WWE- Retire the World Heavyweight Championship Already

Batista holding the WHC when it was relevant (photo by Mshake3)

 

(Originally published on my Squidoo lens on 04/26/13)

As WWE continues to roll forward into the certain-yet-uncertain future, there are a number of anachronisms that they must deal with in order to both build up new talent and find the art of storytelling that they seem to have lost as a company.

Probably the most glaring of these anachronisms (aside from Super Cena who I've already gone into much detail on) is the presence of the "World Heavyweight Championship."

To go into a brief history of the title, it was brought to the WWE ultimately by its purchase of rival World Championship Wrestling in 2001, where it went under the same name and was represented by the same belt. It was briefly unified with the WWF/E Championship in 2002 as the Undisputed Championship, but was separated and reintroduced in its present form by on-screen RAW General Manager Eric Bischoff later that year, where it went on to serve as the top title on the RAW and SmackDown brands, alternating between them in the years.

Back then, during the 2000's, this made sense, as WWE, especially up to 2007, had a strict brand split in place. In this atmosphere, it was almost as if that each of the two were separate companies in competition with each other under the WWE umbrella, and this is an image that was striven for especially in the early going. Wrestlers were strictly confined to their respective show- either RAW, or SmackDown. Appearances by a RAW superstar on SmackDown or vice versa were extraordinarily rare. Each show even had their own pay-per-views, with the only such shows featuring both brands being the "Big Four-" the Royal Rumble, Survivor Series, SummerSlam, and WrestleMania.

Slowly but surely as the 2000's wound down, these restrictions began to be relaxed. The separate PPVs were ended in 2007, as they were too expensive to produce. Appearances by another brand's talent on the opposing brand became more and more common. Titles such as the Tag Team Championship were unified. Fast forward to the 2010's and there is basically nothing left of the brand split. RAW is now called a "super show" featuring talent from both. In 2012, there was no longer even a WWE Draft (and in the years preceding it, the WWE Draft became less an important event wherein storylines for the next year might get shifted alongside the talent, and more of a spectator event for its own sake).

Even the House Shows apparently are no under operational under the brand extension moniker.

So this now begs the question- why the need for the World Heavyweight Championship, this deadweight from the brand extension period?

It's clearly obvious that it is not a real world title anymore. It is always playing second-fiddle to the WWE Championship. The World Heavyweight Championship today is what the Intercontinental Championship used to be in the past- a way to reward hard workers and give them a chance to see if they were really ready to shine in the main event. Essentially, it's the company's top mid-card title now, which is fine, but the name and history of the belt diminish from this fact alongside the deceptive booking (most importantly, a separate Money in the Bank contract) that goes along with it.

Consider Dolph Ziggler's recent bizarre run with his Money in the Bank briefcase. He was essentially chasing a ghost- the ghost of a title that was once a world championship, but now is a phantom with no real life breath left (as far as being a world title goes). The Money in the Bank for a mid-card title is somewhat oxymoronical, a situation that came to the surface in his convoluted angles over the months after he won it. Now he is the World Heavyweight Champion, but won't be main eventing shows anytime soon, especially when lost in the shadow of someone that always humiliated him in his run as Mr. Money in the Bank and who is now the WWE's REAL champion- John Cena.

This is deceptive, and is unfair to both Ziggler and his fans who want to see him pushed into the real main event. The continued presence of the World Heavyweight Championship detracts from the ability of the WWE to build up new stars in a permanent way as they used to- namely, by putting them in good matches and angles, and instead deceptively promotes them as being in the limelight then and there- a cheap illusion that even further detracts from the real story of these characters.

As the oft repeated phrase goes- "Having two world titles detracts from both." Not to mention the fact that the Money in the Bank loses its value as well, again becoming not much more than a cheap gimmick for quick cash, which again, distracts from storytelling

So, it's time that WWE end this charade and unify (more likely absorb) the World Heavyweight Championship with the WWE Championship. It would not only serve as an excellent storyline that could make WrestleMania a smashing success, but it would work wonders to build the career of whoever held the World Heavyweight Championship at the time, especially if he were to win the unification match.

Above all, it would revive the importance of the proper mid-card titles- the Intercontinental and United States Championships, and breathe fresh life into the mid-card division, leaving the main event less convoluted as well as allowing new stars to be born without smoke and mirrors.

