5 shocking opponents who defeated The Undertaker

#1 Vladimir Kozlov

Vladimir Kozlov defeated The Undertaker clean on SmackDown

The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XXV is widely regarded as one of the greatest matches in WWE history. The build-up to the match, however, was anything but great.

That’s because Vladimir Kozlov, a Russian character who was in the mix to be ‘Taker’s WrestleMania opponent at the time, defeated “The Deadman” clean on an episode of SmackDown just a few weeks before the iconic match with HBK.

"I am shocked,” said Tazz, SmackDown’s colour commentator. “If this is the match we see at WrestleMania, Kozlov could end The Undertaker's undefeated streak."

Thankfully, that didn’t happen, and while Undertaker and Michaels made history at “The Show of Shows”, Kozlov didn’t even have a match at the event and was released by WWE in 2011 after a spell teaming with Santino Marella.