The Undertaker should have done nothing — unless he’s back for more than a glorified squash match at WrestleMania.
The setup was the way it should be — John Cena in the stands yucking it up with the fans, drink in hand, from the kickoff show to midway through the pay-per-view — but the payoff shows how diminished Undertaker may have become.
Cena was eventually told by a referee that “he is here,” and he sprinted up the ramp past Charlotte Flair, who just broke Asuka’s 914-day winning streak, to get prepared for his match. When he eventually emerged, there was a fake-out of the lights going out, and there was Elias singing instead of Undertaker answering Cena’s weeks-long call for one more match Sunday at the Superdome in New Orleans.
The 15-time world champion ended up running through his signature move-set on Elias and walked up the ramp as frustrated as the crowd. The lights went out, and Undertaker’s hat and coat appeared in the ring folded, like they did to close WrestleMania 33 after his loss to Roman Reigns. The pile was struck by purple lightning and disappeared in a nod to last year’s moment and the past ways Undertaker has resurrected himself.
With Cena halfway up the ramp, the gong hit, the fire blared and the Deadman rose. The return of the American Badass — Undertaker’s alternate character — will have to wait.
From there the entrance, which in itself never gets old, seemed to last longer the match. Undertaker proceeded to not just beat John Cena, but he ran over him.
Undertaker, who reportedly had hip replacement surgery in the last year, did seem to be moving well in a small sample size. He hit old-school moves, sat up out of nowhere, delivered a choke slam and put down Cena — who got in very little offense — with one tombstone.
If you are trying to reestablish Undertaker as a dominant force for the future, that’s how you do it. If you are trying to get Undertaker on the card for a match of greatest hits, that’s how you do it. If you are trying to tell the audience some WrestleMania moments don’t mean anything, that’s how you do it. If you are going to waste two of the best ever to step in the ring facing off at WrestleMania, that’s how you do it (no matter how hard the announcers tried to sell the moment after).
Undertaker, who is known for his epic WrestleMania matches, was reduced to the old guy you trot out there for sheer nostalgia or the fact that he just can’t stay away.
For weeks Cena pleaded with him to do something. If that’s all we are going to get from Undertaker, if WWE isn’t going to build off his dominance of Cena, he was better off doing nothing.
