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THE UNDERTAKER'S FAMED WRESTLEMANIA STREAK - A RETROSPECTIVE

Hi everybody, Gregory Honay here, and I was planning to pick up with the third and final part of the Owen Hart career retrospective, but his career really started going downhill after Montreal, and it was kind of depressing to try and write. Instead, I decided to take a more positive direction and write about the Undertaker's amazing undefeated streak at Wrestlemania. Since Wrestlemania 7, the Undertaker has taken on all kinds of wrestlers, and always emerged victorious. So what I'm going to do right now is go through each Wrestlemania, year by year, and give my thoughts and whatever history is behind each match. 

Wrestlemania 7: Jimmy Snuka (1-0) 

This is where it all began. The Undertaker had just come into the WWF about four months earlier at the Survivor Series and was in the middle of a huge push as an indestructible monster you couldn't even hurt, much less beat. Jimmy Snuka on the other hand, while once a big deal in his own right, was well past those days and was often used to put over the guys who were on their way up, hence this match. This was little more than a squash as they continued to build Undertaker for his first World Title victory later that year at Survivor Series. 

Wrestlemania 8: Jake Roberts (2-0) 

Leading into this match, the Undertaker had gotten so popular that the WWF literally had no other choice than to turn him babyface. Problem was that he was allied in storylines with Jake “The Snake” Roberts, who had turned evil and began terrorizing Randy Savage and Elizabeth following their wedding at Summerslam 91. They explained the face turn by having Undertaker come to the aid of Savage and Elizabeth, shifting the focus from Savage-Roberts to Undertaker-Roberts. This match was also Jake's last match, as he was on his way out of the WWF following Wrestlemania 8. Though Roberts got some token offense in, this was little different than the squash the year before, as Undertaker gave Jake a Tombstone on the floor en route to victory. 

Wrestlemania 9: Giant Gonzalez (3-0) 

As horrible a wrestler as Giant Gonzalez was, he was the first guy to be booked to appear capable of putting a serious hurt on the Undertaker, as Gonzalez completely trashed and eliminated Undertaker from Royal Rumble 93. Undertaker got a bit of revenge at Wrestlemania 9, though he had to settle for a cheap DQ victory when Gonzalez tried to put him out with an ether soaked rag. 

Wrestlemania 10: Did Not Appear (3-0)

 The Undertaker was written out at Royal Rumble 94 when he lost the infamously bad Casket Match to Yokozuna. The truth was that he was being given a little vacation, though as it happens he was wrestling in Japan the day of Wrestlemania 10 and wasn't even in New York City for the big tenth anniversary show. 

Wrestlemania 11: King Kong Bundy (4-0)

 Bundy, onetime Wrestlemania main eventer, got involved in a short run against Undertaker during the epic Undertaker vs Million Dollar Corporation angle that ran through most of 1995. Bundy had stolen the Undertaker's urn (which was the source of the Undertaker's power) from him at the Royal Rumble, leading to this match. Undertaker certainly wasn't able to get Bundy up for the Tombstome, putting him away instead with a flying clothesline. In case you were wondering, he did briefly recover the urn during this match, Kama stole the urn back and took off before Undertaker was able to finish up with Bundy. 

Wrestlemania 12: Diesel (5-0) 

This was the first time I thought there was a legitimate chance that the Undertaker could lose at Wrestlemania. Diesel had been the face of the company for all of 1995 and had beaten everybody, and was seen as every bit the Undertaker's equal by the time Wrestlemania 12 rolled around. Little did I know at the time that Diesel was on his way out, but knowing that in retrospect, the outcome of this match became a foregone conclusion. Undertaker even survived two Jackknife powerbombs to come back and Tombstone Diesel for the win.

 Wrestlemania 13: Sid (6-0) 

The funny thing about this match is that it was planned for Wrestlemania 13 for some time, but it was not expected to be for the WWF Title and certainly wasn't planned as the main event. The original main event for Wrestlemania 13 was expected to be a Hart-Michaels WWF Title rematch from Wrestlemania 12 where Hart would get his win back. As it happened, Shawn lost his smile, gave up the WWF Title, and ended up sitting on the sidelines for this show, meaning that things ended up having to be reshuffled. Bret Hart, of course, wound up in the famous I Quit match with Steve Austin which turned out to be one of the best matches in Wrestlemania history, while the title was transitioned to Sid for this match. Despite being tremendously over since the day he walked into the WWF in 1990, Undertaker had only held the WWF Title once, and that was for only six days, so it was nice to see him get the win here and have an extended run with the title, even if he did end up working second from the top on most PPVs to Bret and Austin.

 Wrestlemania 14: Kane (7-0)

 When Kane, the Undertaker's long-lost brother, came to the WWF in late 1997, he was booked in much the same way Undertaker had been booked in his early days, as somewhat of an indestructible zombie who couldn't be hurt. Undertaker had evolved beyond that by this point and was seen as more of a human being, while Kane rolled over everybody in his path. Even as strong as Kane had been booked, I don't think anybody expected Undertaker to lose here. This was classic booking where they either didn't touch at all or, when they did, it was Kane beating the crap out of Undertaker without the Undertaker getting a chance to retaliate, and this was the much-hyped first meeting between the two. They would, of course, go on to have what seems like eight or nine million matches since then, but this was probably the Undertaker's best booked Wrestlemania match at this point, including Undertaker needing to Tombstone Kane three times before he was finally able to pick up the win.

