by Tom the Actuary

We all know that the Undertaker, with his (surprising) victory over HHH, is 9-0 at Wrestlemania. Let's see who his wins have come against:

Wrestlemania (9-0)
No.	Year	Opponent		Result
VII	1991	Jimmy Snuka		  W
VIII	1992	Jake Roberts		  W
IX	1993	Giant Gonzalez		  W
X
XI	1995	King Kong Bundy	  	  W
XII	1996	Diesel			  W
XIII	1997	Sycho Sid (WWF Title)	  W
XIV	1998	Kane			  W
XV	1999	Big Bossman		  W
XVI	2000
X7	2001	Triple H		  W

I want to say up front that the Undertaker is one of my all-time favorite wrestlers, but with possibly two exceptions, his Wrestlemania matches have been against a bunch of stiffs, lumberers, or people at best past their prime. This latest match with HHH was his best WM match to date, although the 1998 match with Kane was very good.

Now, on to his record in the other four of the "big five". I've left off any matches but one-on-one contests:

Survivor Series (5-2)
Year	Opponent			Result
1991	Hulk Hogan (WWF Title)		  W
1992	Kamala				  W
1993
1994	Yokozuna (Casket Match)		  W
1995
1996	Mankind			  	  W
1997
1998	Kane*				  W
1998	The Rock*			  L
1999	
2000	Kurt Angle			  L

He's had generally better people to match up against at Survivor Series than Wrestlemania. The 1991 win against Hogan was an all-time moment for many people, because it was as close as Hogan ever got to doing a clean job. 'Taker continued to be unbeatable at Survivor series until 1988. He only lost the two matches he did via screwjob, due to Kane's interference in 1998, and the Doinkesque Kurt Angle match in 200, about which, the less said, the better. On to the Rumble:

Royal Rumble (2-3)
Year	Opponent			Result
1991
1992
1993
1994	Yokozuna (Casket Match)		   L
1995	Irwin R. Shyster		   W
1996	Bret Hart (World Title but DQ)	   W
1997	Vader				   L
1998	Shawn Michaels (Casket Match)	   L
1999
2000
2001	

The Yokuzuna loss - the Undertaker's earliest major PPV loss - only came after an ending that was the Library of Congress of overbooking. You begin to realize just how lengths the WWF has gone to to protect the Undertaker's aura of invincibility over a period of years. The other two Royal Rumble losses came in 1997 when waffled with the urn (remember the urn?) by Paul Bearer and in 1998 when turned on (number 13 in a series of 217) by Kane. So, no clean losses yet.

SummerSlam (4-3-1)
Year	Opponent			Result
1992	Kamala				   W
1993	Giant Gonzalez (RIP Match)	   W
1994	Fake Undertaker			   W
1995	Kama (Casket Match)		   W
1996	Mankind (Boiler Room Brawl)	   L
1997	Bret Hart (World Title)		   L
1998	Steve Austin (World Title)	   L
1999
2000	Kane				   NC

1996 was the first of the Paul Bearer screw jobs in the Boiler Room Brawl. Shawn Michels (inadvertently) provided the chair shot to give Bret Hart the Title in 1997. Undertaker has his first, high profile, clean loss in 1998 when Austin beats him with the stunner. A person can argue that, from the casual viewer's standpoint, this match established Austin's credibility more than any other single match, because he cleanly beat a man who had not ever seen a clean defeat on a major PPV.

King of the Ring (3-2)
Year	Opponent			Result
1995	Mable				   L
1996	Mankind			   L
1997	Farooq (World Title)		   W
1998	Mankind (Hell in a Cell)		   W
1999	The Rock (World Title)		   W
2000

Oh, I almost hate to include this show, since it's viewed as such an abberation. In short, Kama provided the screwjob in 1995, as Paul Bearer (I guess *this* was the original screwjob) did in 1996.

That gives him a "big show" record of 23 wins, 10 losses, and 1 no contest, which has him winning 60% or 6 out of every 10 matches (or losing 4 out of 10), which doesn't sound that impressive.

However, look at it another way: out of 34 major PPV appearances since 1991, the Undertaker has 1 clean loss, which gives him a "clean loss" percentage of 3%, which translates to 3 out of 100. The WWF has kept the Undertaker virtually unbeatable for an amazing period of time.

In fact, the clean jobs I can remember the Undertaker doing since his early days in the WWF in any kind of match have enormously elevated his opponents: namely, Mankind and the Rock. So when, before he retires, the Undertaker puts someone over cleanly at a major show- it will mean something.