WWE WrestleMania 34: Setting Up John Cena vs. The Undertaker

I’ll start this off by saying that I personally don’t want to see The Undertaker wrestle another match. I was there live in Orlando at WrestleMania 33 to witness The Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns in the main event. The match itself was disappointing but the aftermath was done perfectly with The Undertaker leaving his gloves, hat and jacket in the center of the ring then descending underneath the entrance ramp surrounded by smoke with his hand raised high as a final salute to the crowd.

If this wasn’t the end of The Undertaker’s in-ring career, then what was the point of having him in the main event against Roman? What was the point of leaving his gear in the ring? What was the point of closing out the biggest show of the year by essentially telling the WWE Universe that we’d just witnessed the end of the “Dead Man”?

When the 25th anniversary of Raw happened the other week, The Undertaker made his first appearance on WWE TV since his loss to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania. The promo Taker cut was more confusing than anything else. Even the live crowd in the Manhattan Center thought that they were there to witness The Undertaker’s official retirement speech. Instead, we just kind of heard the same old stuff we always hear about his victim’s souls resting in peace. Nowhere in this speech did The Undertaker even hint that we’d seen his last match.

Source: WWE.com

At this point, I think it seems obvious that we will in fact see The Undertaker in a match this year at WrestleMania 34. What’s ironic about this is that ‘Mania takes place at the Superdome in New Orleans, LA where The Undertaker famously lost “The Streak”, being defeated by Brock Lesnar to go 21-1 at “The Granddaddy of Them All”. I was there live for that match and four years later I still can’t believe that it happened. But ever since this loss, the presence of The Undertaker has felt much different. After coming back to defeat Bray Wyatt and Shane McMahon since, it seemed like a perfect ending last year when Taker once again lost at “his show” to Roman Reigns.

I think we’ll get a great indication of The Undertaker’s plans for WrestleMania either at the Elimination Chamber PPV or the next night on Raw. There’s only one opponent of The Undertaker that makes sense and his name… is JOHN CENA (hit The Time is Now theme song).

I think this matchup is pretty obvious to any fans that have been paying attention the last handful of years. Cena even mentioned that if it was up to him, at last year’s WrestleMania he would have been squaring off against The Undertaker instead of the mixed tag team match that he was involved in. I’ve also heard from a credible source that Cena was booked to end “The Streak” but refused to have the match because he didn’t want that on his conscience and knew that there would be no coming back from that scenario as a babyface. The honor was then transferred over to Brock Lesnar, who could care less if he wins or loses as long as he gets his paycheck.

This match would be incredibly easy to set up. Basically all that needs to happen is that Cena needs to lose in the Elimination Chamber this Sunday.

Source: WWE.com

If it was up to me, Cena would be in prime position to win the Chamber with possibly just 1 or 2 other Superstars left in the ring when all of a sudden the lights go black, the gong hits, The Undertaker nails Cena with a Tombstone Piledriver then disappears, leading to Cena’s elimination.

The alternate way to do this would be to see Cena lose clean in the Chamber but come out the next night on Raw to call out The Undertaker because he’s absolutely desperate to have a match at WrestleMania and calling out The Undertaker is his final “Hail Mary” to have a big match on the show.

If I was booking this, I’d sweeten the pot even more with Cena challenging Taker to a career vs. career match at WrestleMania. The reasoning for this type of stipulation is because it’s believable that either could lose considering Cena’s part-time status and The Undertaker’s ability to keep coming back year-after-year even when we feel like there’s no way he has anything left.

If and when this match happens, I fully expect John Cena to stand tall over The Deadman after a handful of Attitude Adjustments for the 1-2-3 in the center of the ring. The poetic justice also being that Cena would be ending The Undertaker’s career in the same spot that he lost his undefeated WrestleMania streak.

If anybody has deserved the right to “put down” The Undertaker and force him into retirement, that man is absolutely John Cena, who’s been the face of the entire WWE brand for around 15 years now. A Cena win also positions him back in the conversation for a WWE or Universal Title match which would feed right into his ongoing storyline of chasing the elusive 17th World Title reign that would put him above Ric Flair all-time.

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After seeing the declining performances of The Undertaker in recent years, my only hope is that this match is entertaining and worthy of the final “curtain call” for Taker. I feel like he was ready to ride off into the sunset last year but was probably disappointed with the actual match he had with Roman Reigns because it honestly wasn’t very good. Cena has always thrived in big moments and he can be counted on to help The Undertaker put on a memorable final match.