Aug 18, 6:30 PM
The Undertaker faced grave consequences in WWE’s earliest Casket Match
Cageside Seats
The Undertaker and Paul Bearer work on a custom-made casket for a future “customer. | (Photo: WWE) WWE Vault released “one of the earliest Casket Matches in WWE history” on Tuesday. In what it described as a “grave affair,” the Ultimate Warrior faced The Undertaker. The match came about following a morbid incident during Paul Bearer’s “Funeral Parlor” shortly after WrestleMania VII, where Taker attacked Warrior and locked him inside an “airtight” casket. Officials struggled for several minutes to free Warrior. When they finally did, he was unresponsive, though it was clear he tried clawing his way out. After several rounds of CPR, Warrior finally came to. In the real world, such an act would land someone in prison. In pro wrestling, it led to Warrior battling Taker in a Casket Match. The concept seemed novel in 1991, but it wasn’t entirely new. In October 1980, Dusty Rhodes faced former WWE Champion Ivan Koloff in a Texas Death Coffin Match at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston, Te