The Undertaker is a cornerstone of the WWE, and holds one of the greatest winning streaks
in the history of wrestling with his 21 match undefeated run at Wrestlemania.
He’s beaten Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Batista, Edge, Ric Flair, Kane, CM Punk and more.
But in 2007 he was meant to have a very different WrestleMania opponent, someone who was about
to jump from WWE’s up-and-coming rival.
I am Luke Owen and this is The Undertaker’s missing WrestleMania match.
Headline: The Undertaker’s Missing WrestleMania Match
In early 2007, The Undertaker had just finished a feud with Mr. Kennedy, and he was now focused
on the upcoming Royal Rumble - where The Deadman became the first man to enter in at number
30 and win the match, setting up a World Heavyweight Championship match against Batista at WrestleMania
23.
Taker won that match, continuing his streak and placing himself back into the main event
of Smackdown as champion.
But it was almost very different.
At the end of 2006 - months before Undertaker’s Royal Rumble win - TNA wrestler Abyss’ contract
was coming to an end and WWE had reached out to The Monster to jump ship.
He had been contacted by head of talent relations John Laurinaitis and Tommy Dreamer, with the
idea being he’d join WWE and start a rivalry with The Dead Man.
The plan was to have Abyss debut in the 2007 Royal Rumble where he would presumably throw
out Undertaker and the two would feud, culminating in a WrestleMania match.
“That was the rumblings, or at least what I was hearing back [from WWE].
That was the initial plan.”
- Abyss, The Ross Report, November 2015
A deal had been made and Abyss had agreed to come into the company - but at the last
minute, he changed his mind.
“The night before I was supposed to go [to WWE], I called Tommy [Dreamer] and said I'd
changed my mind.
It was that close.”
Abyss, The Ross Report, November 2015
On Steve Austin’s podcast, Tommy Dreamer noted that Abyss had essentially got cold
feet about making the jump to WWE, and Bruce Prichard noted on Something to Wrestle that
he had heard in the WWE offices that The Monster was too afraid to leave TNA.
However when Prichard returned to TNA/GFW in March 2017, Abyss took him to one side
to set the record straight.
“He said I was wrong, that he was not intimidated and that he was simply loyal to TNA and he
felt that he was there when it started and wanted to see it all the way to the end.
He wanted to see it all the way through.”
- Bruce Prichard, Something to Wrestle, April 2017
Abyss had been with TNA since the very first show they ran on June 19th 2002 under the
name Justice, and he debuted as Abyss the following year.
He quickly became a figurehead of the company, having feuds with AJ Styles, Raven, Jeff Hardy
and Sabu - the latter of which ended in a no ropes barbed wire match that was voted
TNA Match of the Year in 2005.
Across his time in the company he has been NWA World Champion, X-Division Champion, Tag
Team Champion and Television Champion.
When his contract was coming up in 2006, TNA was creating a lot of buzz and excitement
- and it genuinely felt like they could become viable competition to WWE.
"I would rather have been part of something versus taking the chance of going somewhere
and just being a number...
I had been there since the doors opened, we were five years in, things were really starting
to roll and I just wanted to be a part of that.
That way I could always look back and say I'd been there since the beginning and helped
build the place from the ground up - and not just anybody else that came in [to WWE]."
Had Abyss jumped to WWE in 2006, would he have made a name for himself?
Would his main event push with The Undertaker gone further than the one WrestleMania match
- that he likely would have lost?
It’s only been in recent years that guys like AJ Styles, Bobby Roode and Samoa Joe
have overcome the alleged ‘Anti-TNA’ agenda WWE have.
So would Abyss have been a world champion, or knock, knock, who’s there Braden Walker?
Another match that never took place was Steve Austin vs. Hulk Hogan!
And what are some of wrestling’s biggest disasters?
Click the videos to the left to find out more.
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I’ve been Luke Owen and that was wrestling.