1. CM Punk Should've Ended The Undertaker's Streak
OK. There was a perfect storm that could've created the perfect story that would've allowed WWE the chance to defeat (and retire) The Undertaker at Wrestlemania 29 versus CM Punk. However, in ending "The Streak" one year later with Brock Lesnar, WWE may now be in the situation where they've had to take too much creative license with their storytelling (while also potentially damaging a box office draw in the process) in order to do what could've naturally been done with CM Punk at Wrestlemania 29. In the midst of the telling of the Punk/Undertaker story, Paul Bearer passed away. "Bearer's ashes" in an urn were then at-play in the storyline, and when CM Punk dumped Paul Bearer's ashes on The Undertaker, it was such a visceral and powerful moment that had The Undertaker lost, it's entirely possible that people would've been surprised, but not to the level that 'taker being beaten by a part-timer in Brock Lesnar who hadn't actively been a WWE participant in six months beating him caused. Pairing Punk's heat with real-life drama could've made The Undertaker's loss at Wrestlemania a lot easier to handle. Mabe even having Lesnar wrestle Punk at Wrestlemania as a "new Undertaker" type of character would've been exciting. This leading to the possibility of Punk wrestling the ACTUAL *new Undertaker* in Bray Wyatt in San Francsico at Wrestlemania 32 would've been highly compelling for certain.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
