The Undertaker's 24 WrestleMania Matches Ranked - From Worst To Best
1. Vs. CM Punk - WrestleMania XXIX
The inclusion of Undertaker Vs. CM Punk in the top slot will invariably prove divisive, but notwithstanding the subjectivity of it all, it has been selected as a result of its dynamic as much as its quality.
After four years of un-toppable, epic festivals of sports entertainment, it reset the Undertaker character perfectly. It was a proper babyface versus heel wrestling match in an era in which such simplistic broad strokes have been ironically mangled beyond recognition. Punk’s pre-match body language was a psychological masterclass, carelessly tossing Undertaker’s old urn around in a postmodern dissection of the Undertaker act, one almost as cutting as the ugly desecration of the recently-deceased Paul Bearer character on WWE TV.
The match itself was a cathartic release of that cheap heat tension, with Punk’s Old School mimic spot cut off with a firm punch to the face and blow to the balls. The state-of-the-art reversals and athleticism - Punk’s spinning heel kick from ‘Taker’s snakes eyes was beautiful - were anchored with a timeless psychology. It was the perfect correlation between old school and new.
It was as superb a distillation of pro wrestling as anything that preceded or succeeded it. It was built on the tawdry foundations upon which the industry itself was erected, but proved, ultimately, that wrestling was art. It was only fitting that one of its greatest ever practitioners was at the heart of it.
Doubt the Undertaker on Sunday at your peril.