10 Awesome Wrestling Matches On Otherwise Terrible WWE Shows

3. The Undertaker Vs. CM Punk - WrestleMania 29

The Rock The Undertaker Kurt Angle
WWE

Given everything that fans know about how WWE operates and how it will always operate, and what a television wrestling star looks like, the days of "WWE should push Small Wrestler Lacking In Charisma X' seem hopelessly naive.

Still, you watch something like WrestleMania 29 and can be forgiven for thinking, you know, they should have rehired Kaval and have him win the Royal Rumble.

The show was studded with star power, but it was just so drastically uninspired. The casual audience demonstrably wanted to see the Rock and John Cena wrestle again, because the buy amount was impressive, but it felt just as much a boring obligation as the second Triple H Vs. Brock Lesnar match. That was beyond tedious and counterproductive.

WWE had to break the streak to get Lesnar over again in the aftermath, and the trademark self-indulgence - Triple H went 24 minutes, which was actually KENTA Vs. Ricky Marvin by his overbearing standards - limited the time allocated to the few hot acts, Daniel Bryan and The Shield, WWE had built or who had got over in spite of them.

CM Punk Vs. the Undertaker was a masterpiece, thank God. After a few years of epic back-and-forth matches with greyer character alignments, Punk, like his idol Roddy Piper, changed the question. He didn't make fans wonder if he could break the streak; he made them desperately want Undertaker to maintain it with phenomenal heel work.

He was such a complete, glorious d*ck in that match and, when his sh*thouse antics were foiled, he showed more ass with one facial expression than Triple H did between 2002 and 2004.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!