AEW star recalls the moment fans thought he had killed The Undertaker's streak at WrestleMania
The Undertaker's WrestleMania streak is one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of wrestling, but one current AEW star thought he might have killed it before it ever truly took off.
The star in question is "The Enforcer" Arn Anderson, who, despite never wrestling "The Deadman" at the Show of Shows, did play a huge part in one of the streak's most underrated matches.
Taker took on Ric Flair in a no-disqualification match at WrestleMania X8 in 2002, wherein the closing stages of the match, Arn Anderson hit the ring and planted The Undertaker with his trademark spinebuster. However, The Deadman was able to kick-out and go on to win the match.
Speaking to Steve Fall on The Ten Count, Anderson went over what it was like to be involved in such a nail-biting moment, claiming that he jumped all over the opportunity as soon as it was presented.
“I don’t actually know who’s idea it was but I jumped all over it. There wasn’t any of those—you when they said ‘hey how’d you like to get involved with the Taker/Flair match?’ there wasn’t any shuffling of the feet ‘oh no that’s okay,’ ‘you damn right, yes, point me to the entrance.’ People ask me what’s the highest point in your career and best match and all that, now I wasn’t in the match but I was involved in the finish of, that’s it. It stands alone, just hearing that many people react and I think it was just the way it was set up, it was such a perfectly executed ‘screwjob.” [17:13 - 18:00]
Anderson would even go as far as to say that the execution was so good that he considers it his favorite moment of his entire wrestling career.
“Everybody thought in that building because I had just suddenly appeared on the screen, they didn’t see me run in no camera shot because I low ran by the rail all the way down there and the match is going on obviously everybody’s looking at the ring. By the time I got to ringside I was just like I just ‘poof’ just popped up. It was so well executed when I hit that spinebuster, it was a reaction of—it wasn’t like a babyface ‘oh that’s Arn Anderson,’ it was a ‘holy s**t this may actually happen Flair may actually beat him with this’ because just the execution, rolling out of the ring, hiding, the referee shaking it off and making the count. It was just so well done by those guys and it was the highlight of my wrestling career.” [18:01 - 18:54]
A number of AEW stars attempted to conquer The Undertaker's streak
After competing at WrestleMania in four separate decades, The Undertaker's record at the Showcase of the Immortals finished at an astonishing 25-2, with the two losses coming against Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns, respectively.
However, a number of current AEW stars and personalities attempted to break the streak, with some coming close, while others not faring so well.
The Undertaker Vs CM Punk - Wrestlemania 29
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The Undertaker was able to easily deal with Jake "The Snake" Roberts at WrestleMania 8, The Big Show (Paul Wight) at WrestleMania 19, and Mark Henry at WrestleMania 22. But it was CM Punk at WrestleMania 29 who gave him his toughest test, with many seeing that bout as the last great match of Taker's career.
What's your favorite match from The Undertaker's streak? Let us know in the comments section down below!
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