The Undertaker’s WrestleMania Legacy, Will it Go On?
An Analysis, by Nathan Taber
With WrestleMania 35 right around the corner, I want to talk just a little bit about one of my favorite pro wrestlers - The Undertaker. It’s a name that will likely ring a bell even if you’re not a pro wrestling fan. For nearly three decades this man has been at the top of World Wrestling Entertainment. Now even in his post wrestling life, WWE still has a place for him to come in as an attraction for their biggest shows, just a few select times out of the year. Every April I find myself asking the same question. Will The Undertaker finally sit on the sidelines for the show where he defined his legacy, WrestleMania?
This year there hasn’t even been the slightest mention of “The Deadman”, as he’s called. Surely this means no appearance from our resident Grim Reaper this Sunday at Mania, right? Well, let’s break this down because despite what you may have heard I believe The Undertaker WILL be at WrestleMania!
Last year for WrestleMania John Cena vs The Undertaker was all but announced. Cena had laid out the challenge and even though the match wasn’t “official” you just knew it was going down. And so it did. And Undertaker “whipped him like a government mule” as Good ol’ JR would say. I’d like to take a deeper look at the situation and make a bit of a prediction here. Could this be a new tradition of sorts in the works? Could The Undertaker just show up unannounced each year at WrestleMania and just beat somebody up? Well, I think it’s a possibility. And who has a performance this year that is just begging for an “interruption”...on to the next point.
Elias (pictured above) has been getting weekly segments talking about how he’s got a performance for WrestleMania that “nobody will interrupt”. So the question is who’s gonna beat the crap out of Elias? The answer I believe is as clear as day...
Just looking at The Undertaker’s career from a broad perspective, It seems like since WrestleMania 27 when he fought Triple H in Miami, each year we wonder if he will truly hang it up for good. We thought he had multiple times, but he always seems to come back around, even just as recently as late last year for a couple of overseas stadium shows. Now we wait for WrestleMania Sunday where I believe another chapter will unfold in the legendary career of The Undertaker.