Undertaker - The Last Ride

[Michael_3165]

May well be the case. I can totally see why its hard to step away from that pop. 

[Liam O'Rourke]

So I was all ready to write up a big pile of thoughts after watching the final episode, until I saw that @tiger_rick had captured my viewpoint almost dead on anyway. Saves me a bit of work.

As I said after episode one, and it still holds true after seeing the last one, the strength of the series is the footage, the weakness is the narrative. The narrative is executed so poorly for the first three episodes, so disjointed, so wrapped up in candyfloss with no ability to make you feel anything is actually real, "peaking" with episode three, that I was almost ready to bin it off completely as a total pile of overhyped shit.

The last two episodes were much better, with the fifth being by far the best. Frankly, it almost made me wonder what the point of the first three even were, since the entire story was told well in only two, and the others sniffed around the surface of the exact same points in a more inauthentic fashion. It could have been condensed to a three parter, or, if they are going to make it 5 feature lengths as they did, delve a hell of a lot deeper into his career story and execute it much differently.

The series would have been far better had they talked about the entire story in the past tense and then referred to or show the great footage, using it to enhance and reinforce or add depth to the story, rather than what they did and almost always do, which is for the footage to unfold almost in real time, and for the footage to be the story. With, as usual, that story undone at every stage with the WWE trope horseshit that can't send a straight message if its life depended on it. The Last Dance on the Bulls got the balance dead right, and are far better documentaries because of it.

As an aside, gotta love a documentary that focuses on early 2000s Taker's love for putting guys over, when almost all the clips they showed were matches he went over and didn't really help anyone.

When the last 20 minutes began on the final episode and they started showing all the old Taker moments and memories and entrances, I almost got mad at how good it was, because the entire series should have been that good. It was the first time in the whole series it actually captured why any of this was a big deal, other than leaving it to the viewer to assume everything is a big deal while we see this broken old man struggle his way through another agonizingly dull performance, saying for the 1000th time that he's going out on his terms. Imagine having all that at your disposal to make people feel something, and choosing to re-air the boring limo ride to the building in episode one where he's half in character trying to act cool in his snazzy blue shirt and hat.

Edited July 1, 2020 by Liam O'Rourke

[dopper]

On 5/27/2020 at 5:25 PM, BomberPat said:

But to go from basically two episodes of "I can only work once a year, I need to take months to prepare for a single match" to having another match less than a month after Wrestlemania

He said that he has had that mindset since the HHH matches at WM27 & 28 but I think that part was before his surgery.

He felt better than ever after that, worked as hard as he could to get in shape and felt like that 5 minute squash against Cena didn't use up much of those extra stamina & energy he had built up. So being in such good shape it did make sense to sign on for another big match shortly afterwards.

The thing that I thought went unanswered regarding him needing a year to recover each time was why after not working since WM32 could he hardly walk and be in desperate need of hip surgery going in to WM33?

I watched them all over the weekend and loved it.

Add me to the list of people wanting some kind of match (preferably with AJ Styles) in front of a crowd at Survivor Series to be his real swansong. 

Edited July 14, 2020 by dopper

[sukhy]

They've got a bonus ep of the Taker series out on Sunday

https://wrestlingnews.co/wwe-news/wwe-network-to-air-bonus-episode-of-undertaker-the-last-ride/amp/

By the looks of it, its him telling stories about his career, which is what should have been in the initial docu series, and should have replaced everything that was related to Triple H

[DavidB6937]

Reading headlines of "The Undertaker launches TikTok Account" this morning felt really soul destroying.

[Harry Wiseau]

the bonus episode is pretty much just stories that had already been told on the Stone Cold interview thing, but with a few drawings to give it more of a "Storytime with Mean Gene" feel.enjoyable enough but nothing new.

[Abe_Knuckleball_Schwartz]

Just started watching this (watched the 2nd episode last night) really enjoying it, up to now. Vince's forearms in that orange t shirt was probably the most disturbing thing I have seen in a while, looked like a cross between Popeye and Quagmire's big arm.