Let's address one of the elephants in the room: The Undertaker vs. Shane McMahon. It's easily the most intriguing bout on the card, carrying both a huge sense of unpredictability (how can Shane possibly stand up to the Deadman, and who's going to run-in on his behalf?) and has the weight of a significant storyline behind it. However, as discussed by Adam and Kenny on the most recent edition of the WrestleCulture podcast, this week's Raw proved detrimental to the feud. We were expecting Undertaker to somehow resist Vince's plans, maybe having found himself forced into the match in order to save his career. Instead, he simply strolled out and promised the chairman that Shane's blood would be on his hands. Great - isn't that exactly what Vince wants? It's jarring to see The Phenom so willingly become a corporate pawn, especially when he's recently been a babyface. Nobody's expecting this match to be a classic, but we are expecting it to be dramatic and entertaining. Unfortunately, it stands a greater chance of degenerating into a nonsensical, overbooked mess. Hopefully WWE can fill in some of the (major) storyline gaps over the course of the next few weeks.
