25 biggest pro wrestling ‘what ifs’ of the past 25 years

19. What if The Undertaker had lost early in his WrestleMania career?

The Undertaker (are we really sure if he’s retired or not?) will go down as one of the biggest and best superstars in WWE history, large in part due to “The Streak.” But what if that had never come into play? Would we look at The Undertaker the same way?

Starting at WrestleMania VII against longtime veteran Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, The Undertaker reeled off 21 straight victories on the grandest stage of them all with wins over some of the biggest names in wrestling history, a list that includes Shawn Michaels (twice), Triple H (three times), Ric Flair, Kevin Nash, Kane (twice), Batista, CM Punk, Edge and Randy Orton. There was talk that Orton was originally supposed to be the man to break the streak but refused out of respect. Despite the “Mr. WrestleMania” moniker that Shawn Michaels walks around with, WrestleMania became synonymous with The Undertaker and getting a win over The Deadman on the show of shows was looked at in the highest regard, which is why it was so surprising when it was Brock Lesnar to finally be the one to do it.

Many argued that somebody who needed the momentum should have been the one to do it, something Lesnar certainly didn’t need at the time, but when The Undertaker says that’s the way he wants to go, people are going to listen. After victories over Bray Wyatt and Shane McMahon, The Phenom would once again lose at WrestleMania 33, this time to Roman Reigns in the final match of the night. At the conclusion of the bout, he would leave his hat, coat and gloves in the ring in a sign that he was done. It’s common practice to go out on your back and with Roman Reigns being the guy (sorry, I can’t help myself) to lead WWE into the future, it made sense.

But what if The Undertaker had lost one of his early matches at WrestleMania? Early on, he was fed some over-the-hill superstars like Jake Roberts and Jimmy Snuka and it was pretty easy to know that he was going to come out on top. The match that stands out to me was the match with Giant Gonzalez (you know, the weird guy in the body suit) at WrestleMania IX. It’s no secret that Vince loves big guys and this guy was massive. He was brought in to specifically take on ‘Taker and their match was really bad. This is the only match that The Undertaker won by DQ at WrestleMania and it could just as easily gone the other way. So what happens to The Undertaker’s legacy if that would have gone down? “The Streak” prolonged The Undertaker’s career by five years as he would only really wrestle at that particular show. Would we look at him as one of the all-time greats without that streak?