Was there any better choice than Undertaker for the streak?

[Victoire HuGo]

Hello all,

So this is a bit of a strange question but here we go. Given the nature of the business and how the "streak" only became a thing after Taker beat Flair for 10th victory (which shows how random it is to be booked to win at the biggest PPV of the company for at least 10 years in a row without any long term plan put into place booking wise), was Undertaker always the right guy all along to end up getting this WM streak bump?

If you think about it you needed a wrestler with the following criteria:
- Longevity health and popularity wise (the streak lasted for 21 PPVs)
- Loyalty to company
- Desire to stick to pro wrestling
- Not becoming predictable for outcome a la Cena Wins LOL each year

With that in mind, if you could go back in time and give this unique feat to a wrestler of being undefeated for so long, would Taker still be your choice? (Any era works here)

 

[MVP of West Hollywd]

I think you hit a lot of the reasons why it's the best choice, the supernatural character and big man style covered up his age, he was Attitude Era so he's over for life, he didn't disappear to make movies or fight in UFC, his character made sense to be booked strong early instead of jobbing to Ultimate Warrior like HHH, etc. I'd say Brock would be 2nd best if he won all his early Wrestlemania matches, then came back and won every match therefore creating a streak even if it was interrupted for 8 years.

Speaking of streaks I thought they should've tried to make Reigns as the king of Hell in a Cell as a thing, he started out like 4-0-1 (no contest to Braun) but then they forgot about putting him in them. It could've started being a thing by now with around 8 or 9 wins if they had made sure he has one every year and padded his numbers sometimes like when he beat up Mysterio on non PPV one.

 

[Victoire HuGo]

I think you hit a lot of the reasons why it's the best choice, the supernatural character and big man style covered up his age, he was Attitude Era so he's over for life, he didn't disappear to make movies or fight in UFC, his character made sense to be booked strong early instead of jobbing to Ultimate Warrior like HHH, etc. I'd say Brock would be 2nd best if he won all his early Wrestlemania matches, then came back and won every match therefore creating a streak even if it was interrupted for 8 years.

Speaking of streaks I thought they should've tried to make Reigns as the king of Hell in a Cell as a thing, he started out like 4-0-1 (no contest to Braun) but then they forgot about putting him in them. It could've started being a thing by now with around 8 or 9 wins if they had made sure he has one every year and padded his numbers sometimes like when he beat up Mysterio on non PPV one.

Yeah I did think of Lesnar too. Other names I considered which might not have worked for some:
Daniel Bryan
Chris Jericho
HBK
Kurt Angle
Bret Hart

 

[TD Charlie]

I don't think anybody else would've worked. It's hard to explain, I'll try

It worked for Taker because his gimmick alone carries a ton of mystery and intrigue, and it just never got questioned. He carried the gimmick through a couple eras where wrestlers were just regular ass humans that could fight.

Anybody else, even if you factor in the longevity of a career and ability to remain relevant like the Undertaker has, would certainly not have that "there's something weird with this guy" factor that I think helped along the streak.

 

[Chuck Testa]

Funaki dressed as Mankind

 

[End of Line]

I think he’d still be the best guy for it and to this day Lesnar was the right guy to beat it too.

Guys like HBK and Hart didn’t need a streak like that because their performances they had at WM standout so well

 

[MVP of West Hollywd]

Since it became The Streak, what years going in did you most talk yourself into it being in danger? (most of them were during my non wrestling watching period)

 

[GKJ]

Since it became The Streak, what years going in did you most talk yourself into it being in danger? (most of them were during my non wrestling watching period)

The year they really made it a thing was when Randy Orton faced him.

I’m not sure if this is urban legend or not, but the first match against Shawn, it was supposedly not decided who would win. They were going to decide on their own and the referee was left in the dark so he had to count it as a shoot.

If Vince had thought Undertaker wasn’t going to retire, he would’ve had Roman do it instead of Brock though. But it probably worked as well as it was going to.

 

[TD Charlie]

Since it became The Streak, what years going in did you most talk yourself into it being in danger? (most of them were during my non wrestling watching period)

Hhh and hbk. Although either choice, especially hhh would’ve been horrible

During the match, maybe because i was there and it felt different, but in the moment I thought Punk might do it. Working Bearers death into the story, then using the urn during the match. It was very believable

 

[Big Poppa Puck]

If it wasn't Orton, then it should have been Wyatt.

 

[JianYang]

I don't think there would be a better choice. Maybe flair if he was a one company guy.

I thought the streak was a pretty silly thing to push at the beginning in the land of predetermined outcomes, but I admit, I got pretty invested the further it went. It was for a while one of the most compelling things about those particular wrestlemanias.

 

[JackSlater]

I found WWE pushing the Undertaker's streak every year annoying more than anything else, for three reasons. One, it was obvious that they randomly fell into one of their stars having a winning streak at Wrestlemania as opposed to planning it. Two, most of the matches stunk. Three, Undertaker is one of the worst gimmick options to have that streak.

I do not think that the Undertaker fits well with a Wrestlemania winning streak. Yes he had longevity and was a big enough name to always be at Wrestlemania, but he isn't good enough to guarantee a good match or carry a weaker wrestler. The main issue though is that it is such a bad fit in terms of story. Ignoring that it is pre-determined, in the storyline the streak is either random or there is some reason that this one wrestler always wins at the biggest event of the year. If it is random, no one really cares. I can't think of why there would be a storyline reason for it other than that the wrestler happens to raise their game for the biggest event of the year, and I do not buy that an old west zombie/satanic cult leader/redneck biker, or any combination of the three, would care about it being Wrestlemania.

Shawn Michaels makes way more sense for a Wrestlemania streak if you can actually plan it out. Michaels was a wrestler who actually makes sense, in storyline, to raise his game for the biggest event. Loves the spotlight and already had several monikers referencing it. Michaels, outside of storyline, is one of the best wrestlers ever and can pretty much guarantee a good match every year. Michaels had good longevity - yes he missed some Wrestlemanias, but Undertaker missed a few along the way as well and I figure at least some of the Wrestlemanias you could have coaxed Michaels into performing. I also think that Michaels would have continued longer if he had an Undertaker type deal where he basically only needed to wrestle a single match every year. Even if Michaels still takes his mid career retirement, I'd say you can still get every Wrestlemania from 1992-1998 out of him, then have him return somewhat earlier so that he is there in 2002. At that point he has missed three Wrestlemanias, but you can start the streak talk by having him reference that he has never lost in the build up to his return at Wrestlemania X8.

You could argue that Michaels was so good that he didn't need a streak (while Undertaker did) or that Michaels makes more sense to chase something rather than be chased, and inevitably the late stage of the streak leads to the holder being chased. I wouldn't disagree with either, but I'd say that Michaels makes way more sense than Undertaker ever could. In an alternate reality where Flair works in the WWF earlier (and stays) he makes a lot of sense too.