Ranking All Of The Undertaker’s WrestleMania Matches

credit: wwe.com

7. Batista – WrestleMania 23

When The Undertaker won the 2007 Royal Rumble, his one and only Rumble win, he had the tall task of deciding which WWE Champion to face at WrestleMania 23. He had the choice between RAW champion, John Cena, or SmackDown Champion, Batista. Being that Taker was always a guy to pick a fight with the biggest guy in the room, he went with “The Animal”, a guy he had very little history with. In fact, before WM23, the two had never squared off in a singles match against each other. And that was a shame, because it became crystal clear very early on in this bout that the two had tremendous chemistry together and Taker would consistently push the much less experienced Batista to new heights, something that helped Batista excel in his career moving forward.

The build up to this match was a lot of fun. Batista began the proceedings with a massive amount of respect for his challenger, but that nice sentiment quickly evaporated after Taker attacked the champion numerous times leading up to this clash. Batista began to fight back and even turned on Taker in an inter-promotional tag match against Cena and Shawn Michaels at No Way Out a month prior.

So the atmosphere was aptly contentious between the two by the time Mania came around and it showed in spades. Taker, although almost five years Batista’s senior, was in tremendous physical shape for this match and he would need it. The two battered each other senseless and as much as Taker wanted Batista’s belt, Batista wanted Taker’s Streak just as much. It was about as hard-hitting as a 16 minute match could be and both men took massive punishment. But of course it was Taker who got the victory to move to 15-0 at Mania, but also snatch up his fifth world title, and his first in over five years.