Ranking All Of The Undertaker’s WrestleMania Matches

credit: wwe.com

16. & 15. Kane – WrestleMania XIV & XX

So let’s go ahead and get these two out of the way together because let’s face it, as much time as the WWE has spent telling the Kane/Undertaker story over the years, their matches are never anything special. And that includes both their Mania bouts. True, they’re two athletic big guys who should be able to produce better together than they have over the years, but the problem may just be that Kane, the “brother” of the Undertaker, modeled his style to that of Taker and therefore their matches, no matter how complex the WWE wants to make the stipulations, pretty one-dimensional.

In the Summer of 1997, Taker’s now former manager, Paul Bearer, began to make reference to a mythical half brother of The Deadman and warned him that he would arrive soon. That day occurred on October of that year when Kane appeared at the Badd Blood pay per view and tombstoned his brother after a tremendous HIAC match with Shawn Michaels. Kane would once again hinder Taker from defeating Michaels, this time at the Royal Rumble in a casket match. After The Undertaker was locked in the casket, Kane set it ablaze. Taker returned two months later and finally went head to head with “The Big Red Machine” at Wrestlemania XIV. The duo did what was expected, put on a perfectly reasonable match that saw Taker get his revenge and victory.

Fast forward to six years later and the brothers were at it again and in the buildup basically followed the same formula as their first go around. Kane interfered during Taker’s Buried Alive match with Shane McMahon at the 2003 Survivor Series culminating in another match at WM 20. This time the match lasted less than seven minutes and seemed like filler between what was two tremendous world championship matches that night in New York City.

Great long term story. Underwhelming in-ring action. Nothing more, nothing less.