POP! WWE – The Undertaker

I was a bit of a wrestling fan around the middle years of high school. Not a massive one, but I enjoyed the action, the over-the-top personalities and the campy tone. This was the “Attitude Era” of WWE, which was an interesting time for the company. The departure of a number of big stars like Hulk Hogan had left them floundering a little, and they were trying to figure out where they sat in the market – were they aiming to bring in a new generation of kid fans, or where they trying to cater to their existing and now-adult fans?

As might be expected, they kind of went for both, with predictably weird results. There was a big emphasis on being EDGY and DARK and SEXY, which meant kids were pretty keen to watch while their parents – and older fans – were often less than approving. It was a big financial success for the company…but a lot of really hasn’t aged very well. Still, a number of modern wrestling legends like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H and rose to popularity during this era. Modern day golden boy John Cena also debuted shortly after its end, so I guess you could tack him in there too.

But the wrestler that always leapt out at me was The Undertaker. As a teen who was interested in kind of dark and goth-y things but hadn’t yet properly discovered heavy metal or horror movies, the Undertaker was a bit of a pointer in the right direction. A gateway drug, even. So when I stumbled across this POP a few weeks ago, I thought I should add him to the horror shelf.  

This POP looks to be based on ‘Taker in his "Phenom" phase, a look he debuted in 2004. It was a bit of a hybrid of a number of his previous looks, essentially functioning as an edgier update of his original mortician look. It was a great choice; for fans like myself who haven’t kept up on all of the minutiae of the WWE’s lore, it serves as a good generic look for the character.   

But it’s not perfect; in person, The Undertaker is extremely physically imposing and visually interesting – but this hasn’t always translated well to his toys, because he’s pretty much just dressed in different shades of black. This toy suffers from a little of that, with the only real differentiation between different areas of black being the gloss on his coat to give it a leather look. Nonetheless, it’s a well-sculpted figure which allows him to be instantly identified – something that I don’t feel can be said for quite a few of the other WWE POPs.

Undertaker here was apparently released all the way back in 2014, but I managed to stumble on him in a Sydney record store. He’s probably about due for another iteration, perhaps one focused on his "American Bad Ass" era. Until then, this is a solid piece for the casual and dedicated Undertaker fan alike.