In effect, the World Heavyweight Championship has in recent times been pushing guys into the "main event" before they were even ready for it. It's time to end that silly practice.

And as for the House Show argument- even if WWE hadn't ended the brand split in the House Shows, which they apparently have, are they really important enough to merit diluting the real way it delivers content to its fans- namely, through television and PPV's? House Shows would be fine without it. Trust me, WWE!

John Cena - How He Can Be Improved

The Rage of John Cena

(Originally published on my Squidoo page on 04/25/13)

 As you probably saw if you read my earlier column, I am not a fan of John Cena- or rather, how his character is currently being booked. I won't repeat myself regarding all the problems in his persona. There are many. But here's the good news- John Cena doesn't have to be this way. He doesn't have to continuously get booed by a large portion of the audience despite the glaring fact that he's supposed to be the company's top babyface. He gets booed more than most of WWE's heels!

Something needs to be done with his character. That much is obvious. Otherwise, he will continue to get serenaded with boos (diminishing his credibility as the company's top babyface) and we will continue to suffer through the same bland programming that is mediocre at best.

What can they do with Cena? Turn him heel!

Oh wait, you were expecting that to be the end of it, like with many older fans from the Monday Night Wars and "smart marks," weren't you?

Turning John Cena heel isn't a panacea in and of itself. Think of it as a means to an end. Recall that several of the company's most legendary babyfaces (Stone Cold, The Rock, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, etc.) all had excellent runs as heels before they became faces. The Rock in particular was eerily like Cena at the early point in his career- he debuted as a cookie cutter babyface called Rocky Maivia- an act that got old on fans fast. There were many chants of "die Rocky die!" as time went on.

The Rock then turned heel and heated up fast in 1998. When he finally turned face again in the second half of 1999, it was more from the fans' choice than his own or the bookers'- they just loved how badass he was with his "The Rock" gimmick.

The same thing applies to many of the most successful babyfaces- they were heels until it was the fans' choice to turn them face.

So why can't Cena go through this same process? Why the religious, the cult-like devotion of the higher-ups in WWE to keeping him as the same bland character? Are John Cena's merchandise sales that vital to the WWE's survival? And if the answer is yes, that really shows that they're in trouble and probably needed a new gameplan anyway.

So, here is what I propose to finally allow John Cena to break the mold that he's been in for far too long. And in doing so, he could drag the WWE into a new and exciting direction that would allow for the art of storytelling to return in a big way.

For this storyline (which I'll call True Redemption- a pun on the awful WrestleMania headline and "redemption" storyline of this year), you have John Cena, of course, turn heel, but model his character on a tried and true one that has lasted for 3,000 years- Achilles of the Trojan War (more accurately, his portrayal during the events of the Iliad).

At the beginning of the Iliad, Achilles raged at his commander, Agamemnon, refusing to fight for the Greeks any longer, because he felt that his honor had been insulted and he was not getting the respect that he deserved- a respect and honor that he was willing to forgo a long life for. And so Achilles raged, inactive, with devastating consequences for his companions and even his own best friend Patroclus. When Achilles finally returned to the battlefield, he was still raging- only at Hector and not Agamemnon.

Think of how similar this situation is to John Cena. Despite his resumes, despite his feats of greatness, he is still dishonored and disrespected by a large portion of the "WWE Universe." Despite his humanitarian goodwill in things like the Make-A-Wish-Foundation, he is still maligned worse than the characters the company tries to promote as heels.

So, have him rage away like Achilles. Have him come out and cut a promo, telling the "WWE Universe" that he is withdrawing from the things that matter to them until he gets the honor that he deserves after all he's accomplished. He'll no longer fight for the fans, he'll no longer fight for the kids, he'll no longer fight even to save his friends. He withdraws into total self-absorbed rage that has devastating consequences for everyone around him.

He'll attack people, claiming they disrespected him. Whenever The Rock is back, he'll go to town on him as well, only this time it won't be the same old buffoon story as before. He'll have a take-no-prisoners approach and go wherever his rage takes him in the quest to satisfy the honor he feels he has lost and attain the glory he thinks he deserves.

Cena's retreat into his self-absorbed rage need not last too long. A year would work wonders. Finally, as things get really bleak for the WWE and its fans at some point, and perhaps after some legend or another talks to him (mirroring Achilles' meeting with Priam at the end of the Iliad), Cena dissolves his rage, rejoins the community, and goes to fight for the right cause again, with newfound dimensions to his character. The fans that hate him now would go absolutely nuts when it happened. I guarantee it.

