No one can take away the impressive streak that The Undertaker has at WrestleMania. But when you look at some of the wins on the list, it does make you question if WrestleMania was ALWAYS his place to shine.
WrestleMania VII - The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer) pinned Jimmy Snuka
at 4:19 with the tombstone after catching Snuka as he attempted a slingshot
into the ring
For his first WrestleMania
appearance, The Undertaker performed beyond expected against a future Hall of
Famer. He dominated Snuka throughout the
entire match, which at that time, was just how The Undertaker matches were
going.
WrestleMania VIII - The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer) pinned Jake Roberts
at 6:41 following a tombstone on the floor as Roberts attempted to steal the
urn away from Bearer
Storyline wise, this match made
sense, however, if the Hogan/Flair match hadn’t been changed, I would of loved
to see Sid Justice and The Undertaker face off, since they were a tag team in
WCW less that three years before this.
Plus, they could of kept Sid a babyface and allow him to pick up where
Hogan left off at WrestleMania, and allow The Undertaker to keep being a
heel. Jake was heading to WCW around
that time, so his involvement with WrestleMania could of landed him a match
with Randy Savage instead, just so they can finish the storyline of Jake and
the Undertaker interrupting Randy’s wedding.
WrestleMania IX - The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer) defeated the Giant
Gonzalez (w/ Harvey Wippleman) via disqualification at 7:32 when Gonzalez
smothered Taker with a rag soaked in Chloraphorm after headbutting Bearer off
the ring apron
This match was horrible, and you
can’t blame The Undertaker for it. Vince
wanted The Undertaker to slay giants, and bringing in El Gigante from WCW
seemed like the next thing for The Undertaker.
However, you could of done a few different things here, since
WrestleMania IX wasn’t considered one of their strongest. You could have had Randy Savage challenge
Bret Hart for the WWF title. Bret and
Randy could of put on one of the greatest matches in WrestleMania history, and
it could have been a passing of the torch with Savage putting Bret over, since
Hogan’s involvement in the WWF wasn’t helping the WWF’s ratings. You could of taken Yokozuna, who won the
Royal Rumble to earn a chance to wrestle Bret, and matched him with The
Undertaker. At the time, no one had
beaten Yokozuna and facing The Undertaker would have been a great test for
both. But Hogan stepped in…..and the
rest is history.
WrestleMania XI - The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer) pinned King Kong
Bundy (w/ Ted Dibiase) at 6:40 with a boot to the face, a bodyslam, and a
flying clothesline after sustaining the Avalanche
After taking a year off, The
Undertaker came back to face another WWF legend, but King Kong Bundy’s giant
days were past him. With the WWF was
deep in the new generation era, this would have been the perfect opportunity
for The Undertaker and Bret Hart to lock up.
Bret Hart was put on the back burner at this time for Shawn Michaels and
Kevin Nash to run things. We eventually
got this match at Summerslam 97, but a WrestleMania match would have been better. Instead, we get Bret Hart and Bob Backlund an
a ridiculous I Quit match.
WrestleMania XII - The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer) pinned Diesel with a
chokeslam and the tombstone at 16:47
With the events that would
eventually happen for Kevin Nash and Scott Hall shortly after WrestleMania as
they would head to WCW and launch the nWo, this would have been the perfect opportunity
for Vince to dampen their arrival to WCW by having them face The Undertaker in
a handicap match. Who knows how they
would of entered the WCW and raised hell if the last impressions the wrestling
audience was seeing them get whipped by The Undertaker at WrestleMania. Hindsight is 20/20 right?
WrestleMania XIII - The Undertaker pinned WWF World Champion Psycho Sid
to win the title at 23:54 with the tombstone after Bret Hart came ringside and
dropped Sid throat-first over the top rope as Sid attempted the powerbomb
All I say is better late than
never, but had Shawn Micahels not lost his smile, this would have been a
rematch between Shawn and Bret for the title, no Sid. Instead, we see The Undertaker defeat a Sid
Vicious who had zero defense, zero heat with the crowd, and was champion too
late in the game. The Undertaker should
have taken on Big Van Vader. Vader came
to the WWF and hadn’t made the impact they had hoped. A match with The Undertaker would have done
wonders for both.
WrestleMania XIV - The Undertaker pinned Kane (w/ Paul Bearer)
following three tombstone piledrivers
No question about this one, Kane
had come back after two failed gimmicks in the WWF at that time, one being Dr.
Isaac Yankem and the other being the Fake Diesel. Kane finally found the right character and
being The Undertaker’s brother only helped.
