7 Reasons Why The Undertaker Must Never Return

4. Hasbeen

Undertaker WrestleMania 33
WWE.com

It'll get lost amongst weepy-eyed eulogies of a lengthy career, but one day people will review The Undertaker vs Roman Reigns out of time and come to realise what an utterly useless main event it was.

Outside of an inch-perfect physical representation of his character's demise when he collapsed attempting to sit up, The Undertaker was stripped of his charm and dignity when his ageing frame finally and definitively betrayed him. Flubbing a Tombstone reversal sequence he'd been able to do for years, the awkward botch was the only moment the match had the shades of Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair arc from WrestleMania 24 they appeared to be shooting for.

It had been coming for years.

The streak-ending match against Lesnar was a disaster, but Undertaker worked most of that with a concussion. That wasn't the case for his WrestleMania 31 snoozer with Bray Wyatt, his miserable Hell in a Cell match with Shane McMahon at WrestleMania 32 or even his creaky effort having current performers bounce off him in this year's Royal Rumble.

Fans even noticed how weathered he looked just standing up against Roman in the weeks leading up to the match. Undertaker did amazingly well to last as long as he did at such a high level, but the drop-off was alarmingly steep.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back almost 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 60,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett