WWE has made some strange creative decisions for and leading into WrestleMania 33, and perhaps none have received as much backlash as the decision to have Roman Reigns be The Undertaker’s opponent for this year’s show. The match is being met with criticism because of Reigns’ unpopularity, and WWE isn’t doing itself a favour by having the build-up to the match be questionable at best.
The past few years have seen The Undertaker have poor build-ups to his matches at WrestleMania. Leading into WrestleMania XXX, The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar were actually in the ring together only a couple of times before the match.
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The Undertaker was completely absent during the run-in to WrestleMania 31 as Bray Wyatt had to carry their match through on his shoulders. Last year, The Undertaker played a confused role of half being Vince McMahon’s hitman and half disliking McMahon, all while his actual match was supposed to be against Shane McMahon.
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It’s a shame that this trend is continuing this year, perhaps even more so than before, because there hasn’t been a real purpose revealed for this match to exist, and Reigns has been busy locking horns with Braun Strowman and drawing attention away from the main attraction. This is particularly bad news because only two weeks are remaining until WrestleMania, and this week’s Raw saw Reigns in a match against Strowman yet again.
It could be argued that the build-up to this match began at the Royal Rumble when Reigns eliminated The Undertaker, but in truth, it was left there while Reigns engaged in a feud with Braun Strowman into Fastlane. The night after, of course, The Undertaker reappeared and delivered a chokeslam to Reigns, but still, nothing was established.
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Only last week the match was made official, but the entire basis for this feud still hasn’t been concrete. Why does the somewhat babyface Reigns want to “retire The Undertaker”? Why would The Undertaker even want to wrestle Roman in the first place? It doesn’t make much sense without context, and context here is minimum.
Take WrestleMania XXVIII for instance. The Undertaker wanted to wrestle Triple H at WrestleMania again because he was physically pushed to the edge the last time around and wanted revenge, and Triple H (although reluctant at first) took up the challenge because he wanted to prove that he was better than Shawn Michaels and be able to break the streak.
That’s how you write a story. With Roman Reigns and The Undertaker, it feels more like two people about to have a match because they have nobody else to wrestle, rather than something with some real weight involved. The fact that Braun Strowman is being tossed around like a hot potato isn’t helping either man or Strowman himself.
It isn’t too late, however. This can still be fixed with two simple solutions:
#1 Write Strowman out of the story immediately
Braun Strowman is an entertaining performer, but his presence in this story is only doing harm. After his match this week on Raw, which ended in a no result, he needs to be written off in whatever way is possible, leaving the last week of build-up only to The Undertaker and Roman Reigns.
Another concern is that if he continues to be associated with this story, he could have an interference of sorts during the actual match at WrestleMania, which would only serve as a limiting factor in the match. Once Strowman is gone, the story can focus on the two real competitors in the match.
#2 Establish substantial reasoning for this match to happen
Over the past two weeks, there have been few hints as to why Roman Reigns wants to beat The Undertaker, particularly last week when Shawn Michael’s stated that Roman is the ‘big dog’ in the yard.
Perhaps Reigns wants to beat The Undertaker to prove that he is the alpha male in the WWE, and The Undertaker wants to beat Reigns because he has been the king for two decades and wants to remain on top.
The Undertaker wanting to face Reigns because he eliminated him from the Royal Rumble, and Reigns wanting to face The Undertaker because he chokeslammed him on Raw, are both fragile, minuscule motives for a WrestleMania match, and considering the star power of both competitors in the match, it needs to be better than this.
Roman Reigns vs. The Undertaker can prove all critics wrong and be a great match. However, the match itself hasn’t been sold as much as it should have been, and with only two weeks remaining until the Grandest Stage of Them All, it needs to step up and show that it’s a match worthy of having a place on a WrestleMania card.
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