Cena's journey would end, and he would emerge as a new kind of babyface- with a "badass" factor to him that he is sorely lacking now. In addition, the storyline would build up new characters, as Cena's retreat would allow for new babyfaces to shine at the top, and new heels to cause havoc in part due to his inconsiderate self-absorption. The angle would be a massive win for the WWE and would pick it up to a quality it hasn't had in years.

And yet, it'll never happen. I'm under no illusions that WWE "creative" will ever make the effort or take the risk with Cena's character to actually create something new and of quality. Sadly, these are just the thoughts of a longtime, though on-and-off (and presently off) fan.

Oh, but what fun thoughts they are.

WrestleMania XXIX, John Cena, & The Decline of the Art of Storytelling in Wrestling

(Originally posted on The Turnbuckle's Squidoo on 4/21/13)

The Time Loop is here!

I opted to stay away from WrestleMania this year. As a matter of fact I haven't watched a single episode of RAW since the very disappointing 2013 Royal Rumble. The Rumble itself made it very obvious as to what would happen at WrestleMania:

John Cena would defeat The Rock and earn "redemption" for his legitimately surprising loss last year. It was all-too-obvious, even without the "smark" knowledge that WWE would not keep the title on The Rock, who is a (very) part-time wrestler.

That was an instant turnoff for not only myself, but other older fans who had grown up during the Monday Night Wars. Perhaps we grew spoiled, because that was the time when the art of stortytelling in pro-wrestling was truly at its peak. Competition brought out the best in all competitors. WWE as a de facto monopoly is no longer required to put that extra effort to tell a story the audience would truly be enthralled by.

In addition to the main event, the other matches on the card just seemed incredibly unoriginal. They were either repeats of very recent matches (Triple H/Lesnar, Sheamus/Orton/Big Show vs The Shield) or matches that didn't make much sense for either character to be involved in to begin with (CM Punk/Taker, Ryback/Henry). From what I've been told, the buildup to the event itself was about as awful as it's ever been, with "creative" not even attempting to make sense out of the convoluted mess of the card.

It should come as no surprise then, that orders of 'Mania this year seem to have hit a drop-off. It's only right, especially with an increase in the price to $70 (yeah, really!).

Think of that price in comparison to other forms of entertainment. I can buy a new Xbox game for $10 less, and probably get far more entertainment value than this event was offering. I can see several movies for that price with the same result. The entire Ghost in the Shell: SAC box set is currently being offered for $113.36 on Amazon. For less than double the price of WrestleMania XXIX, you can get a FAR better entertainment value that will last you much longer.

What should this mean? WWE wants to consider itself an "entertainment" company first and foremost, and it sure is no monopoly in that area. It should start thinking of itself as being in competition not just with other WRESTLING (a term they assiduously avoid) companies, but with the entertainment industry in general. A dollar spent in one place can't be spent in another and one person can't be doing two things at once.

Pro-Wrestling does truly have a unique entertainment form that can be exploited to great success. It's live-action athletic theater combining various aspects of culture into a single show. At once both action movie and live drama, it's a blend that can and has been massively successful in the past. But the art of using it to tell a story- a constructed and enthralling narrative, seems to have been lost.

Enter John Cena, undoubtedly the best illustration of this phenomenon.

Like many older fans, I sorely dislike his character. I don't grudge him for "never losing clean" or "the five moves of doom" as many others do. Those are common tropes in pro-wrestling, especially amongst top babyfaces. Heels cheat to win. Babyfaces stage comebacks with their signature moves to knock the heel on his back. It's old as dirt and will always work if done properly.

Rather, it's his stale, unoriginal character that I despise. His promos always seem inauthentic, as if he's trying way too hard. He's almost always thrust in the same situation year in and year out. He's either chasing the title, or he's booked in incredibly bad storylines (that AJ angle last year was just....ugh). During it all, his character never changes. At all. The John Cena character is never presented with new challenges and new opportunities for growth. Through it all, the character stays the same- a cookie cutter good guy with no ill will or malice, no flaws, no dimensions. He never goes anywhere. He is in a way a Homeric god- unchanging and unflinching. Except unlike them, he is neither funny nor interesting in the way he conducts himself. He has no redeeming qualities. Giving the bad guy his just deserts can only take a character so far. And Cena since 2005 has never gone beyond that point. He's never given fans (outside kids who don't know better and those women who simply cheer for him because they think he's hot, which I don't begrudge) a reason to be invested in his character. These days it's even worse. There's nothing left for him to prove and he more or less rests on his laurels.