 Wrestlemania 15: Big Boss Man (8-0)

 Wrestlemania 15 was the first time I remember anyone taking notice of the fact that the Undertaker was undefeated at Wrestlemania, because I remember there being some talk that both of them were actually undefeated at this point, and one would be suffering their first Wrestlemania loss. Now, this IS the Big Boss Man we're talking about here, so I don't think it's any great surprise that Undertaker picked up the win in what is still regarded by many as one of the worst, if not THE worst, Hell In A Cell matches of all time. What was surprising was when the Undertaker's minions hung the Big Boss Man after this match, but that's another story for another day.

 Wrestlemania 16: Did Not Appear (8-0)

 The Undertaker missed Wrestlemania for the second time in 2000, this time because he was taking several months to let several nagging injuries heal. He'd be back shortly afterward however, debuting his American Badass character.

 Wrestlemania 17: Triple H (9-0)

 Another one of the few instances where I thought there was a chance that the Undertaker could lose. At this point, Triple H had just come off a year plus that was mostly spent as the WWF Champion, and had defeated Steve Austin in a Three Stages Of Hell match the month before, while Undertaker had gotten title shots, but had mostly been just kind of around since coming back. They had a cool brawl in the crowd which even featured Undertaker throwing Triple H off of a lighting scaffold, albeit a short one, and H landed on a padded surface which conveniently happened to be there. Triple H actually kicked out of the Tombstone, which I found surprising, and almost picked up the win with the sledgehammer before Undertaker came back with the Last Ride for the win.

 Wrestlemania 18: Ric Flair (10-0)

 A lot of people say they thought this was one of the times they thought Undertaker might lose at Wrestlemania, but I really didn't see it then and I don't now. Undertaker was pretty dominant at this point, while Flair was visibly starting to get older and wasn't quite in the shape he once was. Flair had also been getting beat up pretty regularly by Undertaker leading into this as I recall, and Flair's offense was mostly ineffective. Even getting Arn Anderson to interfere didn't help, and actually made them both look worse when Undertaker went through both of them and, with a big smile on his face, gave Flair the Tombstone for win #10. 

Wrestlemania 19: Big Show and A-Train (11-0) 

As I've said, there are years that you think Undertaker has a chance of losing. This was not one of those years. Originally scheduled to be Undertaker & Nathan Jones teaming up against Big Show & A-Train, Nathan was attacked backstage, leaving Undertaker in a two-on-one situation. Even still, it was ludicrous to think that the streak would be ended by these two, and indeed Undertaker picked up the win after Jones made a run-in and took out Big Show.

 Wrestlemania 20: Kane (12-0)

 After several years as the American Badass, Undertaker returned to the Deadman character that made him famous at Wrestlemania 20. He had been out of action for several months after Kane buried him alive at Survivor Series 2003 and was making his big return here. Kane, in the meanwhile, had something of a career revival after being unmasked the previous summer, and had not lost since losing his mask. The build to this match was very similar in a lot of ways to the build to their Wrestlemania 14 match, and it had the same result: Undertaker defeated Kane for a second time, and only needed one Tombstone to do it this time.

 Wrestlemania 21: Randy Orton (13-0)

 After dropping the World Title to Triple H a month after winning it the previous summer, they tried turning Orton face and building up to a Triple H-Orton rematch at Wrestlemania. The face turn didn't really work and Batista ended up getting a lot more over than Orton, and Batista ended up with the Wrestlemania title shot instead. Now that he had been shunted out of the main event, the face turn was abandoned and Orton quickly turned heel again and challenged the Undertaker to this match. They ended up having a much better match than I expected, with Orton pulling out a really nice counter to the chokeslam when he turned it into the RKO. I considered that they might put Orton over as a way to build up a young guy they were clearly trying to get behind, but didn't think about it too much.

 Wrestlemania 22: Mark Henry (14-0)

 This was another one of those years where you didn't believe for a minute that Undertaker's opponent had a shot at beating him. This was a casket match, was boring, and was little more than a formality to get Undertaker on the show and bump up that record by one more.

 Wrestlemania 23: Batista (15-0) 

I seriously thought they were going to put Batista over here. I don't know why, and in retrospect it seems like a silly thing to think, but I really had this feeling like Batista was going to win. I would have been really pissed if they did do that and I think the streak would have been wasted if they gave it to Batista, but thankfully, good sense prevailed and the Undertaker got the win and his second World Title victory at Wrestlemania, also completing his collection of Wrestlemania wins over the members of Evolution. He did get a much better match out of Batista than I thought he would, and along with Triple H, is one of the only two guys I really feel ever got top notch matches out of Big Dave. 

Wrestlemania 24: Edge (16-0) 

I was pretty sure Undertaker was going to win at Wrestlemania this year and get the long title run he was supposed to get in 2007, but I also felt like if they were ever going to have the Undertaker lose at Wrestlemania, this would have been the year to do it. As much as WWE gets behind Orton and Cena and as successful as both of them have been in their own ways, there are little things about both of them that don't have me completely sold on them. Edge, on the other hand, has been with the company a long time, has worked his way up, has shown that he has what it takes to be a top heel, and best of all, the company's behind him. Looking at the 15 guys the Undertaker's wrestled at Wrestlemania, I don't see anybody else who I think would have been a better choice to beat him than Edge. In the end, Undertaker got the win and Wrestlemania World Title Victory #3, but unfortunately that long title run ended up lasting about a month. Some guys just get no respect, you know?

And there you have it. After the last few years, I think Undertaker is due a nice, easy match at Wrestlemania 25 against somebody who could get a rub just by being in the ring with Undertaker at Wrestlemania, but I guess we'll have to wait and see. Thanks for reading, and all feedback can be sent to gregoryhonay@yahoo.com.