THIS Is The Greatest Thing WWE Never Did
The monster, record-breaking buy rate 'Mania XXVIII generated is the obvious counterargument, but the rematch was both a return diminished and a promise broken. It was never going to pull in the same number, and it didn't.
This was a deft manoeuvre WWE didn't pivot towards out of craven, unimaginative greed. Peak Super Cena Vs. Peak Streak Undertaker wasn't just a monster of a match; its unbearable stakes would have made it one of the biggest of all time, irrespective of the fact that nobody involved - yet - was a big-time Hollywood actor and dearly missed Attitude Era legend.
If there was but one flaw in the Undertaker's Streak matches, it's that the result was never in real doubt. That 'Taker and Michaels and Triple H especially convinced you otherwise is a testament to the magic of the work in the thrust of it, but in the build, that layer of drama simply wasn't there with the exception, perhaps, of XXVIII, resulting from Triple H's insider perception as a politicking egotist. But the "Is he f*cking going over?" element only really arrived at that spellbinding Sweet Chin Music into the Pedigree sequence.
The storytelling was superb, the aura glowing, the spectacle hugely anticipated, all that. But ironically, the only thing missing from the supernatural icon's greatest achievement was a palpable sense of fear.
CONT'D...(4 of 5)