WrestleMania Rewind : WrestleMania 25 - Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker

The granddaddy of them all, WrestleMania is just about a month away. The anticipation for the extravaganza is sky high among the WWE Universe. And since the pay-per-view is richer than Richie rich when it comes to history, we have decided to take a look back at some of the best WrestleMania matches with this latest series.The clash between Undertaker and Shawn Michaels that happened at WrestleMania 25 is a match without which, the folklore of WrestleMania would be incomplete.It went down in history as a benchmark for everything that followed and here is a look at how Taker and Michaels stole the entire show at the best possible stage.

#1 The Buildup

The first clash between Undertaker and Shawn Michaels didn’t have the best of buildups. Michaels was having a feud with JBL just before WrestleMania. At No Way Out, JBL defeated Michaels and became the owner of the Heart Break Kid.

In an attempt to regain his freedom, Michaels challenged JBL to a match on the February 16 edition of Monday Night Raw. Apart from having Michaels’ freedom on the line, WWE also decided to add a stipulation which said ‘The winner would face Undertaker at WrestleMania’.

Michaels went on to defeat JBL in a thrilling contest however, before a date with Taker was set on stone, entered Vladimir Kozlov. He wanted to have a match with Undertaker as well (imagine that) and on the following week, Michaels had to face Kozlov to decide who gets to face Taker.

Mr. WrestleMania won the match against Kozlov as well and the writing was on the wall. Once the match was made official, Taker and Michaels started their mind games in full throttle. Things heated up as they went closer to WrestleMania and the stage was set perfectly for the show down.

#2 The Match

In the blue corner, we had the show stopper, Mr. WrestleMania, Heart Break Kid, one of the best wrestlers that WWE has seen, Shawn Michaels. And in the red corner, we had the Phenom, the dead man and one of the most respected names in the business, Undertaker.

This match was destined to be a classic and it turned out to be just that. The heaven – hell contrasting entrance was the first thing that got fans invested. After the theatrics of the entrance, the war was on.

Rather than having dangerous spots, the two legends built up their match intelligently with many false finishes and close calls. However, there was one spot which made everyone jump out of their seats. Taker took a dive to outside only to land awkwardly into the floor.

Taker almost failed to answer the ten counts thanks to that bump but he soon recovered and got back into the ring. Many two counts followed and fans were running out of nails to chew. In the climax sequence, Taker caught Michaels in midair and rooted him with a piledriver. One, two, three and the streak lived to see another day.

#3 The Fall Out

After the match, both Michaels and Undertaker took a break from wrestling. Michaels returned to the WWE later to reform DX with Triple H and went on to have a feud with Legacy.

However, the real fall out started at the Slammy awards. The Taker vs. Michaels match at WrestleMania 25 won ‘best match of the year’ Slammy and at the ceremony, Michaels challenged Taker into a rematch at WrestleMania 26.

Taker was hesitant to accept the offer in the initial stages and what happened next is a story for another day because, it built up to yet another emotional and historic clash between these two legendary names.