Every year, as the WrestleMania season rolls by, there is a lot of speculation as to who will be facing the Undertaker. The Undertaker has become synonymous with WrestleMania as his streak holds legendary importance in the history of sports entertainment. This year too, there were a lot of rumors going around about the identity of the person taking on “The Deadman”.
One of the prominent names that emerged was John Cena. Although the two had been a regular part of the roster for a better part of a decade, the two rarely went head to head in main event clashes. A match at WrestleMania between the two would have definitely garnered a lot of attention and would have been a match to remember. Those were the exact plans fueling WWE creative heading into WrestleMania 32.
Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that Undertaker’s original opponent for WrestleMania 32 was supposed to be John Cena. Alvarez brought up the topic while discussing the issue of a possible Brock Lesnar vs. Shane McMahon match that’s rumoured to be in the works. He pointed out that Cena’s shoulder injury was the main reason behind scrapping the match. He said:
“I cannot bring myself to believe that they’re going to do [Shane McMahon vs. Brock Lesnar]. I just don’t understand why you would waste a Brock Lesnar match on Shane McMahon. The Shane vs. Undertaker match was a fallback plan after John Cena got hurt and they had nobody else for The Undertaker.”
Although the Undertaker’s matchup with Shane was a good match filled with good spots, it didn’t match up to some of “the Phenom’s” other WrestleMania clashes. After the match, Taker apparently told Vince that he was done. Since then, Undertaker hasn’t appeared on WWE television. He was also scheduled to make a few appearances at a few live events following WrestleMania 32, but he was later pulled out of those shows at the eleventh hour, which caused many to speculate that there was heat between “The Phenom” and the WWE chairman.
Another reason was that Vince had reportedly asked the Undertaker to job to his son, to which “the Deadman” vehemently disagreed.
Cena, on the other hand, did make an appearance at WrestleMania 32 and helped the Rock overcome the threat of the Wyatt family. He didn’t do much during the segment, though, as he was still not medically cleared to wrestle.
Both Cena and Undertaker are now out of WWE programing for the time being. Cena is out shooting the second season of his reality show American Grit. Taker has been rumored to return ever since the WWE branded him as one of the hottest free agents along with the Rock following the brand split. If he were to return, it would be natural for him to be drafted to the blue brand to feud with Cena. Moreover, Undertaker had been drafted to Smack Down during the inaugural brand split in 2002.
Cena will possibly be back towards the end of the year but it’s uncertain as to who he will feud with next. We might just get a match between the “Leader of the Cenation” and “the Deadman” at WrestleMania 33 but for now, we can only speculate.
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