10 WrestleMania Main Events The Royal Rumble Almost Promised Us
7. John Cena Vs. The Undertaker (WrestleMania XXVI)
Okay, our next entry may seem a little farfetched, but hear me out on this one.
Undertaker vs. John Cena is one of the few remaining WrestleMania dream matches. Back in 2010 we weren’t too far from seeing it materialise.
With Undertaker beating Rey Mysterio at the Royal Rumble to successfully defend his world title, that added an extra incentive to the Rumble match. Not only would the winner have the option to challenge for the title at ‘Mania—they could also have a go at ending the Deadman’s famed Streak.
A blockbuster final five saw Batista, Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, Edge and John Cena vying for that honour, with the latter duo emerging as the last men standing, only for Edge - the fresher man - to dump Cena over the top for the win.
Edge indeed challenged for the gold at WrestleMania, but by that point ‘Taker was no longer the champion. Had he been able to keep the belt through to March though, and if Cena had been able to outlast Edge in the Rumble, we could finally have ticked Cena vs. Taker off of those WrestleMania bucket lists.
As it happened, we instead saw ‘Taker face Michaels in a rematch from WrestleMania XXV, which isn’t such a bad consolation prize whichever way you slice it.