Former WWE Creative Member Reveals Origin Of The Undertaker’s ‘WrestleMania’ Streak
Over the past 25 years, the Undertaker has been one of the most dominant names in all of WWE. Particularly at WrestleMania, where he went over 20 years without losing a match, this commodity became bigger than the world title matches on many occasions.
Throughout his streak, Undertaker has defeated a long list of WWE world champions. These names include Diesel (Kevin Nash), Sycho Sid, Kane, Triple H, Ric Flair, The Big Show, Randy Orton, Mark Henry, Batista, Edge, Shawn Michaels, CM Punk, and Bray Wyatt. In addition, Nash, Flair, Edge, and Michaels are in the WWE Hall of Fame, and Henry will be inducted this year.
There are numerous theories surrounding the origin of The Streak, as well as names who were rumored to end it. Unfortunately, for Undertaker, it was ended in New Orleans at WrestleMania XXX, as he suffered his first defeat against Brock Lesnar. To this day, people are still shocked at this decision, and even former WWE wrestlers have not conceded to the shocking streak-ending defeat.
Austin stated that he thought that the streak was going to end while sitting in the production truck. The reason why is because the camera kept shooting to the shocked fan in the front row, which became a strong indication that Undertaker was going to lose. Despite knowing, Austin felt that The Streak should not have been tarnished.
Yep. Conquering The #Undertaker's undefeated streak at #WrestleMania STILL brings a ? to @BrockLesnar's face… #RAW pic.twitter.com/tcF6a9ZiGm
— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) April 3, 2018
Origin Of The Undertaker’s Winning Streak Becoming A WrestleMania Feature
Of course, for the first few matches that Undertaker won – WrestleMania VII against Jimmy Snuka, WrestleMania VIII against Jake Roberts, WrestleMania IX against Giant Gonzalez, and WrestleMania XI against King Kong Bundy – the emphasis on the streak was non-existent. However, according to Bruce Prichard via Sporting News, these string of victories was randomly noticed, and The Streak officially became an identity of its own.
“One day, Michael Hayes goes ‘well, ‘Taker ain’t never lost at WrestleMania’ and I’m like, ‘really? That’s interesting.’ ‘Well, maybe somebody should talk about beating the streak?’,” said Prichard. “I think Randy Orton (at WrestleMania 21) was really the first time we started making a big deal out of it because we had never planned it prior to that. Now we have something, we have something for someone to break. It’s almost like a championship so let’s start talking about it a little bit but it was never done by design in the beginning.”
The WrestleMania win-loss record would further be tainted by Roman Reigns, as he gave The Undertaker his second loss at WrestleMania 33 in Orlando, Florida. While it seemed as if The Deadman was done with in-ring competition, ceremonially disrobing following the match, he is expected to make a comeback at WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans against John Cena.
