Writer’s Note: I’ve had a crazy week. I was off the grid for a couple days dealing with some stuff, and I also saw my great grandmother on her deathbed(93 yrs old) after not seeing her for several years. My Smackdown column was hurried and my thoughts were somewhat brief. This piece isn’t very organized, but it’s just a few of my thoughts on a specific situation. I hope it at least provokes some thoughts if nothing else.
I want to talk about the streak. Raw on Monday saw the return of The Undertaker. As a huge fan of this guy(like a lot of you out there), I can honestly say it’s always great to watch the dead man come down the aisle after hiatus. His staredown with Triple H at the end of Raw leads you to believe that the two will indeed face off once again at WrestleMania 28. After watching their first match from WM 17 and their match from WM 27, I can honestly say that I can’t wait for this to happen. Are they both a little more worn down than they were a year ago? Of course they are. However, let’s not forget who we are talking about here.
Last year’s WrestleMania had Cody Rhodes take on Rey Mysterio in a terrific match. It also saw CM Punk and Randy Orton give us one helluva show(yeah, they did better at Extreme Rules but Mania was still pretty damn good). Cena and the Miz wrestled a short match that was screwed up by The Rock being in the spotlight. But what about Triple H and the dead man? Oh that’s right, they stole the show. Two veterans with a combined age greater than all the other singles competitors facing off on the show, wrestled the best match on the card. If you watched the “World Premier of WrestleMania” special on NBC, you’d know that the only thing on the program was The Undertaker/Triple H match. The match, much like Taker/HBK the prior two years, told a story. Telling a story is what it’s about when it comes to any classic encounter. Can you really be naive enough to believe that Taker/HHH 3 won’t be an amazing contest? One year doesn’t change things that much, and it certainly won’t in this case. The match will be epic; I guarantee it.
Should the streak end? Mike Lightning and I had this debate quite a few times. It’s been argued that it would be fitting for the dead man to pass the torch to a younger guy by losing to him at WrestleMania. I don’t agree with this argument. Why? Because this isn’t about passing the torch. This is about one of the most, if not the most, impressive record in WWE history. It’s about the streak. It’s about the dominance of one man during his long tenure in WWE. Shawn Michaels ended his career with a loss to the dead man. Ric Flair(if he had stayed out of the ring) ended his career(in WWE at least) by losing to Shawn Michaels. Hulk Hogan, who recently said he will never wrestle another match, ended his career with a loss to Sting. If the streak was going to end, I would expect that it would signal the end of the dead man’s career and that he would want it to be ended by another experienced veteran. It only makes sense.
My only reason for thinking that the streak will stay intact is actually because of what I said before. It’s the streak. You can’t destroy it. The Undertaker came into the WWE with a lot of dominance and maintained it throughout his entire career. What sense would make for his character to go out with a loss? It doesn’t fit for the dead man at all. 19-0 looks very messy. 19-1 looks even worse. 20-0 is what it needs to be. He needs to defeat Triple H in an epic encounter that surpasses the quality of their previous two WM contests, and they should give him the proper retirement sendoff on Raw the following night. That’s my ideal booking, anyway.
So what will happen with the streak? It remains to be seen. No matter how the match goes down at WrestleMania 28, you can be fairly confident that it will the dead man’s last time inside the squared circle. His time in WWE will finally end after 21 1/2 years of magic inside the ring. You can easily expect the dead man to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in the near future. So there you have it. These were just a few things floating around in my brain that I wanted to put into writing. I’ll have my Raw column out sometime late tonight/early Tuesday. Until next time, thanks for reading!
www.facebook.com/thunderstruck11 – add me
