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There are a lot of things that are absolutely absurd from the outside looking in, but which work incredibly well in wrestling. The storyline between The Undertaker and Kane is one such thing, and it produced compelling television over multiple decades.
A lot of that had to do with the people playing the characters. Nobody could have done them justice like Mark Calaway and Glenn Jacobs did. That did not stop people from trying to recreate it though.
The storyline involving Abyss and Judas Mesias was TNA's version of Undertaker vs Kane, and it would be an understatement to say that it fell flat on its face.
The Undertaker And Kane Had Arguably The Best Fleshed Out Backstory In Wrestling History
When The Undertaker arrived in the WWE in 1990, not much was revealed about him or his motivations. In many ways, the mystery fit the character and helped him become sort of a mythical figure in the realm of wrestling that remains unmatched to this day.
In 1997, his 'brother' Kane would step foot into the WWE, looking for revenge. Naturally, there was a lot of intrigue around the storyline.
Admittedly, there was a soap opera element to it all but at the same time, one cannot help but admit that it was incredibly compelling. It was revealed that The Undertaker had set his family house on fire, which killed his parents, but Kane managed to survive it, even though it had scarred him for life. It all led to him wearing a mask. Later on, it would be revealed that Kane was actually the son of Paul Bearer, who'd had an affair with The Undertaker's mother.
In the wrong hands, the storyline could have been absolutely terrible. Undertaker and Kane made it work though, and were interlinked with each other for the rest of their careers.
RELATED: 10 Things Most Fans Forget About The Kane vs. The Undertaker Rivalry
TNA Got It Wrong With Abyss And Judas Mesias
The Abyss character had been compared with Kane throughout his career. He was a big man who was a good worker and wore a mask. He was also managed by Father James Mitchell. It did not take a detective to recognize the similarities. And to be fair, Abyss did become a success in TNA, and was one of their most prominent performers for years. Even he could not carry off the storyline with Judas Mesias, however.
Mesias was the kayfabe son of Mitchell and the half-brother of Abyss. He even made his debut in a Six Sides of Steel match, attacking Abyss.
The feud never really took off. While The Undertaker and Kane would continue to be linked with each other for years, either as opponents or as partners, Abyss and Mesias would face each other just twice, before the idea was dropped and Mesias was gone from the company.
RELATED: 8 Backstage Stories About Abyss We Can't Believe
TNA Botched The Casting Completely
The success of the Undertaker vs Kane storyline mostly lay at the feet of the performers involved. Both of them proved to be all-time greats and carried it off better than anybody else ever could have.
When it comes to TNA, they got the casting completely wrong. Firstly, Mesias was played by Ricky Banderas, who was not really a monster in terms of size. He was seven inches shorter than Abyss and visually did not look like a real threat. Also, his work was not nearly explosive enough for him to be booked as an unstoppable force. On top of that, he always needed help to win matches, even against mid-carders. That's no a convincing 'monster' at all. It made him look weak.
On the other hand, Abyss was not the best pick either. He had spent years being the monster heel of TNA and had a lot more similarities to Kane himself. He would never completely recover from this storyline and regain his former position on the card.
The Abyss Vs Judas Mesias Storyline Was Doomed From The Start
To be honest, probably nobody could have recreated the magic of the Undertaker vs Kane storyline. Thus, TNA's attempt to do so was doomed from the start.
It did not help that they did that the wrestlers involved did not fit their roles. It felt like somebody had remade an all-time classic movie with worse actors and on a much tighter budget.
Nobody came out of it better than they had gone in. Mesias and Mitchell were soon gone from the company, while Abyss never returned to being the feared monster character that he once was, except for a brief spell in 2010, when he was secretly working for Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff's Immortal faction.
