Every 2017 WWE PPV main event ranked by in-ring value

14. WWE WrestleMania 33

The Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns

After Brock Lesnar and Goldberg hit the ring for their WWE Universal Championship Match, it became obvious that The Undertaker and Roman Reigns would be the final match of the night, and with the scene that took place following the match, it’s clear to see why that was. And while I will admit that The Undertaker taking off his gear and placing it in the middle of the ring gave me a goosebump or two, the actual match itself was really hard to get through.

For the most part, it’s hard to watch a legend in his final days as a competitor. Ric Flair was able to put on one last great match with Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 24 (yep, I’m pretending that TNA didn’t happen) and HBK himself was able to go out while still upright two years later. However, watching The Undertaker at WrestleMania this year made me really sad. After more than a quarter-century and so many high-caliber matches, it was tough to watch him go out like this. He looked so beaten down and simply looked his age.

This match technically went more than 20 minutes but the actual action was maybe half of that as there was a lot of downtime with ‘Taker struggling to get through this. There were quite a few botched spots and it almost seemed like The Deadman forgot how to apply Hell’s Gate. Roman Reigns, who got the biggest win of his career here, tried his best to keep things going but he could only do so much in there. Watching him try the reversal on the Tombstone was brutal.

I will give credit to the story The Undertaker and Roman Reigns told in the ring. It was quite obvious that Roman was going to get the win but having The Undertaker kick out time and time again was good. It said that Reigns had to dig deeper and deeper to give everything he had to get the victory, and after what looked like a mercy killing, he finally did just that. There are rumors swirling that The Undertaker may try one more but given what happened after the match and watching him struggle so much, I really hope that isn’t the case.