WWE: The Undertaker shouldn’t compete at WrestleMania ever again

WWE, and Professional wrestling as a whole, is littered with the remains of iconic characters that held too long chasing the elusive “one more match”.

The images of Ric Flair stumbling his way through TNA, Bret Hart in jean shorts and Jordans at WWE WrestleMania 26, or Kurt Angle limping to the finish line at WrestleMania 35 are hard to forget.

Professional wrestlers struggle with walking away at the right time. The common thread being the men and women who gave their careers to wrestling and the adulation of the fans, struggle to walk away.

The Undertaker is one of greatest characters in professional wrestling. His 30 year WWE career has provided fans with countless memories. His run of matches from WrestleMania 21-29 were matches 99% of his peers will never replicate. He is the greatest big man in professional wrestling history.

His list of accomplishments, and the aura of his character, makes the last four WrestleMania’s matches difficult to enjoy though.

The Undertaker struggling to get Roman Reigns up for a move at WrestleMania 33, or the disappointment of The Undertaker vs John Cena at WrestleMania 34 was forgettable.

Cena vs The Undertaker should have been a dream match that defined generations, sadly it was reduced to Cena being a tackling dummy to compensate for The Undertaker’s current lack of ability.

At WrestleMania 32, he was shoehorned into a match with Shane McMahon in Hell in a Cell for control of a mysterious lockbox. That stipulation felt like an attempt to mask The Undertaker’s inability to have an extraordinary match at WrestleMania.

Thankfully, fans remember the moment where Shane McMahon jumped off the cage, instead of how sad it was to watch The Undertaker stumble through the match.

At the last 4 WrestleMania’s he wrestled at, The Undertaker had two moments where fans winced through. This should have been enough for WWE to no longer feature The Undertaker, as a wrestler, at WrestleMania.

As we learn more about concussions and CTE affecting pro athletes, we learn how damaging a concussion is. Fans understand the barbaric ways of watching your favorite athlete get his “bell rung” should be in the past. The consequences of concussions have impacted how fans absorb sports.

That is what makes watching The Undertaker wrestle at WrestleMania 30 so difficult. It is impossible to know the moment when The Undertaker suffered a concussion. What is known is that Undertaker suffered a severe concussion that required an overnight stay at a local hospital. After his match, Vince McMahon reportedly left his position at WrestleMania to visit his wounded warrior in the hospital.

The struggle and anguish that The Undertaker appeared to have wrestled that match in is not easy to watch 6 years later. The moment when “The Streak” ended should have been a moment that fans remember.

Sadly, it appeared to be the sad ending for a career that marked the right time for The Undertaker to ride off into the sunset.

Even beyond any diminishing match quality, that bout should have been enough for WWE fans to realize that the physical toll these “last matches” have might not be worth the risk for someone who doesn’t have anything left to prove like The Undertaker.

Nevertheless, at WrestleMania 33, The Undertaker had a match against Roman Reigns that was also one of the toughest of his career to watch. If The Undertaker should have retired on top at WrestleMania 30, he somehow manufactured another moment that should have signaled the end.

The story told in this match was everything that makes wrestling special. The up and coming franchise of the WWE, Roman Reigns, takes out the top legend in professional wrestling, and becomes the unquestionable “big dog” of the WWE. Fans were emotionally invested in watching the retired gunslinger struggle to hang on for one last fight, but knowing time had passed him by.

The Undertaker did what all legends should do in professional wrestling, when it is your time to retire, pass the torch to the next wrestler. As WrestleMania 33 ended, The Undertaker left his gloves and hat in the middle of the ring. This symbolizes a wrestler who wrestled his last match.

It should have been the end of The Undertaker’s career. Unfortunately it wasn’t.

Few things are more difficult to see than an athlete that holds on for one season too long. Jerry Rice struggling to make the Denver Broncos, Emmitt Smith as a member of the Arizona Cardinals, Shaquille O Neal hobbling up the court for the Boston Celtics, and Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon battling as players for the Orlando Magic and Toronto Raptors, those memories are more painful to watch as a fan, than the memories of what made those men the greatest in their sport.

The Undertaker shouldn’t compete at WrestleMania ever again. That does not mean that The Undertaker should not appear at WrestleMania, just that his days of having an entertaining match are behind him.

When The Undertaker’s music plays at any WWE show, it generates the loudest reaction of the night. The Undertaker can still captivate an audience with a promo or even a choke slam in the middle of the ring. Even the strongest fans of The Undertaker would struggle to find anything in the last 4 WrestleMania matches that lived up to his previous high standard though.

In the build to WrestleMania 27, The Undertaker mentioned in a promo that if he was ever going to have to be put down, he would want HHH to be the one to tell him.

That promo was 8 years ago. Within those 8 years, The Undertaker has provided us with moments that validate his status as a legend, and moments that tarnish his legacy.

The Undertaker should be a part of WrestleMania as long as he wants to. He has earned that. With WrestleMania 36 only 5 months away, the thought of seeing The Undertaker struggle to get through “one more match” is more sad than exciting. Watching The Undertaker carried through matches with Goldberg, John Cena, and Roman Reigns should have never been the last images of a historic career

In wrestling, legacies are damaged with the allure of that “one more match”.

Hopefully, The Undertaker has had his last match at WrestleMania. Hopefully, the legacy of the greatest big man in professional wrestling history does not get grouped in with the legends that preceded him who held on to their in-ring careers longer than they should have.

Hopefully, The Undertaker is finished wrestling.