10 Big Money Matches WWE Needs To Make
5. The Rock Vs. The Undertaker
The Great One and the Phenom have had a fairly chequered past together over the years… but the thing is, the vast majority of those years cover a Venn diagram of Attitude Era overlapping with American Badass/Big Evil.
The Phenom that Rocky has faced off against or paired off with in makeshift tag encounters was a particular kind of Undertaker: the demonic cultist, or the hard-as-nails biker. He’s never faced the sinister Dead Man, never had that tolling bell, blackout and sudden manifestation in the ring mess with his head, never felt those eyes boring holes in his skull before.
Meanwhile, The Rock in 2016 is an intense, charismatic and bleedin’ massive hero to millions (and millions) - certainly far more than he ever was when they faced off before. Neither man can move or work like they used to, but these are old hands at storytelling, and nothing’s going to shortcut Rocky’s shameless tendency to hang out a little too long in Promoville like facing off against a guy who chokeslams people that talk too much.
More to the point, it’s one of the few big matches that the Undertaker could have left. After several years of stealing the Show of Shows out from under everyone, the Undertaker’s last few WrestleMania matches have been an unwelcome return to the grindingly dull slugfests he used to take part in before 2007.
But ‘Taker versus Rock? That’s even better than ‘Taker versus Cena, because The Rock is a Hollywood matinee idol, the first a crossover star since Hogan thirty years ago, and the Undertaker is a sports entertainment legend. And, of course, both men have a glorious streak of ham running right through them.
It’ll be clumsy and they’ll both blow up within ten minutes… but perhaps it’s time to finally disprove that old cliche about the two of them having no chemistry in the ring together.