WM13 title match?

[Undrtakr87]

Hi guys, I'm new to the forum here but not TPWW! As you can probably tell by my forum name I'm a fan of The Undertaker. I first got into watching and keeping up with WWE in 1998 and he quickly became my favorite while I was a kid and looking back a mark.

Anyway, I was thinking about some of his history recently and a thought popped into my head. Stone Cold won the rumble in 1997 so I started wondering why Taker was in the main event at WM13. I read about the 4 way to determine the champion after the title was vacated and then there was the Hart/Sid fued, but couldn't find the answer to how Taker became the #1 contender to challenge sid in the Mania main event that year. Surely somebody here knows and can enlighten me?

[El Fangel]

Taker scared the shit of Sid, so WWF went with that.

[The Franchise]

Taker was the last man eliminated in the Fourway match by Bret, so they made him #1 contender I think

[James Steele]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleMania_13#Background


The main feud (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feud_%28professional_wrestling%29) heading into WrestleMania 13 was between The Undertaker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Undertaker) and Sycho Sid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Eudy), with the two battling over the WWF Championship (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWE_Championship). At In Your House 13 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Your_House_13:_Final_Four), Bret Hart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bret_Hart) last eliminated The Undertaker in a Four Corners Elimination match (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_wrestling_match_types#Basic_elimination_matches) to win the vacant WWF Championship.<sup id="cite_ref-IYH_4-0" class="reference">[5] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleMania_13#cite_note-IYH-4)</sup> Hart's reign, however, lasted only one day as he lost the title the next night on Raw (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWE_Raw) to Sycho Sid after interference by Steve Austin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Cold_Steve_Austin).<sup id="cite_ref-February_17.2C_1997_5-0" class="reference">[6] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleMania_13#cite_note-February_17.2C_1997-5)</sup> Due to being the runner-up to the title at Final Four, Undertaker was made the number one contender and was booked (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_professional_wrestling_terms#B) to challenge Sycho Sid for the title at WrestleMania. However, on the March 17 edition of Raw, Sid defended the title against Hart in a steel cage match (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_wrestling_match_types#Cages), with the winner defending his title at WrestleMania. During the match, both Undertaker and Austin interfered. Undertaker came out to help Sid because he wanted to wrestle Sid for the title while Austin helped Hart because he wanted to make his scheduled no disqualification submission match (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_wrestling_match_types#Variations_of_singles_matches) with Hart a title match. Sid won the match and retained his title and as a result, Sid vs. Undertaker remained the main event (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_%28sports%29#Main_event) of WrestleMania.<sup id="cite_ref-March_17.2C_1997_6-0" class="reference">[7] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleMania_13#cite_note-March_17.2C_1997-6)</sup>

[Undrtakr87]

Thanks guys. :D And LOL @ FA. :P

[El Fangel]

:D

[Undrtakr87]

Now the smark side of me wonders why it all panned out this way. Was it planned for Undertaker to main event WM13 in the first place before the RR, as in was Stone Cold not supposed to win the RR and something got screwed so they threw this storyline together or what? :shifty:

[James Steele]

If it wasn't for Shawn Michaels, we wouldn't have gotten Austin/Hart at WM13 and Undertaker having a good run.

[Jeritron]

I always thought Austin facing Hart, and Taker winning the title all worked out for the better. The one weak link was Sid. I always wished they could have had someone better to face Taker than Sid for the title.
I'd rather have seen Vader, even.

[Undrtakr87]

Yeah, I like how it all turned out. Just seems kinda wierd that the RR winner that year didn't main event WM and how the events between the RR and WM played out. Stone Cold didn't lose his #1 contendership to anybody either right? Just that 4 way title match.

[Jeritron]

It had everything to do with WWE intending to do a Shawn/Bret rematch, in which the plan was for Bret to go over this time around.
The two couldn't come to agreement on anything regarding this, and it was really when the tension between them started to heat up bigtime

[Disturbed316]

Pretty sure this was the first question I asked when I joined, spooky!

[Undrtakr87]

Crazy, Disturbed. O_O

Wow, so if not for HBK's stubborness it sounds like Taker woulda gone 8 years without the title. :-\ Reminds me of that "shoot" Taker did on RAW in 1998 about being screwed out of title reigns, but I assume that was worked (below). Sounds familiar though, he's kinda like HBK in that he doesn't need the title to be great, at least anymore.

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On a side note though, what was with the longest 3 count ever when Taker pinned Sid? Wonder if the ref had to stop and think "What's that smell?" inbetween or something. :lol:

[Jeritron]

Undertaker was extremely over at this point though. He probably would have seen the title that year anyways, just maybe not at Wrestlemania 13

[Undrtakr87]

Good point. But wasn't he well over in/around 1994 also? Granted he took time off due to personal issues at the time I'm still kinda surprised he didn't have at least a short title reign around that time.