out his frustrations on the ringside commentators (including Michael Cole, who was still despised at the time) and other ringside staff. He returned a few months later as The Authority’s handpicked opponent for Seth Rollins’ WWE Championship, despite Rollins also being a card-carrying member of The Authority (2015 was a weird, shitty time in WWE, let’s move on). Anyway, Rollins and Lesnar had a match but it ended via shenanigans when Undertaker made a surprise appearance and attacked Lesnar, causing Rollins to retain. Undertaker justified his attack saying that it was Heyman’s constant trash-talking and taunting were what led him to get involved in Lesnar’s match. But since beating up Paul Heyman wasn’t enough of a draw on its own, ‘Taker vowed to get revenge on Lesnar as well. And part of this revenge included one of the most exciting pull-apart brawls in WWE history.

Words cannot do justice to how awesome this was. Time and again a small army of officials and lower-card wrestlers tried and failed to keep these guys apart. It was like the one shining light in a sea of bland and forgettable darkness that was 2015’s WWE. Without saying anything Lesnar and ‘Taker sold any doubters that their upcoming match would be a monumental epic. Any words that they did say were simply icing on the cake. Needless to say everyone wanted to see this match now, especially since ‘Taker looked MUCH better going into this one than he did going into WrestleMania XXX.

The Match

This took place on August 23, 2015. It was rated **** out of five by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer.

Lesnar rushes ‘Taker before he’s done his ludicrously wrong entrance, which I’m surprised took this long for anyone else to do. ‘Taker fights back and shitcans Lesnar with his coat still on. The bell rings to signal the official start of the match and Lesnar takes ‘Taker downs and lands mounted punches. ‘Taker fights back as dual “UNDERTAKER/SUPLEX CITY” chants emerge. ‘Taker tries Old School but Lesnar gets him on his shoulders. ‘Taker escapes an F-5. Lesnar blocks a chokeslam and powers ‘Taker into a corner. ‘Taker boots Lesnar in the face but Lesnar follows with an overhead belly-to-belly that sends ‘Taker careening across the ring.

Lesnar lands one German suplex and tries a second but ‘Taker rushes forward to send Lesnar face-first into a turnbuckle. ‘Taker follows with a snake eyes/big boot combo which busts Lesnar open. ‘Taker follows with his apron leg drop. Back in the ring the two behemoths trade punches until ‘Taker tries a chokeslam. Lesnar counters and lands three successful Germans in a row. Lesnar starts dismantling one of the commentary tables when ‘Taker goes after him. ‘Taker teases a Last Ride onto said table but Lesnar counters with a successful F-5 onto it instead.

‘Taker barely makes it into the ring in time so Lesnar trash-talks him from a position of confidence. At some point Lesnar says he’s going to kill ‘Taker, to which the Deadman responds “you’re going to have to”, and hits a chokeslam. Then ‘Taker lands a Tombstone…for a two-count. Both men stay down for a long time but then slowly get up. Lesnar gets up first and he’s laughing. Then ‘Taker sits up and he’s…also laughing.

Both men trade punches. Lesnar lands shoulder thrusts in a corner and then switches to a kimura. ‘Taker counters with The Last Ride for a two-count. They both collapse again and then Lesnar gets up first and connects with an F-5 for two as well. Another F-5 and another kick-out. Soon after ‘Taker locks in Hell’s Gate. Lesnar counters that with a kimura. ‘Taker sort of jackknifes over until Lesnar’s in sort of a pinning predicament. The referee counts one and stops because Lesnar repositions. But then the bell rings. Wait, what? Look closely from the main camera angle you can see ‘Taker’s free arm moving but not enough to certifiably see him tapping out. Still, Heyman screams that ‘Taker tapped out but the referee never saw anything. Charles Robinson admonishes the timekeeper as Lesnar thinks he has won. ‘Taker uses this opportunity to hit a low blow from behind. Then he reapplies the Hell’s Gate. Lesnar slowly fades, but not before flipping ‘Taker the bird. Lesnar goes limp and the ref rules the match in ‘Taker’s favor.

Winner due to referee’s decision after 17:20: The Undertaker

Review

LET’S GET TO THE GIF!

AGAIN!

ONE MORE TIME!

FOREVER!

Ahem, well now that that’s out of the way…this match was fun but not as fun as it could’ve been.

Despite the great story, the perfect setting, and the amazing hype, this match, while great, didn’t really hit those high notes. The chemistry was there, the execution was there, and the intensity were all there. But everything unraveled at the ending. It was like another example of creativity for its own sake with that awkward ending. How could the timekeeper call for the bell without seeing ‘Taker’s hand tapping? Or was he in on some kind of screwjob attempt? And if so, by whose design? These hamfisted attempts at ambiguity harmed the match by interrupting its flow and giving Undertaker an underhandedness he didn’t need.

While that does further make Lesnar even more special by suggesting that The Undertaker – who rarely, if ever, had to resort to outright trickery or underhandedness – had to do so to beat Lesnar, it still came so far out of left field that this subplot wasn’t executed as well as it could have. As a result, the finish took away from the overall match, leaving us with one of the better post-2012 Lesnar matches but all in all a disappointment all the same.

Though Lesnar was white hot right out of the hate by blindsiding ‘Taker, he soon settled into his usual formula and, somehow, it lacked impact. Though Lesnar throwing people around with his freakish strength is always entertaining, he didn’t show the same intensity in this match as he had with his brawl with ‘Taker weeks earlier. That next level wasn’t displayed; instead, this had the usual ho-hum Lesnar pacing with short bursts of adrenaline that brought the match up but not to that highest peak. He threw ‘Taker around, took some nice bumps for him, and added a few quirks here and there to give the match a bit of special flavor.

As for Undertaker, his presence alone was all that people wanted so he played the hits for the most part. The sit-up spot was funny and memorable, but again it was overshadowed by a disappointing finish that didn’t naturally lead to a rubber match but more or less forced one. It was as if both guys knew they’d be facing off again and needed some unusual way to build towards that later rematch and used something either arbitrary or conjured up in short order and worked around that relatively uninspiring finish. Whatever the source of that finish, it put a damper on things because people wanted to cheer either one or both wrestlers without falling into the cliched “both these guys” indy chanting. But with ‘Taker positioned as the babyface in the storyline and then acting like a heel when all his usual moves didn’t work, that ending came off as unnecessary surprise for its own sake. It’s almost as if both guys knew they could’ve come up with something more creative and more story-appropriate yet they were ordered to go with this specific direction, much to their own momentary detriment.

Final Rating: ***3/4

Since the match’s most famous surviving moment will live on forever in GIF form, and since both men had much better matches in the past more worth your time and energy, I would avoid rewatching this match in its entirety. It’s a by-the-numbers Brock Lesnar match that has a few twists and turns but nothing truly remarkable. Bog standard mayhem and destruction has been a prominent feature in his matches for years now and ‘Taker’s years-long humanization has seen some interesting matches here and there but by and large his own great match streak ended over a year prior to this. If you haven’t seen this match then honestly you’re not missing all that much since neither guy really does anything not seen many times before or since. Ultimately, this is a match with one or two memorable moments but not much else. As a bell-to-bell contest it doesn’t have any truly negative qualities but its positives don’t reach those same heights that other classics more worth re-watching.

Thanks for reading.