10 Wrestling Matches Everybody Gets Wrong

4. The Undertaker Vs. Triple H - WWE WrestleMania XXVII

Finn Balor AJ Styles
WWE.com

Boring. Just long periods of stalling and melodrama with a few signature moves thrown in. Far too slow. Did you really think Triple H was going to break the Streak?

Or, alternatively: a really good match that still wasn't anywhere close to the best Streak spectacles.

Your writer has never subscribed to the idea that Triple H was a great, all-time worker - but everything he strived for in his Big Match WWE Epics, he absolutely smashed at WrestleMania XXVII, to such an extent that it excused his monumentally damaging and unnecessary "Everybody is sh*t except us" promotional gambit.

This was audacious storytelling that required an exquisite in-ring performance to believe in. Triple H didn't just come close to ending the Streak; he came close to ending the legend of the Undertaker by humanising the Phenom in a match that needed those lulls to put over the pathos of it all. Trips was the ruthless, strategic killer - not since SummerSlam 2002 had he projected himself as such a formidable general - and 'Taker's selling was ingenious. He looked much like he has in recent years - past it, helpless, like he no longer belonged - but in 2011, he worked it, and worked it magnificently.

WWE is to its cost obsessed with rematches in its modern era, but this was arguably the greatest prologue of all time.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!