WWE has often been criticized for being too ‘safe’ compared to alternatives in wrestling, but Vince McMahon reportedly approved an exploding death match in 2006.
McMahon is no stranger to competing in violent matches, including a Ladder match (King of the Ring 1999), Hell in a Cell (Unforgiven 2006), and bled buckets in a Buried Alive match (Survivor Series 2003.)
During an appearance on The Insiders podcast, MLW’s Court Bauer recalled McMahon approving a death match during his tenure with WWE. He said,
“I wanted to do a deathmatch, an exploding deathmatch in WWE. They were trying different things at this time. There was a time when [it was like] ‘let’s try and rewatch ECW, let’s try different stuff.’ So I showed Vince an Onita death match. And he said ‘yea let’s do it.'”
The plan immediately ran into problems, as Bauer added that then-WWE Head Writer Alex Greenfield was unresponsive when asked for feedback about the plans.
Bauer noted that just two weeks before the match was going to be announced, the mockups of what the match would look like failed to impress.
“About 12, 14 days out we finally see the first photos of this thing being built. It’s like oh that’s not an exploding deathmatch. It was supposed to be Undertaker in one of these things, I think. And it turns out, it’s what you would see is this thing out of Indiana Jones, the Temple of Doom or something.”
The plan had been for The Undertaker to face the Great Khali, but Khali was pulled from the Great American Bash 2006 event over a failed physical.
Instead, the Big Show faced the Phenom in what would be the first-ever Punjabi Prison match, which The Undertaker would win.
