In this piece, PWP Nation’s Eron Ramadanov talks about what could be with John Cena vs. Undertaker at WrestleMania 33 with the element of what could’ve been.
For millennials like me, almost three years ago around this time, a part of our childhood died at WrestleMania 30. Not only did that piece of our childhood die, but it came out of nowhere and was a true, total and complete shock.
It’s ironic isn’t it?
On a night were wrestling fans were so thrilled and overjoyed to see Daniel Bryan finally climb the mountain and defeat the Authority, standing tall with the WWE World Heavyweight Championship leading a “YES!” chant of almost 80,000 people, just an hour earlier, an iconic legacy of one phenom was shattered with a simple F-5. One legend died, but another emerged for the time being.
I know this topic has been beaten to death, but for me, I’ve just come to a realization that many others have come too much sooner than me. When it happened, I was as shocked as anyone else in the building or watching at home, but after thinking about it and going through the five stages of grief, I was quickly okay with it. I understood the greater purpose and understood what was going to happen next. And up until a few months ago, I was still a firm believer and supporter of Brock Lesnar having the only win over the Undertaker at WrestleMania. It was part of a bigger plan.
After conquering the streak, Brock Lesnar rose to become the biggest ass-kicker in WWE and easily their top attraction. But was it worth it? Could Lesnar have become as big of an attraction without beating the Undertaker at WrestleMania? We’ll never really know. I think they could’ve had Lesnar lose to the Deadman at WrestleMania, but still have him run through the rest of the roster and become the WWE World Champion going into WrestleMania 31.
I believe that was an option and it would’ve worked. Now, when looking back, the Lesnar run wasn’t really that special. Sure, we had some interesting and cool moments during Brock’s ass-kicking tour, but half way through it all, it became stale and overdone. And to put a cherry on top, Goldberg beating him in under two minutes didn’t help his cause, that’s for sure. But as the famous saying goes, “hindsight is 20/20.”
My logic, seemingly along with WWE, was that the Undertaker is an icon with or without the streak. He didn’t really need it anymore. Even with the streak broken, I believed that the Undertaker could still contribute to WWE programming, most notably at WrestleMania, without having the streak on the line.
Was I right? Somewhat.
After WrestleMania 30, the Undertaker still went on to have good, meaningful matches at WrestleMania – and elsewhere – in my estimation. His match with Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 31, even though it didn’t really have much of a build-up or purpose, it definitely propelled Wyatt into that next level – in my eyes – even in defeat. And I obviously can’t confirm it, but I’m sure that the Undertaker’s respect level for Bray Wyatt rose ten-fold that night and rightfully so, as Wyatt wasn’t event 100% healthy going into that match.
Even though I’ve criticized Shane McMahon and WrestleMania 32 as a whole, I will say that the Undertaker and Shane O’Mac had a match (or moment) that will be replayed over and over again for years/decades to come. And how can I forgot the Undertaker’s return matches against Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam and Hell in a Cell. Even though those matches received mixed reviews, they certainly produced some awesome, memorable moments.
So, in the grand scheme of things, does the Undertaker really NEED his streak to be an entertaining character on television? Not necessarily. But there is one match left for the Deadman that could have certainly been enhanced with the Streak on the line.
Which match is that, you may ask? John Cena.
Yes, I know. You might have thrown-up in your mouth a little bit, but I’m being serious. The Undertaker versus John Cena is the one match left for both guys to have, especially with WrestleMania 33 creeping its head around the corner. Yes, they’ve wrestled before in the mid-2000s, but that was then and this is now. The two superstars completely different characters and for the most part in the eyes of the fans, they are icons.
I may be in the minority that wants to see the Undertaker and John Cena go one-on-one at WrestleMania, but if you don’t want to see it, let me paint a picture for you: imagine in the main event of the show, it comes down to Cena versus the Undertaker, with maybe the Deadman’s career on the line.
Before even getting to this point, Cena returns after running around in TV land with the cliché, “there’s nothing left for me to achieve here in WWE… expect for one thing… wrestle the Undertaker on the grandest stage of them all, WrestleMania.” After weeks of goating and egging on the Phenom, he finally appears and accepts. When the moment finally happens, with the Undertaker and John Cena, two absolute legends, standing face-to-face, nose-to-nose, with over 75,000 thousand people in Orlando, FL at WrestleMania 33 screaming their heads off, I think it’ll all be worth it.
Now as great as that moment would be, do you know what would make it better? The Streak.
By adding that extra incentive of the streak to the story, I believe it might garner more excitement for this match. Do you remember the feeling of someone like Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Edge, CM Punk and others coming so close to beating the Undertaker with several near falls? It was exciting and over-the-top.
For example, at WrestleMania 28 when Shawn Michaels – for a split second – turned on the Undertaker with a superkick, which led to Triple H hitting a pedigree and going for the cover. In that moment, even though in the back of your mind you knew that it wasn’t going to end that way, there was a large percentage of your brain that thought that Degeneration-X was going to not only end the streak, but steal it away from the Deadman and all of us. Moments like that is what made the streak so great and I think the future Cena/Taker match could’ve really benefited from it.
I’m not saying that John Cena should’ve been the man to end the Undertaker’s streak, but I sure would’ve loved to see people freak out over that possibility. Overall, I still think that the eventual John Cena vs. Undertaker match will be a great story and moment in wrestling history, with or without the streak. The standard bearer in WWE versus the last remaining outlaw. I believe WrestleMania 33 is truly the last and final chance for WWE to get this story correct.
After all, I don’t think WWE wants to make the same mistake twice, do they?
For more news, rumors, videos, podcasts and exclusive articles, follow us on Twitter @PWPNation.
