Undertaker's greatest WrestleMania match
Undertaker- The Legacy:
Undertaker is the name that comes to my mind when someone talks about a WWE wrestler who’s been evergreen (or ever-black). With a career spanning more than two decades, he has always been an integral part of the WWE storyline. Right from the time he debuted, to his journey through various engaging storylines like, ‘Deadman’, ‘Brothers of Destruction’, ‘Ministry of Darkness’, ‘American Bad Ass’ and ‘Big Evil’, he has been actively involved in various feuds and storylines. It would not be an over-statement if we count him among the best wrestlers of all time considering his popularity and the records he created.
The famous Streak: Out of the numerous records he created during his stay as at WWE,one such record stood out from the others. This was his undefeated streak in WrestleMania which stretched for 21 matches only to be broken by Brock Lesnar in the most recent WrestleMania. Many legendary Wrestlers tried to break his streak and failed. Triple H, Randy Orton and many other superstars shared the same fate at his hands.
Undertaker-Shawn Michaels feud: These attempts to defeat Undertaker gave way to some of the most entertaining matches the WWE had ever witnessed. One such feud was the Undertaker-Shawn Michaels fued which yielded many great matches at that time but even among those, two phenomenal matches at WrestleMania 25 and 26 stood out as probably the contenders for the greatest matches of all time.
WrestleMania 25- Undertaker’s best match:
Build-up: Among the many challanges he faced and the matches he played, Undertaker’s match with Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 25 is considered by many to be the best match of his career. Some even feel that it is the best match in WWE history. The match took place after Michaels defeated Vladimir Kozlov in a match which decided who would be challenging the Undertaker’s undefeated streak.
The match: The match was very intriguing even before it started as Michaels entered the ring on an elevated, illuminated platform symbolizing the light and Undertaker ascended from the floor accompanied by flames from the ground symbolizing hell and darkness. The match started with both the opponents delivering fast blows to each other for quite some time after Shawn faked an injury to distract The Dead Man. After this, the match lost some tempo as Shawn tried a couple of submission moves on him and Taker retaliated with one submission move of his own.
The tempo and the impossible: One of the moments of the match happened when the phenom dived onto the cameraman while aiming for Michaels. While HBK was slowly about to get back to his feet, Taker decided to dive on top off him from the ring, but the moment he took off to dive, Michales got out of the way and pulled in the cameraman instead.
About 15 minutes in the match, both the opponents have had enough and they started executing their premier finishing moves like Sweet Chin Music, The Last Ride, Chokeslam, Tombstone Piledriver and what not. Michaels showed tremendous resilience to kick out of the Chokeslam and Tombstone Piledriver more than once which had never happened before and it left the commentators yelling in disbelief.
Even the Undertaker refused to get pinned down by the superkick which usually used to be very effective as a finishing move. In the end, after multiple attempts at finishing moves, The Undertaker finally caught Michaels mid-air while attempting a Moonsault and converted it into a Tombstone Piledriver, finally pinning him down and winning what was to be the most hard-fought match of his career.
Aftermath: Undertaker remained unbeaten and extended his streak forward to 17-0. This epic encounter also won the ‘Match of the Year’ award. The next year Michaels challanged Undertaker again in a ‘career vs streak’ match which the Undertaker won again, forcing Michaels to retire. Even to this day, the match remains as one of the most epic matches in WWE history and warrants re-visits from fans.