If nothing changes, time essentially stands still. And that's what John Cena is- an Eldritch Abomination trapping the WWE and fans that desire enthralling entertainment into a maddening time loop. His character stays still, locked in time. And, as the center-of-gravity of the WWE "Universe," (more on that shortly) he has succeeded in trapping much of the latter with him. At the same time, the law of diminishing marginal utility tells us that more of the same without fault leads to less satisfaction, a sobering reality for goods or services trapped in time loops. No one wants to hear the same story over and over again at any reasonable length of time.

Now, I do appreciate the stance of him and WWE over the past few years acknowledging the boos, the jeers, that people intensely dislike and even hate with a godlike passion at times the John Cena character. His taunts at the fans even make him a heel without actually being a heel- which is interesting.

Nonetheless, he isn't booked that way. His overall role is as unchanged as ever, despite these crowd-forced tendencies in his promos. The storyline around him has still not changed, nor has the core of the character. No new facets to John Cena are ever introduced, no real new situations that force him to think or act differently- to adapt, improvise, and overcome, are presented to him. The quest, the journey, has stopped.

And the stagnation of John Cena is both a representation and a cause of the stagnation of the WWE in general, as Cena is not only the "top guy" (and has been for a very long time), but even in situations where he does not have the title, he still main-events shows and PPV's, wherein the title is seemingly an afterthought. Rare before, it is now common. Worse, as mentioned before, his storylines are all stale. Even worse, the "creative" department of the WWE can rarely tell a good story in general anymore, with or without Cena.

The abysmal AJ storyline has already been mentioned, but consider Cena's two-year angle with The Rock, which is bigger than the WWE Championship. Both men acted like buffoons- utter buffoons. The Rock was way watered down- acting like a high-school jock with lame jokes and constant Twitter plugging, and John Cena was his typical self, only now with a silly approval-seeking chip on his shoulder because he had to "prove" he was better than The Rock. Why? No real reason. Rock just "went away" and Cena was still there, etc. The promos were utterly terrible, and their ring chemistry wasn't good by any means.

And WWE wants to do this twice despite last year's feud being mediocre at best?

Now consider the disappointing mid-carders over the years- guys that had potential but have been blown off course, perhaps irretrievably. Consider how many guys WWE has just dropped the ball on: The Miz and Ziggler come first to mind on this particular date. It seems that the bookers just can't find a way to build new characters and put them in good storylines at all, not that there aren't exceptions (The Shield and Antonio Cesaro being a couple of recent ones), but they get buried by the ever-mediocre main event.

CM Punk, WWE's hottest angle in years starting in mid 2011, was I think, in the long term, ruined by his heel turn. It not only didn't make sense at the time, but what has it ultimately done for his character? It turned him into a good antagonist for The Rock and The Undertaker to defeat, both making for a very disappointing conclusion to the CM Punk narrative, not only because we've seen those two triumph time and time again (and they're getting on in years), but it seemed an artificial roadblock to further growth of CM Punk's character.

I suppose I can continue to go on, but the main thrust is that WWE seems to be clueless most of the time as to how to tell a good, enthralling story that an audience wants to see and hear, one that the people it comprises would be willing to part with time or money that they could be spending on something else. The Monday Night Wars perhaps spoiled us older fans, and pro-wrestling in general may very well never reach such heights of quality again, but the fact remains that WWE could be doing so much more but just aren't seeming to make the effort to try, as this WrestleMania can attest.

Don't even get me started on TNA. Hulk and Brooke Hogan? Instant pass.

I may go into more detail later on as to how I think the storylines and characters can actually be improved rather than being entirely negative, but WWE, if it is truly serious about being an "entertainment" company first and foremost, needs to think of itself in competition not just with other wrestling entities, but other parts of the entertainment industry as a whole. It has tools enough to do well in this market (yes, including John Cena), but, in an air of complacency, hasn't made the effort to use them properly. That's my biggest pet peeve of all.

Ranking The Undertaker's Streak

The Undertaker's Streak has evolved into perhaps the most important thing in the wrestling world today. It is far bigger than any title. The prospect of defeating the Streak would dwarf any championship win. And yet, it seems as unfeasible as water not being wet. Like Tantalus, the Streak mystifies an opponent- it is always seemingly within reach, but never actually falls into your power to attain.

