It’s amazing to think that we are just one day from WrestleMania, and one of their biggest
matches still hasn’t been announced.
Dave Meltzer was the first to report back in December that John Cena and The Undertaker
would square off at WrestleMania in New Orleans, and one would assume that is still going to
happen.
But here we are less than 24 hours until WWE’s biggest event of the year and it still hasn’t
been confirmed.
Instead we’ve had weeks of John Cena showing up on Raw and calling out The Undertaker but
has yet to have a response.
His pleas of DO SOMETHING have fallen on deaf ears, and his Instagram posts calling him
out haven’t received a comment.
Cena instead has announced he is going to WrestleMania 34 as a fan.
This is an unprecedented build to a WrestleMania match, and one that I think is really genius.
Ever since Meltzer first reported that match late last year, wrestling fans - myself included
- have theorised when Undertaker would show up on TV.
We thought something might happen at Raw 25, but it didn’t.
We then thought something would happen at the Royal Rumble, but it didn’t.
Ah, well something must at Elimination Chamber, but it didn’t.
It’s so obvious, they’re doing something at Fastlane - but they didn’t.
Oh, here comes Kane, they’ll do it after that - but they didn’t.
Wow, so they’re saving this for the go home edition of Raw - but they didn’t.
We are going into WrestleMania 34, and we don’t know if The Undertaker is facing John
Cena.
That’s incredible.
Now the cynical wrestling fan in all of us knows that this match is taking place.
Or at least we’re pretty sure this match is taking place.
WWE wouldn’t have spent all this time and energy hyping a match that was never going
to happen, but it has raised a few eyebrows.
The morning after Raw my Twitter feed was filled with people asking why Undertaker wasn’t
on the show.
The comments left on our videos for Raw all had people questioning whether this match
was actually happening.
After all, Cena said it wasn’t and the commentators have never once hyped it.
It’s not listed on WWE.com.
WWE’s social media team haven’t posted about it.
It’s an unknown.
Undertaker vs. John Cena has become one of the most talked about matches on the WrestleMania
card and they haven’t done a damn thing to build it!
And this is a card that has AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Daniel Bryan’s in-ring
return, Ronda Rousey’s WWE debut, that mouth-watering three way between The Usos, New Day and Bludgeon
Brothers.
But yet all the messages I’ve been getting for the last few weeks have been about Cena
and Undertaker.
What’s amazing is that back in December when Meltzer first reported this, there weren’t
that many of us who were excited about the match.
After Taker’s last few WrestleMania performances, it’s hard to get pumped about another match
for the Dead Man.
Plus, he retired right?
Last year’s main event with Roman Reigns wasn’t very good, but we did get a fitting
send off with Taker removing his hat, jacket and gloves - breaking character to kiss his
wife Michelle McCool - and then descending into the earth with his arm raised high.
Now Taker’s match quality not hitting the highs of his matches against Triple H, Shawn
Michaels, Punk, Edge and Batista isn’t anything to do with his ability as an in-ring worker
or storyteller, it’s just time and the toll the wrestling world has taken on his body
have limited him.
If Taker can’t go at his best, maybe hanging up the hat at Mania 33 was the best move.
But yet here we are in April 2018 and it’s all anyone can talk about.
Not just if Taker is showing up at Mania for a match against Cena - but which Undertaker
will it be?
Will the Dead Man rise again?
Will the American Bad Ass saddle up?
Will Dead Man Inc re-open for business?
Will he show up as Mark Calloway and not even be in character at all?
Cena called out Taker for hiding behind his wife’s Instagram account - which makes this
more personal and real than The Leader of The Cenation taking on The Phenom on WWE.
This was all exacerbated when Kid Rock was announced to be going into the WWE Hall of
Fame.
Surely it can’t be because of him performing the theme song for WrestleMania 34 - no it
must mean that Taker is coming out to American Badass like it was 2000 all of over again.
I was so sure Taker would be on the go home show of Raw.
But thinking about it, I’m really glad he didn’t.
This has just continued the conversation and theories about what’s going to happen when
WWE rolls into New Orleans.
Can you imagine the conversations that will be buzzing around the Superdome - fans questioning
other fans about whether or not Undertaker will show up tonight.
That build, buzz and excitement permeating throughout the building - all for that giant
pop when the bell tolls and lighting rumbles.
When John Cena - the fan in the crowd - realises that his call has finally been answered.
That’s the genius of this feud.
We didn’t get Cena and Undertaker cutting promos on each other - or having staredowns
in the middle of the ring.
We didn’t get multiple video packages hyping up this match, or Michael Cole over-selling
what will happen when these two meet in the ring on the grandest stage of them all.
The excitement around this match has been built by the fans.
It’s been built on social media, fans talking with other like-minded folk about what’s
going to happen at Mania.
People bemoan WrestleMania 34 being too predictable, and yet here we are just hours away from the
show and we don’t even know if the match is even taking place!
I just posited a scenario for Taker’s entrance at Mania, but I don’t know if that’s what’s
going to happen.
The feud between John Cena and Undertaker has been brilliant and downright genius.
They took a match not many wanted to see, and made it the most talked about thing on
the show.
Check out our WrestleMania 34 predictions and let us know what you think will happen
at WrestleMania 34!