5. Brock Lesnar Ends The Undertakers WrestleMania Streak
It started by accident. By the end, it was bigger and more meaningful than any championship belt in the WWE. The Undertakers undefeated streak at WrestleMania started in 1991 at WrestleMania VII when he pretty much squashed Jimmy Snuka on his ascent up the ladder. After a few years on the roster, it was noticed that The Undertaker had just happened to win all of his matches at WrestleMania. Taker wasnt invincible. He did lose matches on occasion, just not all that often. But he had been on the losing end of several major PPV matches, against the likes of Yokozuna, Bret Hart, Mankind, Vader, Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin.to name a few. Notably, all of these defeats involved someone else interfering to cost Taker the match. However, when it came to WrestleMania, once Vince had made a mental note of the streak, Taker never lost at the biggest show of the year. It was only at WrestleMania 21 in 2005 that the streak, now at 12-0, became the focal point of the match. Randy Orton, billing himself as The Legend Killer, wanted to kill off one more legend of the WWE: The Streak. He failed, but the importance of The Streak was now cemented in peoples minds as something of importance. At WrestleManias 23 and 24, The Streak was almost secondary to the fact that the World Heavyweight Championship was on the line, as Taker won the title from champions Batista and Edge respectively. By the time that WrestleMania XXV rolled around, there were no titles involved and The Streak took centre stage as Taker faced Shawn Michaels. The promotion for the match revolved around the fact that Taker had never defeated Michaels in a PPV singles match. Taker won, and then faced Michaels again at the next WrestleMania, where Michaels put his career on the line. The Career vs Streak match was the main event of WrestleMania 26: The Streak had now eclipsed championships in importance at WrestleMania, and with Taker now wrestling a very limited schedule, his appearances were treated as special occasions. Triple H was Takers last credible Streak-ending opponent, unsuccessfully trying to end The Streak at two successive Manias. While Taker had an excellent match with CM Punk at WrestleMania 29, nobody watching live or on TV gave Punk a prayer of winning. The same could be said for Brock Lesnar at this years event. The build up to the match hardly inspired people keen on an upset: Taker dominated Lesnar in every confrontation they had except for the very last one on the go-home Raw before Mania. Lesnar looked scared of Taker and the aura that surrounded him. During the match itself, when Taker kicked out of an F-5, people barely reacted. A kick out was expected. A win was expected. This was The Undertaker at WrestleMania. What else was going to happen? A second F-5 resulted in a second kick out, to a mild reaction. An Undertaker Tombstone picked up the crowd, who thought that this could be it, and they were surprised when Lesnar kicked out. But surely this was just prolonging the drama. As Undertaker went for a second Tombstone, Lesnar reversed it, powered Taker up into position and hit a third F-5. The referee, who actually wasnt aware of the finish, did what referees are told and counted to three as Taker didnt kick out. The bell rang, but no music played. A stunned silence, reminiscent of when Koloff pinned Sammartino, swept the Superdome. It was only when a 21-1 graphic appeared on screen that fans realised that this had really happened and that it wasnt some kind of terrible error. But make no mistake, this was our generations version of Koloff and Bruno. The unthinkable had happened. While many thought that Taker would bow out with The Streak intact, Brock Lesnar, with his MMA background that Taker himself greatly admired, had ended the 23 year long Streak.
Dean Ayass is a well known name to British wrestling fans. A commentator, manager, booker and ring announcer who has been involved in the business since 1993, Dean's insight into the business is second to none.
