The Undertaker was tasked with having to help create new stars whenever unique characters were introduced to WWE. There were the success stories like Kane and Mick Foley becoming legends after working with Undertaker in their first major angles. However, WWE witnessed many more failures than success for the projects getting to compete with the legendary figure.
The worst stories showcased wrestlers that either wasted Undertaker’s time with their feud or completely flopped afterwards. Vince McMahon’s trust in Undertaker put him into programs with wrestlers that ultimately didn’t pan out. The matches and storylines are remembered for the wrong reasons in the icon’s career. Find out what caused the following wrestlers to struggle when Undertaker tried to get them over.
10 Mabel
The 1995 King of the Ring win for Mabel made him a new top heel for WWE moving forward. Mabel was placed into a feud with The Undertaker to give him credibility in the main event picture before moving forward into a WWE Championship match.
Undertaker did his best to make Mabel look strong and suffered for it. Mabel injured the face of Undertaker, forcing him to wear a mask for the next few months. WWE regretted the push as Mabel flopped in his WWE Championship feud with Diesel after Undertaker struggled to make him look good.
9 A-Train
The early years of the brand split saw The Undertaker having his run with the American Badass gimmick. A-Train was one of the heels that received a program with Undertaker in hopes of it elevating him up the card as an intimidating heel.
Undertaker feuded with A-Train in 2003 with matches at WrestleMania 19 and SummerSlam. Fans never viewed A-Train as a credible threat to Undertaker even though the feud had its fair share of good moments and he was out of WWE faster than expected.
8 Kamala
WWE pushed the outlandish gimmick of Kamala hoping to get another heel over in a feud with The Undertaker. It became an unwritten rule that Undertaker would feud with every new villain to have an over-the-top character, especially if they were larger athletes.
Kamala had some charm as a performer, but the gimmick itself prevented any chance of real success. Undertaker’s time was wasted trying to make Kamala look like a bigger deal than he was, and WWE completely missed the mark with this program.
7 Fake Undertaker
Brian Lee received the gimmick of playing a fake version of The Undertaker in 1994. An injury saw the real Undertaker leaving WWE for half of the year. Ted DiBiase started claiming that he was bringing Undertaker back as the latest member of The Million Dollar Corporation faction.
The storyline culminated at SummerSlam when the real Undertaker returned to face the imposter that was managed by DiBiase. There was some potential for the angle, but the match was a disaster.
6 Mr. Kennedy
The rise of Mr. Kennedy in his first few years on the main roster saw WWE expecting him to become a future main eventer. Kennedy scored victories over a few former world champions before getting placed into a real feud with The Undertaker.
The two had a couple of solid matches and Undertaker put over Kennedy. Unfortunately, other variables like injuries and Kennedy’s poor decisions doomed his push. Undertaker wasted his time putting over a future world champion that ended up becoming a bust.
5 The Great Khali
WWE introduced The Great Khali with a huge debut by attacking The Undertaker right away. Khali getting the better of a legend and defeating him cleanly in his first match was meant to set him up as a top heel of the future.
Undertaker did his best to sell the attacks from Khali and it did make the audience take notice of him. The problem was that Khali wasn’t a good enough performer to do anything with the win and flopped due to the lack of skills when pushed in a top spot.
4 Vladimir Kozlov
The matches between Vladimir Kozlov and The Undertaker did not lead to a long feud, but the intent was there. WWE wanted Kozlov to become the next main event heel and had him scoring a clean victory over Undertaker on SmackDown.
The win elevated Kozlov into the world title picture for matches with Triple H and Jeff Hardy. Kozlov couldn’t convince the fans he was at that main event level and lost his push in a few months. Undertaker would have been better off in those title matches.
3 Heidenreich
Another project of WWE from their developmental system was Heidenreich. The heel debuted with Paul Heyman as his manager and started to target The Undertaker as one of his victims. Heidenreich cost Undertaker the WWE Championship to kick their feud to the next gear.
Undertaker tried to make him look like a star, but it was another instance of WWE pushing someone too fast. Heidenreich ultimately failed as a heel and had a revamp as a mid-card face. WWE failed at making Heidenreich a top star and he was released in January 2006.
2 Nathan Jones
The rare instance of a wrestler teaming with The Undertaker saw Nathan Jones getting the push of his career. Jones started working as Undertaker’s protégé on the main roster since WWE saw huge potential in him.
Undertaker and Jones were scheduled to team up at WrestleMania XIX against Big Show and A-Train. WWE pulled Jones from the match since they viewed him as not being ready for such a stage, especially with Undertaker’s undefeated WM streak. Jones was eventually sent back down to developmental and never thrived in WWE like expected.
1 Giant Gonzalez
Giant Gonzalez was one of the worst concepts in WWE history when having the extremely tall wrestler wear a silly bodysuit as his gear. The Undertaker was tasked with facing Gonzalez at WrestleMania IX in one of the upper-card matches.
It was viewed as a disaster with Undertaker not being able to make him look good or have fans care about the giant. The DQ victory for Undertaker almost ended his streak if it went to a no-contest or DQ the other way. WWE lucked out by not hurting Undertaker’s career with this feud.