An ‘unannounced’ John Cena-Undertaker WrestleMania could only happen in the WWE Network era

By not officially announcing the John Cena-Undertaker match that everyone still expects at WrestleMania 34, the WWE is leaning into its current era of programming and trying out a tactic that never would have worked in the age of traditional pay-per-views.

It’s the day after the final Raw before WrestleMania 34, and the pro wrestling world is still buzzing about what didn’t happen on last night’s show. Specifically, despite John Cena trying everything from getting the fans to cheer for him to publicly questioning his testicular fortitude, as Mick Foley might say, the Undertaker did not appear to answer his challenge for a WrestleMania match.

Considering that the conventional wisdom is that Cena and the Dead Man will in fact do battle on Sunday, most fans expected that the so-called blow off show would be where they finally made that official. Understandably, most of the reaction today is about how strange it is that the WWE will put on its biggest event of the year without a match it teased for weeks (unlikely, but you never know) or by not confirming a showdown between two of its biggest stars until the night of the show.

There’s no doubt about it: It is a weird move. It’s also potentially brilliant, and something that could only happen today, when even WrestleMania is just part of the WWE Network content package.

Prior to the last few years, there’s zero chance WWE would have attempted an “unannounced” match between performers as high profile as Cena and Undertaker without trumpeting proudly to the world that it was going to take place. It needed to sell pay-per-view buys, after all, and the best way to do that is to let everyone know how titanic the WrestleMania card will be.

That’s no longer the case in 2018. Not only does WrestleMania 34 come for no extra charge to subscribers, it’s actually available for free for anyone who signs up for a 30-day WWE Network free trial — something WWE resisted for several years even after launching its own streaming service. Now the focus is to get as many people to subscribe as possible.

What better way to do exactly that than to have Undertaker show up in the middle of the card on Sunday and call Cena out of the crowd (where he’s claimed he will be) to have a match right there? It’s the kind of word of mouth development that can spread quickly over social media and possibly get people to scurry for a free trial right then and there.

If Undertaker makes his challenge at the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday night, which some people believe he will since Kid Rock is being inducted, the same logic applies. The ceremony is being carried on WWE Network as well, and WWE can easily spin it as, “holy crap, go sign up for your free trial now!”

Next: What every WrestleMania main event should have been

It’s a huge break from tradition to approach the build-up for such a huge match in this fashion, and it’s an effort that isn’t guaranteed to pay off with new subscribers or even more eyeballs on WrestleMania 34 than there already would be. But it does seem like it’s worth trying, and it could turn out to be a very savvy move indeed.