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The Undertaker is a legend of the business and for over two and a half decades has entertained us with some of the greatest moments in WWE history. Many consider him to be the greatest of all time and it's a fair argument given his body of work.
He's a larger than life character who's been through the Golden Era, the New Generation Era, the Attitude Era, the Ruthless Aggression and even PG era. There are few superstars who have such longevity but what's amazing about The Undertaker is the fact that he stayed on top for so long.
He was always one of those superstars who never needed a title. He never spoke much and was a special attraction on his own. The flipside of this, however, is the harsh reality that WWE fans need to accept: He's overstayed his welcome.
To be fair, his time is done and physically, a human being can only go through so much. The fact that The Phenom managed to sustain his career for so long just shows what a freak athlete he is.
Through the past few years, The Undertaker has made many eagerly anticipated returns, but not all of them panned out as exciting as expected. Here are 5 times when The Undertaker's return appearances have turned out to be absolutely pointless.
#5 RAW 25
The Undertaker's appearance at RAW 25 made absolutely no sense. It was his first appearance since his supposed retirement at WrestleMania 33 and it was also a special appearance as it took place in the Manhattan Center in New York, the venue for RAW in the early days.
The Undertaker just seemed to ramble on about the past and what he's done and that was about it. There was no indication of what was ahead for him.
#4 The Undertaker makes a big return...to say a few words?
Shane McMahon's WWE return in 2016 took the WWE Universe by pleasant surprise. It was great to see him back and the anticipation had risen when Vince McMahon put him in a high stakes match-up against The Undertaker and if he won, he would be in control of RAW.
Fans were torn because they really wanted to see change on RAW but they weren't ready to see The Undertaker lose at WrestleMania again. You can imagine the anticipation when The Undertaker was advertised a week in advance, as fans wanted to hear his take on the situation.
You can imagine the disappointment when WWE milked it out and made him appear at the very end of RAW, just to tell Vince McMahon "The blood of your soon is in your hands, not mine".
While shorter is sweeter, it just didn't come across as anything but disappointing in this scenario.
#3 SmackDown 1000
In the latest addition to the list, The Undertaker was advertised for SmackDown 1000. Now, it was obviously the right call to bring him in because of how much he contributed to the blue brand during the Ruthless Aggression Era and after it.
Fans were aware that his promo would be related to Triple H and DX as it happened to be the ongoing feud. But much to fans' disappointment, he came at the very end after Rey Mysterio's successful return match, only to say "I have three words for DX: Rest In Peace".
His entrance was far longer than his entire speech and when it was all said and done, it seemed like a pointless appearance altogether. Could he not have just said the same thing on RAW?
The SmackDown 1000 episode was great, but it was a very underwhelming way to close the show.
#2 SmackDown 900
The Undertaker returned on SmackDown 900 to interrupt a Cutting Edge segment with the SmackDown team for Survivor Series. Admittedly, this was actually quite a good segment. He was in the ring with the new generation of talent and had some interesting things to say.
He even praised Shane McMahon, stating that it's only suitable that the commissioner is a man without fear. Now, here's where the problem starts. He talked about how he was making a big return and every indication seemed to point to the fact that he was going to return full-time.
Naturally, fans were excited by this. They could see dream matches such as AJ Styles vs The Undertaker and eventually even John Cena vs The Undertaker (We'll get to that one). But it was just empty words as he wouldn't make his next appearance until the build to the Royal Rumble the following year. He then feuded with Roman Reigns...on RAW.
#1 John Cena vs The Undertaker
John Cena vs The Undertaker was the single biggest WrestleMania match that never seemed like it was going to happen after The Phenom's supposed retirement in 2017. However, John Cena started calling him out on RAW after he had no WrestleMania match himself.
He called him out and insulted him week after week, calling him a coward. He then resorted to attending WrestleMania as a fan. It finally happened and John Cena found himself face to face with The Undertaker. A weird build, but atleast we're getting the dream match right?
We got it alright, but for a whopping 2 minutes and 45 seconds. That's right. The most anticipated match-up in WrestleMania history for years wound up becoming a pointless match that lasted less than 3 minutes, where John Cena got squashed. Now that's some long-term storytelling, isn't it?
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