Surprisingly, the Undertaker was not always the greatest WrestleMania performer. His WrestleMania matches early on were far from even acquiring "match of the night" status, let alone from being considered all-time classics. Strewn in there were a trio of utterly terrible matches through his first ten WrestleManias. The Streak itself was not even a big deal until the mid-2000's, when a then-upstart Randy Orton declared that he would kill the legend of the Undertaker at WrestleMania 21.

From then on, the Streak became WrestleMania's biggest attraction. Champions and legends alike would fall. Each would seemingly take the Deadman to the absolute limit- but no man would ever be able to cross to the other side- the side of victory. All would fall back to the world of the dead from whence the Undertaker came.

Below is my own take on "The Streak." I of course understand that it is likely that no two people would agree on a precise order to these WrestleMania matches. They are simply my own opinion. You can see my video take on the subject here.

#21: Giant Gonzalez: WrestleMania IX

It is likely the worst match of the Undertaker's glorious career. It is the worst match at the WrestleMania many consider the worst. It is possibly the worst match in the history of WrestleMania (excluding excruciatingly stupid modern Divas or celebrity matches or several-second affairs).

Giant Gonzalez, billed as being eight-feet tall, certainly looked a threat to the Undertaker. He just couldn't sell to save his life. Accompanied by a dead crowd, the match was horribly worked. Undertaker seemed to do everything he could with the opponent given to him, but it just didn't gel. The ending was a disqualification due to Giant Gonzalez's use of a Chloroform cloth. Undertaker came back and took the big man down. It was a very yawning affair.

The only really good thing about this match was the Undertaker's entrance with the chariot and vulture. It is one of my favorites of his career.

#20: Big Bossman: WrestleMania XV

This match was slow and plodding in its entirety. It also had several other factors working against it to make it a perfect storm of terrible- an atmosphere that didn't warrant a Hell in a Cell match, the Bossman never gelling as a credible threat to the Undertaker, no standout spots, Michael Cole's commentary, a crowd that booed- yearning for the torture to end. Did I mention Michael Cole's commentary?

The point? Don't watch this match unless you're going to do a list like this. Save yourself the soft torture.

#19: King Kong Bundy: WrestleMania XI

After missing WrestleMania X due to injury, the Undertaker could have been served best to redeem himself of his disastrous match with Giant Gonzalez last time. The opponent the WWF gave him? King Kong Bundy.

Obviously a recipe for disaster. And it was.

There were no notable spots and the crowd was dead throughout. The Urn got more of a pop than King Kong Bundy. The match could have just been a stealth jostling for the Urn, as Undertaker got it back, and then Kama retook it for the Million Dollar Corporation.

The finish? An Undertaker flying clothesline. Bundy immediately got up afterward, letting the viewer know the match was as fake as Kim Kardashian's talent. A forgettable affair throughout. We'd be wise to do so.

#18: Jimmy Snuka, WrestleMania VII

This was the Undertaker's WrestleMania debut. It wasn't brilliant, but it did its job. The Undertaker concept was fresh and new in 1991, and the kids were visibly frightened by the Deadman. This was a squash match to build the Undertaker up into an unstoppable zombie. Don't expect a thrilling encounter with great in-ring work, but it isn't terrible by any means like the previous three.

#17: Jake Roberts, WrestleMania VIII

The Undertaker was in his first face run throughout 1992, and Jake "The Snake" Roberts was one of his first targets. Like the previous encounter, this was another squash match- but to build the Undertaker up as an unstoppable face rather than as an unstoppable heel. It had some better spots than the one against Snuka, which is why it edged it out.

#16: Diesel, WrestleMania XII

Diesel had a monster run in 1995, holding the WWF title for over a year. At WrestleMania XII, he looked a credible threat to the Undertaker, and the two big men would battle it out to see which of them was tougher.

Diesel dominated most of this match, and it was a bit plodding, but it was nice to see Undertaker truly challenged. Diesel couldn't put the Deadman down, and Undertaker came back for the victory.

#15: Kane, WrestleMania XIV

This one had a very emotional atmosphere. The Undertaker was going to relent on his promise never to do battle with his younger half-brother. After months of torment and provocation in 1997, the Undertaker came out with the druids for the first time, and vowed to take his brother down.

