Undertaker clearly returned at a time that is most decidedly not WrestleMania season to exact revenge on Brock Lesnar, who defeated him at WrestleMania XXX last year, ending his Mania undefeated streak at 21-0. Since then, Taker has only wrestled once, defeating Bray Wyatt after Wyatt spent weeks calling him out. When Taker and Brock faced, though, Lesnar was the aggressive heel, challenging the Phenom to try to take away his most prized possession: his WrestleMania undefeated streak. Fast-forward 16 months, and Lesnar is now a full-fledged hero to the crowd, a champion who was wronged and robbed of his title and now is looking for revenge. He was moments away from getting that revenge when Undertakers gong hit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A27pbhIQpdI So how are they proceeding with this? Lets face facts: Lesnar beat Undertaker clean, in the center of the ring at WrestleMania XXX. There was no cheating, no trickery. So why is Taker doing this, especially more than a year later? And now that Brock is a face, is WWE going to try to have both men be fan-favorites? (Its worth noting that Taker kicked Lesnar low to take advantage, so he could be playing the villain here.) Look, overthinking this and not enjoying the moment is not a becoming characteristic. This will have a big fight feel to it and be a huge draw. But right now, the setup feels off, unless Taker is going to play the role of the legend who has snapped over this loss.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
