10 Times Vince McMahon Screwed His Own Talent
5. Down Among The Dead Men
Before your eyes roll back like the Phenom himself, relax - this isn't another diatribe over the loss of the Streak and the decision to drop it to Brock Lesnar.
No, at WrestleMania XXX against Brock Lesnar, the Undertaker was clearly seriously concussed, could not perform, and was a danger to himself and others. The part time Lesnar didn't have enough ring time to play ring general and work around him, and McMahon and the agents backstage should have known that more than anyone.
Dropping the vaunted Streak to Lesnar was a powerful story, and it needed a powerful match to sell it; the concussion made that impossible, and the match was misfiring, the crowd glazing over. That massive wave of shock when Lesnar pinned the Dead Man wasn't horror, but disappointment. It should have been a brutal scrap for the ages to reach that finish, building up until the crowd were on the edge of their seats.
Had McMahon decided the finish wouldn't mean as much without the battle, he could have called an audible and ended it early in any number of ways, resetting for the following year, creating a lesser anticlimax to avoid the greater anticlimax, and putting the man and his value first.
Even setting storytelling aside, Mark Calaway's health was at risk. Wrestlers have died in the ring, and too many more have been disabled: this isn't a game.
Fundamentally, the Undertaker placed his trust in Vince McMahon, as he always did, and McMahon let him down.