Talk about it here.

An inferno match is a cool-looking visual, I'll give them that much. They seem to be going for the same psychology of the FMW death matches, but it doesn't quite work. Kane tries to walk out and Vader attacks him from behind and they brawl back toward the ring. This gives Undertaker his famous visual where he does the tope over fire, which I admit did look awesome. Undertaker ends up chasing Paul Bearer away from the ring and drops a drum (from the Sawyer Brown/Jeff Jarrett set earlier in the evening) on his head and then beats him up with a mic stand. Bearer juices. This doesn't look to be a very good match, but kudos to them for trying something different that is memorable at least if nothing else. Between the fire, interference spot, use of props and Bearer juicing and Kane catching on fire after hitting the ropes, they were pulling out every trick in the book to do something special. This was a ballsy gimmick match, but kind of a weak finish.

God damn Kane has been around so long he faced freaking Vader on WWF PPVs. Nearly 17 years later he's still being pushed

This was a great visual with the flames shooting up around the ring. They really shouldn't be having close up shots of the guy controlling the inferno. I don't know if they did this in FMW, it's a wacky idea for the WWF to come up with. Paul Bearer being stalked and then busted open was really good. It gave Kane a bit of time to adjust his attire IYKWIM.

I liked all the action we got here as it looked more cohesive and impressive than the Mania clips. I do think the Inferno gimmick hampered the finish as it was anticlimactic but the dive from Taker and drum set being busted on Paul Bearer were great spots. Kane is looking pretty bad in this feud so far.

"He's a one eyed monster!" Hehe.

 

Didn't seem like a great match, but some cool visuals for sure.

Not great, but not bad, with some effective little set pieces interspersed throughout the match. They gave us what they hyped, you have to give them that much.

It was nice to see the finish and not the whole match because you can only see the flames rise (via remote control via the guy next to Brisco at ringside) after big bumps. The tope was amazing, the Vader storyline consistency was great as well. Taker waffles Kane with a chair and then chases Bearer while the people under the ring grease up Kane's right hand with the fire retardant stuff. Kane actually does a full back bump into the flames and probably got blisters on his exposed arm as well. The fire on his arm and him running away was a great visual as well. This is how you do a gimmick/stipulation match, WCW. Fuck your "bat on a pole" we have fire surrounding the ring,

This match is pure spectacle. I remember the first time seeing the match and being enthralled by the look of it, even if as pointed out, the on camera shot of the guy at the control panel making the flames go up and down does spoil a little of the magic. Obviously the fire limits what you can do, and in that sense resembles a number of barb wire matches where the participants largely tip toe around the edges and stick to fairly basic action. Even without the flames, Kane and Undertaker is not a classic but in a way the gimmick helps strangely - limiting what would be limited action.

 

The Taker spot of flying over the ropes is fantastic and it's nice to see Vader come out after being put on the shelf by Kane and set up that feud to continue. The ending is about as good as you can get in a match like this, and does offer a legitimate payoff in that Kane's arm is set on fire. Even with all the padding, and the safety precautions it's still pretty amazing to see, given fire isn't something you can always be sure you can control. I'd be intrigued to watch some of the other inferno matches they ended up doing to see how they compare. It's a match that is hard to rate, but as a spectacle I was still pretty enthralled watching it 18 years later.