Ranking all 25 WrestleMania matches of The Undertaker

21. The Undertaker vs. Jake “The Snake” Roberts – WrestleMania VIII

The Undertaker had continued to be built up following his WrestleMania debut in 1991. He had a feud with The Ultimate Warrior and was eventually named as the number one contender to Hulk Hogan’s WWE Championship, a match he actually won with the help of Ric Flair to claim his first title. But he lost it back to Hogan just a few days later, and with Flair, Hogan, Savage and Sid Justice taking the top spots at WrestleMania, The Undertaker was put in a program with the crafty veteran, Jake “The Snake” Roberts. But he would turn face as part of the feud after Roberts trapped ‘Taker’s hand in a cast and delivered his signature DDT to Paul Bearer. He also hit The Deadman with a few chair shots and the match at WrestleMania VIII in Indianapolis was on.

Jake rocked The Undertaker with a few shots early on and sent him out of the ring with a clothesline but ‘Taker landed on his feet as he did back in the day and took control. He threw Roberts into the post and then applied a choke hold — not the best move for a babyface — but he was still pretty green at this point. He hit his leaping clothesline and went for a slam but Jake reversed it nicely into the DDT, which had put down so many superstars over the years. ‘Taker just sat up and that was a pretty big deal. But Roberts hit the short clothesline and hit another DDT, which caused Paul Bearer to raise the urn. That led Jake to chase him outside of the ring but he ran right into a recovered ‘Taker and got a Tombstone on the floor. The Deadman rolled him back into the ring for the victory and his second WrestleMania win.

I think it did wonders for The Undertaker to work with a guy like Roberts for a short while and while this match wasn’t anything spectacular, it did what it needed to do. 2-0.