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Every good thing comes to an end, and as much as we as fans won't want to accept this, our favorite WWE Superstar The Undertaker has seemingly announced his retirement from WWE. We got an amazing look at the life of the man behind this iconic character, Mark Callaway, in the WWE Network docu-series "Undertaker: The Last Ride". On the final chapter of the series, The Undertaker mentioned the following -
"At this point in my career, I have no desire to get back in the ring. I'm at a point, it's time this cowboy really rides away."
WWE has witnessed hundreds of Superstars throughout its history, but there never will there be another one like The Undertaker. He is someone who more often than not makes it to most of the wrestling fan's "Mount Rushmore". If you ask me, who is the greatest WWE Superstar of all-time? My answer would be this man!
And to support my claim, I would like to list five reasons why The Undertaker might just be the greatest WWE Superstar of all time. Be sure to comment down and let me know whether you agree or disagree with my opinion.
#5 The Undertaker's influence on the entire WWE Locker Room
The Undertaker has been the locker room leader throughout his career and has helped multiple Superstars by putting them on the map. Every WWE Superstar on the roster has the utmost respect for The Undertaker and he is someone everyone looks up to.
There are many stories of The Undertaker leading the locker room, and one of the best examples could be him being the judge for the Wrestler's Court. The WWE roster trusted him to make the correct decision, whatever the dispute might be.
Throughout the WWE Network Documentary, several WWE Superstars praised The Undertaker including current stars like Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt, and many others. His wife, Michelle McCool mentioned that The Undertaker often visits the Performance Center and helps the young Superstars of NXT understand the little things in this business that make a lot of difference.
He makes sure to let everyone know the right thing to do -
"Don’t embarrass yourself, don’t embarrass the company, don’t embarrass Vince."
The influence that The Undertaker has had on the entire WWE locker room is unparalleled, and no matter what, he will always remain the locker room leader.
#4 The Undertaker's ability to adapt his character and longevity of his career
The Undertaker is the longest-tenured active WWE Superstar. Making his WWE/WWF debut in 1990, this year marks his 30th anniversary with the company. He was loyal to the company for three decades, rejecting any offer to jump ships and helped build WWE to what it is today.
We've seen many characters impress the WWE Universe but get stale after some time, but The Undertaker managed to keep his character interesting for all these years, so much so that, fans still go crazy just to see him in his iconic attire.
It was his ability to adapt his character that led to the success of The Undertaker. He was the Lord of Darkness, but as revealed on The Last Ride, he knew that he had to tweak his gimmick to keep it interesting during the Attitude Era, and thus he debuted the American Bad Ass version of The Undertaker. He later switched back to the Dead Man gimmick after a few years.
Earlier this year, during his highly personal feud with AJ Styles at WrestleMania 36, we saw a completely different version of The Undertaker - a mix of both the above gimmicks, plus shades of his original identity - Mark Callaway. As Bruce Prichard mentioned in the documentary, both The Undertaker and Mark Callaway merged into each other.
It was this ability to adapt that makes him stand out from every other WWE Superstar in history and helped him have such a long career.
#3 The Undertaker's amazing in-ring abilities and iconic matches
You can't be called the greatest WWE Superstar of all-time if you can't impress the fans by your in-ring abilities. And The Undertaker checks this box as well thanks to his exceptional skills inside the ring. Of course, he hasn't been in his best shape for the last few years, but in his prime, he was one of the best wrestlers on the roster. He amazed everyone by his athletic abilities, considering his size as he is a proper heavyweight.
The Phenom has some of the most legendary moves in his arsenal with the Chokeslam and the Tombstone Piledriver always getting the audience off their seats. Not to forget, the deadly Hell's Gate triangle choke submission, which is good enough to make your opponent pass-out in a real fight as well.
Throughout his career, he has had numerous iconic feuds and matches. If we talk about the Greatest WWE match of all time, many fans consider it to be The Undertaker's WrestleMania 25 encounter against Shawn Michaels (Sorry, Randy Orton, and Edge). Other than that, he also had memorable feuds against the likes of Triple H, Mick Foley, Brock Lesnar, and many others.
There have been so many great moments in his career that it is tough to pick one of them and call it the greatest!
#2 The Undertaker's legendary WrestleMania streak
While Shawn Michaels is known as Mr. WrestleMania, it is The Undertaker who is the Superstar who has had the biggest impact on the success of WWE's Grandest Stage of Them All. You can't talk about WrestleMania without mentioning The Undertaker's legendary WrestleMania streak - something which was the biggest attraction of the year for a long time until Brock Lesnar broke the hearts of thousands of fans at WrestleMania XXX.
The Undertaker made his WrestleMania debut at the seventh anniversary of The Show of Shows in 1991 and continued to win his matches at the event year after year. Once people started realizing he's undefeated at WrestleMania, it became a huge attraction, with top WWE Superstars attempting to do the unthinkable every year, only to succumb to The Deadman in the end.
He was once undefeated at WrestleMania with a record of 21-0, following which The Beast Incarnate became the conqueror of the streak. While the mystique of the streak was lost after that (Roman Reigns defeated him at WrestleMania 33 as well), The Undertaker's record at the Show of Shows is 25-2, something which I'm sure no Superstar will be able to break.
#1 The Undertaker living his gimmick
We appreciate The Undertaker a lot, but it is the man behind the character-- Mark Callaway --- that deserves the credit for making this gimmick such a huge success. The way The Undertaker managed to keep himself out of all the limelight for all these years just to protect the mystique of the gimmick speaks volumes about his professionalism.
He avoided out-of-character appearances, social media, interviews, and whatnot for all these years. He even started wearing only black or dark clothes. In Vince McMahon's own words, he lived his gimmick in every sense.
WWE Superstar Bray Wyatt mentioned on the Last Ride how The Undertaker was always at his best, be it on-screen or behind the curtains.
"There’s this typical thing that people say about this place - that your character‘s personality on television is you turned up to ten, but Undertaker is always on ten."
It was finally now that The Undertaker allowed WWE cameras to film his life and reveal his human side. And we as fans can't thank him enough for that as it led to us witnessing what could be the greatest WWE documentary of all time.
The Undertaker is a once-in-a-generation WWE Superstar who has left a massive legacy on this business. He truly is, The Greatest of All Time.
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