5 career turning moments for The Undertaker

#5 The end of the Streak

An unceremonious end.

The Undertaker would have arguably the most successful stretch of his career after his returned to the WWE in 2002 as the deadman character. In a similar way to Shawn Michaels, who actually made his own comeback that year after taking nearly 5 years off with an injury, the Phenom was now in a position to tone down his promo work and concentrate on putting on great wrestling matches instead.

Taker would go on to win the World Heavyweight Championship a few times, but what really set the man apart from the rest was his record at Wrestlemania. Around the time of Wrestlemania 21 when Taker took on the Legend Killer Randy Orton, the commentary team began alluding to the fact that the Phenom had never lost a match at WWE’s biggest show of the year. After defeating Orton, the streak stood at 13-0, and this would become a feature of the Wrestlemania event in the years to come.

After defeating the likes of Mark Henry and Batista, The Undertaker’s greatest Wrestlemania challenge came in the form of a man he had never beaten before in one-on-one competition. ‘Mr Wrestlemania’ himself, Shawn Michaels took on the task of trying to end Taker’s streak, facing him in what is roundly considered to be one of the greatest WWF/E matches of all time at Mania 25.

The two faced each other again at 26, this time with Michael’s career on the line. Both times, the Undertaker emerged victorious and went on to retain his undefeated streak against Triple H and CM Punk at Manias 27, 28 and 29.

By the time Wrestlemania 30 came around in 2014, Taker effectively only wrestled in one match a year, only coming back to defend his streak. His opponent this year would be Brock Lesnar, a man who had defeated Taker before, but who was no longer considered a full-time member of the WWE roster. Maybe it was the build up to the match itself, or the fact that Brock wasn’t expected to be staying around immediately after the event, but there were not many people who went into this showdown expecting the streak to be broken.

To the immense shock of 70,000 people in attendance, and millions more watching at home, the 21-year winning streak was brought to an end after a third F5 from the Beast. To this day, over three years later, many fans still feel some level of anger towards this decision, as it felt like such an unceremonious way for it all to end. It did, however, help Lesnar go on a monster heel run, defeating John Cena for the WWE Championship later that year.

This was not the official end of Taker’s career, however, as the Phenom would still make appearances against Bray Wyatt and Shane McMahon at Manias 31 and 32 respectively, but much of the anticipation and excitement of seeing Taker perform at Wrestlemania had been taken away. The Deadman would also face Roman Reigns in his most recent Mania appearance, which, in many ways, looked like it could be the last time we see the legend in a WWE ring at all.

The door is still open for the Deadman to return, but it’s unlikely that many fans will want to see him wrestle again considering his advanced years. Whatever he decides to do, however, nothing can take away the love and respect we all have for the greatest WWE superstar of all time.