WWE News: Update on The Undertaker not performing at Wrestlemania 34

What’s the story?

Per Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, The Undertaker will not be performing at Wrestlemania 34.

Apparently, The Undertaker’s absence from the event has led to a few key changes in this year’s Wrestlemania storylines.

In case you didn’t know…

The Undertaker has been competing in the sport of professional wrestling since the 1980s.

Despite being a big man, the Phenom has never shied away from executing high-risk aerial manoeuvres, and is widely respected for his work-rate and consistency over the years. However, The Undertaker has also suffered several injuries over the course of his long and storied career—something that has adversely affected his in-ring career over the past few years.

The heart of the matter

Apparently, experts believe that The Undertaker will not compete at this year’s Wrestlemania, which in turn has led to the WWE changing a few of its key storylines heading into the Show of Shows.

Apparently, John Cena, who was initially rumoured to be facing The Undertaker at Wrestlemania 34, is now likely to face Rey Mysterio at the event—something that has been brought to the table only after it was decided that Undertaker won’t wrestle at this year’s ‘Mania.

Per Barrasso, Mysterio was backstage at SmackDown this week, so as to finalize his deal with WWE; with said deal likely being finalized by the end of this week.

Cena initially pitched WWE the idea that he’d love to feud with Samoa Joe, who’s currently injured, or Rey Mysterio at Wrestlemania. Furthermore, it’s now being revealed that Cena and WWE’s interest in a feud with Mysterio is primarily owing to the highly positive fan-reaction to the latter’s surprise return at the Royal Rumble PPV in January of this year.

What’s next?

The vast majority of professional wrestling experts believe that with The Undertaker out of the equation, John Cena will feud with Rey Mysterio, leading up to a match between the two at Wrestlemania 34 in April.

As of this time, the reason behind The Undertaker not performing at Wrestlemania is yet to be revealed.

Author’s take

This situation gets more intriguing by the day, in the sense that, The Undertaker is not exactly retired per se.

However, considering that the sports-entertainment legend underwent major hip surgery last year, it isn’t exactly fair to expect him to lace up his wrestling boots as early as this April.

Besides, John Cena did confirm on this week’s edition of Raw that he was told by WWE that a match with The Undertaker was impossible. Whether or not Cena could be swerving the fans remains to be seen.