10 Reasons why The Undertaker is the greatest WWE Superstar of all time

Can we forget this reaction that accompanied the Streak’s end?

8) The Streak

There is a rumour that The Undertaker’s loss at Wrestlemania 30 to Brock Lesnar might have not been scripted but was due to the inability of the Phenom to recover from a concussion that he sustained earlier and hence to kick out of Lesnar’s pin attempt.

Even if that were true, Paul Heyman did a stellar job of running with Lesnar’s triumph; so much so that it now does not matter as much that the rub of breaking the streak directly went to Lesnar. It is the one who vanquishes the one in 21 who will ultimately benefit from what is indubitably the greatest streak in sports entertainment.

It is an ode to the Undertaker’s legacy that his Wrestlemania 31 bout against Bray Wyatt was just as emotionally absorbing to the audience as his previous matches that preceded the circumscription of the Streak.

Ironically, the idea of ‘The Streak’ has overshadowed the actual streak itself, for the streak has been broken. Yet the Deadman keeps count at Wrestlemania, with his score at 22-1 after Bray Wyatt. The WWE universe keeps count with him, eagerly awaiting Wrestlemania 32 for the chance to experience the vaunted grandeur and mysticism that the Undertaker inspires, possibly one last time.

The silent staredown between the returning Triple H and the Undertaker shall go down as one of the iconic moments on Monday Night Raw – and led to their match at Wrestlemania 27

9) Feuds

A wrestler’s rise is generally not only dependent on his own talents and efforts but also on a myriad of other factors ranging from the willingness of the company to give him a ‘push’ to the kinds of storylines and feuds that he engages in.

Many Superstars fall by the wayside for the want of a gripping storyline and/or an established big name to feud with. The Undertaker suffered a shortage or neither in the infancy stages of his WWE career and later on became the “big name” upon association with whom a Superstar could make his name.

Over the years The Undertaker has been a part of memorable feuds with Superstars like The Ultimate Warrior, Jimmy Superfly Snuka, Jake The Snake Roberts, Kane, Stone Cold, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Mankind, Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle, Batista, Randy Orton, Edge, CM Punk etcetera. A case could be made that the list of wrestlers to feud with the Undertaker would all be potential Hall of Famers, if they already are not.

In some senses, he is the gold standard when it comes to storylines and feuds in the WWE. You always know that a feud with the Undertaker is bound to get intense and involve a good measure of psychology and mind games.

It is through this process that many wrestlers have cut their teeth in the WWE, with Bray Wyatt the latest to confirm this notion, emerging with the moniker “The New Face of Fear” after his recent brush with the Deadman.

10) Dependability

Vince McMahon as we have come to witness over the years, is not exactly the most flexible and adaptive of people to work with and a fair share of wrestlers have come to either fall out with him or depart from the company due to other unaddressed gripes and concerns they may harbour.

Even top level superstars have been guilty of parting ways with the company and leaving the WWE universe in a lurch. Whether they were justified in doing so is another argument entirely. Stone Cold didn’t like the fact that he was booked to lose to Lesnar and famously “no-showed” an episode of Raw.

Ironically, Brock Lesnar himself cited the strains of the constant travel as a reason to depart the company. The Rock left to pursue a career in Hollywood, while CM Punk left because he was asked to work through injuries and had, by then, rubbed enough people the wrong way in any case.

Through all of this, The Undertaker’s steady presence has woven itself into the fabric of the WWE for the past 25 years, and regardless of the kind of talent that the company either acquires or relinquishes, his dependability as a main event draw has been unparalleled.

Quotes about the Undertaker

Jim Ross: "Everybody claims to be an icon and claims to be something special and maybe they were in their day but none will ever surpass the Undertaker in my view"Kurt Angle: "He is our leader, and I consider Undertaker the best ever" Shawn Michaels: "Wrestling against Undertaker was the best professional experience of my life." Triple H: "He is the greatest legend in the history of this business"Michael Cole: "The biggest? Smackdown and WWE superstar of all time,the legendary Undertaker".Mark Henry: "It's hard not to put The Undertaker in the same breath as Hogan and Rock because not only has he served more years as them, but collectively, I'm sure he's sold out and made more money than all of them."