what do you think is the secret to the undertaker and shawn michaels's longevity and success in the WWE?

Question

both are such legends of the squared circle it won't be long for them to be inducted into the WWE's hall of fame. not to mention great to see them in a match against one another at say, wrestlemania of this year, though that is highly unlikely. but what i want to know is the secret to their success. what is it about them that separates them from today's other WWE wrestlers? what factors have played a major role in their success in the wrestling business to date. where do you rank them in comparison to other wrestling legends, hulk hogan, the rock, stone cold steve austin, macho man randy savage and ultimate warrior for example?

to ministry of camp: yes i do realise it is all fake and the storylines are fake

Answer 1

First of all, good question. I was getting pretty tired of every WWE question being "Is it fake?" "Why do you hate Cena he sucks" and stuff like that. Kudos to you!

OK, Shawn first:
Shawn has had huge success in WWE because he's an extremely good athlete. Many superstars look good but aren't good athletes. Shawn is good looking, he's a good athlete, he's good on the mic, and he has good presence in the ring. He's a full package. Also, he won't give up. A lot of guys get injured and go out for a long time, and then they say there's no reason going back to the ring. Shawn won't do that. And other guys recuperate slowly after an injury, so you eventually forget aobut them. Shawn recovers fast.
He's also lucky because most guys like him would be fired long ago. He's gotten into drugs and everything, but he cleaned up and he was honestly sorry and Vince saw that, so he gave him his job back. He's a nice guy, and you can tell that. You can see that he honestly loves what he does. It's like Eddie Guerrero. You see him, and you realize "Wow. This guys is genually happy to be at work". It's great.

Undertaker, on the other hand, has different reasons why he's so successful.
When he first debuted in WWE (then WWF), he was unlike anything anyone had ever seen. He was this huge, scary, evil guy. And he really scared you. People love to be csared (that's why horror movies and extreme roller coasters work. They scare people, and they love it). S he was a huge hit as soon as he got into WWF. He was also lucky enough to debut in a huge match at a huge pay-per-view (Survivor Series, he was the secret fourth team member).
Now, many wrestlers scare people. But most of them just get old after a while. So they completely change, and t just doesn't work. Viscera, for example. He was terrifying. Now he's "the world's biggest love machine". It just doesn't work. Sure, he has fans and everything, but he'll never be a hall of famer. Undertaker doesn't get old. He changes slightly every year. Look at pictures from when he debuted. He changes one thing about him every year. Bu he doesn't make a huge drastic change (except with when he came Biker-Gang-Undertaker. He's lucky that worked.). He'd just change his hair, or his clothes, or add a move. Just enough that he can stay pretty much the same and still be different.
Also, Undertaker isn't out because of injury a lot. He's ratherhealthy for a wrestler. Ad when he does get injured, WWE will make a big storyline about it. Like whe he was injured a bit by the Great Khali, they just said they had killed him. And he recovers quickly, too, so that helps. Then he psychs you up for him coming back by making the lights randomly go out and his music start. So even when's he's out on injury, it's like he's still there.
And he just plain rocks.

As for ranking, here's my opinion:
Undertaker
Stone Cold
Shawn Michaels
Ultimate Warrior
Hulk Hogan
Randy Savage
The Rock

'Taker is my favourite wrestler ever, so he's #1 to me.
Ultimate Warrior was great while he was around. He got his priorities mixed and was a horrible person (in real life) at the end of his career, though. But from an athletic standpoint, yeah.
HBK is just great. Some of the fans of today don't realize how big he realy is.
Hulk Hogan is a poser (he only has like 3 moves), but he has the ring presence.
Randy Savage is very known by us big wrestling fans, but for the more casual fans it's like "who?"
The Rock is a poser and I've never really liked him. He left us to be an actor, and nowit's like he doesn't even remember he was a wrestler. Hulk Hogan, I know, also became a semi-actor, but at least he comes back to WWE sometimes.

I hope this helped!

Answer 2

Well both are hugely talented for starters.They were lucky in getting a good gimmick from the storyliners.HBK with DX as an eg & Taker as the Wild West Undertaker character.
They can both wrestle, work a match & can carry weak wrestlers like Eugene or Masters.they have the attitude & the smarts to go with their ability.both have been wrestling since their early 20's.HBK with the old WWF & Taker as Mean Mark Callous in the old WCW.
The best reason for lasting so long is they wrestle part-time now.Taker only does ppv's now.HBK has the luxury of tagging with HHH to keep the workload down.I read somewhere that as the highly-regarded elder statesmen of WWE they can decide when, where & who they fight.

Answer 3

Both have had sustained careers for a few reasons. Each character has been very complex and had many levels. For example, Michaels (in his singles career) started off as a brash, aarogant bad-guy and played that role well. Eventually, he turned into the good-guy whose life long quest was to win the WWE championship. The Undertaker also started off as an anomaly who people just didn't know about. He progressed to a fan-favorite as well. The secret here is that their characters stayed fresh. Many things helped this such as good stories, good matches with good opponents, but mostly each have taken breaks from wrestling whenever their characters get stale. Michaels was gone for nearly four years due to a back injury. The Undertaker has wrestled a part-time schedule for the past several years. Compare this to someone who is shoved down our throats each week and people will grow tired of it. Hulk Hogan is a perfect example of this. As much as I love the Hulkster, I can understand when people get tired of seeing him beat whoever each week by Hulking up. Towards 1992-1993 people had seen him do this for eight years, and grew tired of it. He needed to leave and comeback. That is part of the reason why these people stand above their peers.

Answer 4

both were solid in ring performers that excelled in their hey-day. Undertaker was a hit from his first WWF appearence at Survivour series due to his gimmick which was a stark contrast to the colourful gimicks in WWF at the time (hogan, savage etc) Calloway has protected his gimmick very well (nobody dare suggest he lose a wrestlemania match) which means he keeps the fanbase and more imprtantly, the money flowing into vince's bank account.

HBK is slightly different, he took a back seat during the rockers era (most predicted janetty for greatness at the time,) but silenced critics with consistantly strong performances in the mid card against the likes of Rick Martel. Despite his talent, he has relied largly on his connections with wwe management, after Montreal, he was treated favourably with vince in return for his part in the screw job and more recently with his friendship with Triple H who is the chief booker. Despite that, he can still put in a decent performance, 2005 saw him voted powerslam wrestler of the year above the likes of Beniot, AJ Styles and Kurt Angle.

As for ranking, in my opinion, id rank HBK in the top 3 (Behind Flair and Dynamite Kid) whilst undertaker has a top 10 spot

Answer 5

They are both talented and put on great shows, one is a phenom one is a show stopper! Both were very loyal to the WWE, both got the fans support for that. Undertaker goes in hogans category and shawn goes in stone colds category, i think they are the true wrestling legends because they never complained of injury like hulk hogan and are about us.

Answer 6

Good story lines have helped but they have stayed in relatively good health. Know how to carry matches with lesser opponents. They are great performers that sacrifice everything in the ring to give the fans what they want. They are both top ten on my rankings

Answer 7

It is more the fans than the legends. If anyone is booked right, the fans will react well to them. Beating some of the big names always helps as well.

Answer 8

Both have been very lucky that Vince as always fed them good storylines,lets face it they could have ended up as" Duke the Dumpster" or something equally silly.

Answer 9

1

Answer 10

Stupidity