WWE Raw: The Undertaker made his feud with AJ Styles even more flat

Last week, AJ Styles challenged The Undertaker to a “Boneyard” match at WrestleMania 36 on WWE Raw. This week, the rivalry got even weirder.

You’d think that a program between AJ Styles and The Undertaker at WrestleMania would be a slam dunk. Taker is one of the most legendary wrestlers in WWE history and is at his most intriguing around WrestleMania season, even in the latter stages of his career. And Styles is one of the greatest wrestlers to never face The Phenom, making this a dream feud on WWE Raw.

The problem is that the build to Styles vs. The Undertaker at ‘Mania has been rife with bizarre promos and an even more bizarre match stipulation.

It all started a few weeks ago when Styles started up this whole work-shoot angle with Taker on Raw, calling him “Mark Calaway”, perhaps in an effort to show he’s not afraid of Taker’s mystical powers. But The Undertaker has been portraying The American Badass in this feud, changing the nature of Styles’ fear of The Dead Man.

That in itself could prove to be clever, except Styles challenging Taker to a “Boneyard” match is incongruent with the character of the American Badass. Furthermore, what exactly is a Boneyard match? Was WWE afraid to call it a “Graveyard” match because of the many people worldwide dying of COVID-19? If so, that’s a good call, but WWE would have been better off pivoting to something else entirely than a strangely-named “Boneyard” match that may involve the same types of sensitivity issues.

If the whole idea of a “Boneyard” match was weird, the Styles vs. Taker program got even stranger on the Mar. 30 episode of WWE Raw.

The Undertaker cut a promo on AJ Styles, in which he referred to The Phenomenal One as “Allen Jones” and then kept calling him “Allen”, directly referencing Styles wanting to be “real” in the past by calling The Dead Man by his non-kayfabe name.

It got worse from there. The Phenom started wondering if “Allen” had a “big sack”, brought up Styles’ inane comments about Michelle McCool from a past promo in a way that made things even more awkward, and started insulting Styles for not joining WWE when he, The Rock, Edge, Mick Foley, Triple H, Kurt Angle, and Stone Cold were in their heyday. He then went on to say that none of those guys are here, except him. Except, you know, Edge is also on WWE Raw and has a match at WrestleMania 36.

Hopefully, Styles vs. Taker exceeds expectations at WrestleMania 36, because, after this poor promo from The Phenom, it’s becoming even easier to tune this one out. Raw has a ton of great WrestleMania feuds, but they’ve dropped the ball on this one with poor writing.