Unfortunately, the match couldn't live up to this atmosphere, and many label it as the worst match of WrestleMania XIV. It had a decent spot where Kane countered the Undertaker's suicide dive by putting him through the announcer's table, and he was generally made to be stronger than the Undertaker. It took three Tombstone Piledrivers to put Kane away, and the Undertaker was laid out by his brother afterward.

The match was slow and tedious at times and was beset with bad pacing, diminishing these spots.

#14: Kane, WrestleMania XX

Now the tables were turned and things had gone full circle. After being buried alive at Survivor Series 2003 by his brother Kane for, in the latter's words "being one of you," the Undertaker turned his back on his biker gimmick and reemerged as the Deadman, coming out to his best entrance ever at WrestleMania XX.

Undertaker looked to be stronger than Kane and the match was a simple and methodical destruction of Kane by the returning Phenom. That was all it was intended to do, and it did that well.

#13: Sycho Sid, WrestleMania 13

Many consider this match to be the worst WrestleMania main event of all time, but I disagree with them. I didn't find this match so bad. Surely it was slow, and Sid dominated throughout, but like Diesel before him, he couldn't put the Deadman away. Undertaker looked good, slowly building momentum and coming back to win his much-deserved second WWF Championship.

Bret Hart's interference ruined the flow of the match in my opinion, and that was one of its major flaws.

#12: Mark Henry, WrestleMania 22

After costing the Undertaker the World Heavyweight Championship, Mark Henry wanted to prove that he was not afraid of the Undertaker. The two would go on to face each other in a casket match at WrestleMania.

Mark Henry works well for a big man, and he put on a decent performance against the Undertaker, coming across as someone that was too big even for the Undertaker to knock to the ground. The two battled in the casket, Undertaker executed his first successful suicide dive at a WrestleMania, and ultimately defeated Mark Henry with the Tombstone, rolling him into the casket.

#11: Big Show/A-Train, WrestleMania XIX

Undertaker's presumed partner Nathan Jones was taken out by the monstrous duo earlier, so this was now a handicap match.

I liked how Undertaker remained on his toes throughout the entire match, battling Show and Train and not succumbing to their combined assault. He held his own and it was not the demolition derby you would expect. That was entertaining to watch.

#10: Triple H, WrestleMania XXVII

I was opposed to this match. I wanted Undertaker to face a younger guy who could use the rub. We'd already seen a match with Triple H. Not only that, the match itself cheesed too much off of the previous encounters with Shawn Michaels with the false finishers. The fact that it was Triple H doing it and not someone else added to my criticism, because Triple H didn't need to look so dominating against the Deadman. Him standing up first at the end after the Hell's Gate was also a head-scratcher.

Nevertheless, there was a well-executed fight between them, the crowd was very much into it, and the sheer lack of quality of many of Undertaker's earlier matches ensures this makes its way into the top ten.

#9: Ric Flair, WrestleMania X8

The emotion of this match was very high, as the Undertaker had previously taken out Ric Flair's son and best friend. An underdog throughout, Flair sold that line well and continued to battle against the Undertaker's dominant frame. He clawed tooth and nail, hitting Undertaker with a lead pipe and taking help from Arn Anderson's interference on his behalf.

Undertaker would recover and prevail, of course. Jerry Lawler's commentary was perhaps the real gem of this match. It was hilarious. King at his best.

#8: Batista, WrestleMania 23

Batista had never been defeated for the World Heavyweight Championship, and this match would be tense: it was Streak vs title. The crowd was really into it- booing the face Batista and cheering Undertaker on wildly. Undertaker looked godlike in his entrance as well.

Batista battled and battled, and so did the Undertaker, executing a suicide dive while Batista put Undertaker through a table with a Powerslam, overpowered a Chokeslam, and hit the Batista Bomb.

Undertaker would kick out of course, and hit the Tombstone for the win, proving once again that the Streak is greater than any title. It was also a nice way for the Undertaker to win his fifth world title (back when it was still a proper world title, of course).

#7: Edge, WrestleMania XXIV

This was payback time. The Undertaker had a major bone to pick with the World Heavyweight Champion, Edge, for having screwed him and gotten under his skin throughout the course of the past year. Each time he was seemingly within reach, Edge managed to slip and slime away. WrestleMania XXIV was upon him, and Edge would now have nowhere to run.

