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At Survivor Series 2020, The Undertaker will appear in what is being advertised as his final farewell in WWE.
To commemorate 30 years of The Deadman in WWE, fans, celebrities, and other Superstars have been posting their tributes to The Undertaker's legacy on social media.
Despite having established such a long-lasting career in this business, The Undertaker is yet to face some famous Superstars in modern-day WWE. At the same time, The Undertaker has publicly expressed the desire to face a couple of big names, had he not retired at this stage of his life.
Various sources have also revealed the names of some Superstars that Undertaker had wanted to face throughout all these years. With that in mind, let's take a look at five Superstars The Undertaker wanted to face in WWE.
#5: The Undertaker wanted to face Daniel Bryan in WWE
Back in 2014, The Undertaker reportedly asked WWE to let him have a match with Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania. It was the same event where Brock Lesnar eventually broke The Phenom's WrestleMania streak, and Daniel Bryan won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in a career-defining moment by defeating Batista and Randy Orton in a triple threat main event.
Before the event actually took place in 2014, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter confirmed reports of The Undertaker asking WWE to face Bryan at WrestleMania 30.
To this day, Bryan and Undertaker have never faced each other inside the ring in a one-on-one match.
The only recorded instance of them having been a part of the same match was during an episode of WWE RAW in 2013, where The Undertaker, Kane, and Bryan teamed up to take on The Shield in a six-man tag team match.
Had Daniel Bryan faced The Deadman at WrestleMania 30 instead of Brock Lesnar, modern-day WWE history would have been very different than it is today.
#4: The Undertaker wanted to face Seth Rollins in WWE
Back in 2019, The Dirty Sheets (via wwfoldschool.com) reported that The Undertaker listed a couple of WWE Superstars he wanted to wrestle before retiring. At that point in time, The Deadman mostly wanted to face stars who were renowned as great in-ring workers, which is why Seth Rollins was on The Undertaker's watchlist as a potential opponent last year.
Rollins and Undertaker didn't get an opportunity to face each other in singles competition, but as mentioned in the previous slide, both stars were on opposite teams in a six-man tag team match during an episode of Monday Night RAW in 2013.
In an interview with Bandwagon.Asia, Seth Rollins said he would have liked to face The Phenom after WrestleMania 33.
It's a pretty interesting coincidence that stars like Daniel Bryan and Seth Rollins - whom The Undertaker wanted to face in WWE - have been in the same match as The Deadman only on one occasion, that too, at the same instance.
In an interview with Sportskeeda, Seth Rollins explained why The Undertaker is the 'Godfather of WWE', which can be seen in the video linked above.
#3: The Undertaker wished to face AJ Styles in a traditional match in WWE
If The Undertaker finally retires at Survivor Series 2020, the Boneyard Match against AJ Styles at WrestleMania 36 will go down as his final match in WWE.
Even though the Boneyard Match was an excellent farewell for The Deadman, Undertaker spoke to SPORF about his desire to have a traditional match with AJ Styles:
"Um, you know what, I really, although I'm super proud of the Boneyard Match, I wish I would have liked to have had a quote 'traditional kind of match' with AJ Styles in a wrestling ring. I told him on several occasions, 'Man, I wished you have gotten here 10/15 years earlier', because I just love the way he works. I love what he does in the ring. I've kind of called him the Modern-day Shawn Michaels, and as proud as I am of the Boneyard, I would have loved to have had an extended program with AJ Styles."
Clearly, The Undertaker is a big fan of The Phenomenal One's work inside the ring, just like millions of WWE and pro wrestling fans all over the world. It made absolute sense to pair someone like Styles with The Undertaker heading into WrestleMania, just before the pandemic became a major issue.
Even if WWE fans may not get to see a traditional in-ring match between The Undertaker and AJ Styles, the Boneyard Match will go down in history as an iconic match on its own, which kickstarted the modern wave of cinematic matches during a global pandemic.
#2: The Undertaker would have loved to work with 'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt in WWE
In more recent news, The Undertaker and The Fiend have been mentioned in several articles in the same sentence, thanks to a potential confrontation between the two if The Phenom somehow doesn't retire at WWE Survivor Series 2020.
The Undertaker has been doing media rounds on the road to Survivor Series, and he recently talked about Bray Wyatt during an appearance on WWE's The Bump:
"I would love to have been able to work a program with The Fiend. I mean my goodness, there's no telling what kinda matches we'd come up with. You know, just due to the strength of his character and obviously The Undertaker character. It would have been something else. It might have been a buried alive swamp match from Alcatraz. The possibilities would be limitless with those two characters."
Even though Bray Wyatt faced The Undertaker at WrestleMania 31 several years ago, Wyatt's work as The Fiend has skyrocketed his stock in WWE since 2019. As a matter of fact, many fans and critics have compared The Fiend's aura to The Phenom's ominous presence in the squared circle.
If The Fiend and The Undertaker would have clashed in modern-day WWE, it might have gone down as one of the most creatively enticing WWE storylines of all time.
#1: The Undertaker wanted to face Drew McIntyre in WWE
After The Undertaker's disastrous match against Goldberg at Super ShowDown in 2019, The Deadman requested WWE to let him work with Drew McIntyre, as per Sports Illustrated.
"Sports Illustrated learned that McIntyre was on the shortlist of Undertaker's requested opponents following his debacle in Saudi Arabia against Bill Goldberg at the Super ShowDown".
As a matter of fact, Undertaker teamed up with Roman Reigns to face Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre at WWE Extreme Rules 2019.
Seth Rollins' name was brought up in the list of WWE Superstars that The Undertaker wanted to face before retiring, as mentioned a few slides ago. Drew McIntyre's name was also mentioned alongside Seth Rollins in that list, which meant that fans could have potentially witnessed a singles match between McIntyre and The Deadman in modern-day WWE.
Interestingly, Drew McIntyre revealed that he was scheduled to face The Undertaker ten years ago at WrestleMania 26, but plans were changed because McIntyre wasn't ready for such a big task at that point in time. Instead, The Undertaker defeated Drew McIntyre in a one-on-one match a few days before WrestleMania 26, as he eventually went on to face Shawn Michaels at The Grandest Stage of Them All that year.
That being said, an encounter between Drew McIntyre and The Undertaker could have panned out differently if took place in 2020.
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