Best match from every WWE WrestleMania event in history

WrestleMania 29

CM Punk vs. The Undertaker

The undercard of WrestleMania 29 — or WrestleMania NY/NJ as they billed it — left a bit to be desired but the three big matches on the card came through in entertaining fashion. Brock Lesnar and Triple H had a bit of a brutal bout but the booking was just a little off and the rematch of John Cena and The Rock was good but not great. So for the fifth year in a row, I’ve got to go with The Undertaker here in what I feel what was his last great WrestleMania match. It did help that the guy in the ring with him was CM Punk, who really should have been in the main event with Cena but went ahead and stole the show anyway, much like he almost did a year earlier with Chris Jericho.

Punk was as cool as ice from the start as he did his Indian-style sit-down in the ring as The Undertaker made his always-long entrance to the ring and then started things off with a Shawn Michaels-like slap to The Deadman’s face, which infuriates him and he throws Punk into the corner for his normal beatdown. But Punk got out of that and got another one in before taking a huge boot and getting tossed around in and out of the ring for a little while. I loved the opening minutes of this match. `Punk would fight his way back into it and after blocking Old School like everyone else should have done by just yanking ‘Taker off the ropes, he goes up and hits hit himself for a two count. He hits a double axe handle on the outside and then gets another near fall after a nice neckbreaker.

Punk got a little cocky and got racked on the top rope after trying Old School again and takes another big boot off the top before Paul Heyman attempted to stop ‘Taker from flying over the ropes and he essentially succeeded as Punk got up to hit a clothesline followed by his Macho Man-style elbow drop for a two count. Punk then called for a GTS but ‘Taker threw a chokeslam in there and this was a fight. The two briefly exchanged blows and ‘Taker went for his usual sequence of moves with clotheslines and such but Punk countered with a nice heel kick before taking the action back to the outside, at which point he set up The Phenom on the announce table and hit the elbow from the top rope. The only problem was that the table didn’t break and this looked really painful for everyone involved.

Once both were back inside and somewhat recovered, ‘Taker locked in Hell’s Gate but turned it into a pinning combination and then we got an Anaconda Vice as Heyman is screaming at this point for The Undertaker to give up. But that didn’t happen and ‘Taker did his situp while in the hold and Punk’s reaction was amazing. And in perhaps the best sequence of the match, ‘Taker went for a chokeslam but countered it into a GTS that The Deadman took and came right back with a Tombstone for a near fall. Just wonderful. They get up and fight on their knees for a moment before a quick ref bump which allows Heyman to get the urn to Punk, who smashes ‘Taker in the head with it and does exactly what Triple H did the previous year with the tongue out on the pin attempt. But you know it’s not going down like that and another great sequence later with multiple finisher attempts, The Undertaker hit a Tombstone to pick up the victory. Do you ever wonder if CM Punk would still be around if they’d have let him be the one to end the streak? Nevertheless, this was still a great match that stole the show.