The crowd was a bit dead for this match, but the wrestling was good. Edge countered everything Undertaker threw at him, and it really looked like Edge had the Undertaker's number. He played the part well. Edge was perhaps a bit too dominant to remain within suspension of disbelief, but the Undertaker had some good spots, chokeslammed Zack Ryder onto Kurt Hawkins, and locked in the Hell's Gate to force Edge to submit and win his 6th world championship.

#6: CM Punk, WrestleMania XXIX

In a similar fashion to Diesel, CM Punk had a dominating run with the title for over a year, and he wanted to prove that he would be the one to attain even greater immortality- ending the Streak (yes, we've seen this before).

I do believe this match, much like others in recent years, was cheesing off of the matches with Shawn Michaels with all the false finishers, but CM Punk hit some good spots such as the elbow onto the announce table from the top turnbuckle. Both men battled. CM Punk schemed like a good heel, and through counter after counter, the Undertaker, as is so often the case, wound up on top.

Oh, and Paul Heyman provided some typical comic relief.

#5: Triple H, WrestleMania X-Seven

This was just a brawl. A no-holds barred slugging contest that got the crowd really hyped. At the best WrestleMania of all time, it provided even more highlights: the entrance with Motorhead, Undertaker letting loose with the bike, the downed referee (making the match essentially a no-holds barred contest), the battle in the crowd, the Chokeslam from the top level of the tech station, the sledgehammer interrupting the Last Ride.

As you can see by the description, it was action-packed with a lot of spots. Definitely not one to miss. This was easily the Undertaker's best WrestleMania match of the first decade or so of his career.

#4: Randy Orton, WrestleMania 21

I liked this match, perhaps more than others. Randy Orton was a then up-and cocky kid that professed himself to be the "Legend Killer." He looked to slay the ultimate dragon: the Undertaker, by ending the Streak. This was, as mentioned before, the time when the Streak first became a very big deal, and both men acted accordingly.

There were lots of attacks and counters that did not rely on false finishers throughout, a well-paced course of action with typical heel tactics in Cowboy Bob Orton's interference. Randy Orton's famous magic counters into RKOs perhaps first became famous here. Nevertheless, they weren't enough, and the Deadman walked out victorious.

#3: Triple H, WrestleMania XVIII

If the match the year before was a bit over the top in my opinion, this one was perfectly executed. It was a proper Hell in a Cell match, and having Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee added a further (and much needed) layer of intrigue. Shawn was shoved and abused by both competitors. It was also an open question whether he would stop the match at times.

Although this was more a hardcore match in a cage that is typical of modern HIAC matches, Undertaker and Triple H brutalized each other with weapons, and this was the Phenom's way of rectifying the situation from a year before. After Undertaker kicked out of a Sweet Chin Music/Pedigree combo, he went to town on Triple H and decisively beat him, with Shawn Michaels not daring to do anything to hamper him.

All three men would eventually exit together in triumph, to the delight of the crowd.

#2: Shawn Michaels, WrestleMania XXVI

If the Streak were to end, it would be HERE with Shawn Michaels' career on the line. There would again be brilliant spots and counters. Shawn Michaels with the Moonsault onto the announce table, putting the Undertaker and himself through it, is probably the most classic moment of the match.

Amazing counters and finishers were exchanged throughout, and with an emphatic Tombstone Piledriver, the career of the Heartbreak Kid was made to rest in peace.

#1: Shawn Michaels, WrestleMania XXV

There is probably as close to universal agreement in the wrestling world as you can get on this one. Out of all of the Undertaker's WrestleMania matches, this is number one without question.

Undertaker and Shawn Michaels hadn't faced each other in many years, and fans were clamoring to see them go in the twilight of their careers. They didn't disappoint. Instead, they put on what is probably the best match of the past ten years.

There were so many spots that it was a roller coaster ride. It appeared that Undertaker could have been legitimately hurt when he seemed to land on his head after a suicide dive (wherein Shawn Michaels pulled a cameraman in the way), adding a layer of real-life concern to a kayfabe situation. It was then that Undertaker nearly got counted out, falling down when making his way to the ring at 9, getting back in at 9 and 3/4.

This was where the now-tropish false finishers in Undertaker WrestleMania matches originated. But it worked, and worked brilliantly, this and the next time. Amazing commentary by Jim Ross only added to this perfect storm of brilliance.

If you'd like to rank the matches yourself, vote on my Squidoo tribute to the Deadman here.