WrestleMania XV - The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer) pinned the Big
Bossman in a Hell in a Cell match at 9:49 with the tombstone
While The Undertaker made a name
for himself in the Hell in the Cell matches, one with Mankind and the other
with Shawn Michaels, facing The Big Boss Man just baffles me. A rematch with Mankind, or maybe bring in
Cactus Jack, and have the rematch from Hell, because no one tuned in to see a
washed up Boss Man in a cage match. This
wasn’t 1988!
WrestleMania X-7 - The Undertaker pinned Triple H at 18:17 with a
powerbomb out of the corner as Triple H stood on the ropes punching away at
Taker in the corner
This was a great match, although
the wrestling culture had just changed the week before. WCW was just bought by Vince McMahon, so a
lot of the matches were sort of forgettable since we all knew that an invasion
was coming. Wouldn’t change a thing
about this match, however, years later I wish this match was remembered when
Triple H and The Undertaker tangled again at WrestleMania.
WrestleMania X-8 - The Undertaker pinned Ric Flair in a No DQ match at
18:47 with the tombstone after fighting off an interfering Arn Anderson
When you wrestle Ric Flair at
WrestleMania, you are one of the few.
Having said that, he took on a Ric Flair who was depressed, lost, and at
that time, admittedly not what he used to be.
However, this match gave Flair his confidence back, and The Undertaker
had a lot to do with that!
WrestleMania XIX - The Undertaker defeated the Big Show & Albert in
a handicap match at 8:45 by pinning Albert with the tombstone
If they wanted to make this match
better, take Albert out! Big Show vs.
The Undertaker would have been a better sale, although The Big Show was not The
Big Show he is today.
WrestleMania XX - The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer) pinned Kane with the
tombstone
This was a different Kane,
without the mask, but it was still a match we have all seen before. Maybe a match with JBL would have been better,
but that was Eddie Guerrero’s moment. The
Undertaker vs. Kane rematch took a lot of magic out of the first one.
WrestleMania 21 - The Undertaker pinned Randy Orton by reversing a
tombstone attempt into one of his own
Randy Orton was coming into his
own, and a match with The Undertaker would only add to, what turned out to be,
a promising career. Wouldn’t change a
thing!
WrestleMania 22 - The Undertaker defeated Mark Henry in a casket match
at 9:27 following a plancha to the floor and the tombstone
If The Undertaker took on Mark
Henry of 2010-2011, I would have been interested. Instead, we get an unfinished Mark Henry, and
lossing to The Undertaker wouldn’t of helped his career at that time. Looks like Vince was going light (if you can
say Mark Henry is going light) on the Undertaker that year.
WrestleMania 23 - The Undertaker pinned World Heavyweight Champion
Batista to win the title at 15:48 with the tombstone after ramming the champion
into the corner
Batista was one of the hottest
names in the WWE at that time, so to see The Undertaker take on one of the
future WWE superstars and take the title from him was a great thing. If he couldn’t take on Batista, he needed to
take on John Cena.
WrestleMania 24 - The Undertaker defeated World Heavyweight Champion
Edge via submission to win the title at 23:48 with the leglock choke as Edge
attempted a cover on the challenger after hitting the spear
Two guys who came up through the
Attitude Era face off and The Undertaker facing “this” version of Edge was
awesome. Edge was one of the top heels
of the company and to have a title match against The Undertaker almost makes up
for the crappy matches that Undertaker had with Giant Gonzalez and Big Boss
Man.
WrestleMania 25 - The Undertaker pinned Shawn Michaels at 30:43 with
the tombstone after catching Michaels attempting a moonsault off the top
4 words: Match of the Year
WrestleMania 26 - The Undertaker pinned Shawn Michaels in a No DQ, no
count-out match at 24:01 with a jumping tombstone, moments after Michaels
kicked out of the tombstone, struggled to his feet, gave Taker his own thumb
across the throat signal, and slapped Taker across the face
Most rematches can’t top what
they did before, see Kane/Undertaker II.
But this match was far and away better than can be expected. It was a great way for Shawn Michaels to end
his career and The Undertaker, for me, went from being a WWE Superstar to WWE
Legend! If I was to change anything, I would
have had Triple H face The Undertaker this year, and have Michaels take on
Undertaker the following year, so it would be like both men would try to top
each other year after year for 4 years.
Instead with get 2 rematches for 4 years, back to back.
WrestleMania 27 - The Undertaker defeated Triple H via submission in a
no holds barred match at 29:21 with the Hell's Gate
Every thing I said about Michaels’
matches with The Undertaker, ditto for Triple H as well. These two took us to place that very few go
to.
WrestleMania 28 - The Undertaker pinned Triple H in a Hell in a Cell
match at 30:53 with the tombstone after striking Triple H in the head with his
own sledgehammer
Shawn Michaels’ involvement
helped this match, but it didn’t need any help.
Like the year before, the seeds were planted, the match was well
executed, even though The Undertaker was out of shape. This took Undertaker to 20-0!
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