10 Fascinating WWE Facts About WrestleMania 34
8. ...But He Trained For His Longest One
John Cena starting his night in the stands was the cutest way WWE could delay his inevitable demise at the hands of 'The Deadman', but Undertaker himself had pictured something a little more traditional before being given the news that it was going to be little more than an exhibition squash.
Speaking to Chris Van Vliet on his Insight podcast, he said,
"Yeah! And I didn't know it was going to be short until I got there that day. I trained for a 45-minute war. 'Alright, here is redemption, I am going to light this place on fire.' I felt good. Then Vince calls me into his office, he goes 'okay it's going to be about five minutes and you're going to squash him.' And you know Vince. He thought that was so funny because he knew how hard I'd trained. And I'm like 'No. No no no no no no.' I said 'I'm going 30 [minutes] or I'm not going out.' He goes 'Mark, that's not what we need."
No 30-45 minute effort was required (or, realistically, possible) and as his WWE docuseries highlighted after the fact, this only fuelled his desire to have a final match he could be genuinely proud of.