7 Things WWE could have done differently with The Undertaker

The Streak and the Beast

And this is how it’s shouldn’t have...

The Streak emerged as a singular selling point that made every fan want to watch Wrestlemania for the fear of missing another timeless classic, courtesy of the Undertaker. The Streak will never be replicated, purely because it was not something that was conceptualized from the beginning – it was a thing of beauty that presented itself as his career and legend evolved.

You would concede then, that having the Streak end was a really big deal. Having Brock Lesnar break the streak though, is a decision that has yet to achieve vindication. Of all the Superstars who could have benefitted tremendously from the rub of breaking the Streak, Brock Lesnar was the one who required it the least.

Why exactly the WWE chose to let Lesnar break the Streak is still hazy, with rumours that the decision was taken in the eleventh hour suggesting a total lack of forward thinking on the part of the WWE think-tank.

In the end, unfortunately, the transference of the pre-eminence of the Streak represented but a pale shadow of the significance that it had accumulated over the years.

Return at Wrestlemania 31

Having the Undertaker return after the Streak was broken sent all the wrong messages

In the previous few years, the Undertaker has been battling against his own aging and banged-up body in order to get into shape for his Wrestlemania appearances. His appearances on Raw have been severely curtailed, if not non-existent, and his legend, like his appearances, has exclusively become synonymous with the Streak.

Having portrayed the Undertaker as this super-human who rises every year at Wrestlemania to defend his keep, the WWE did great disservice to their own advertising standpoint when they had him return to fight Bray Wyatt.

One could argue that their hand was forced given how abrupt the demise of the Streak had felt in the previous year, but does not hide the fact that his latest appearance caps off a period of three years when the WWE have muddled up irrevocably with the Undertaker and the Streak.

Surely the Undertaker, and indeed the WWE Universe that is inextricably invested in his legend, deserve better.