Undertaker lying flat on his back. The image of that big screen with the numbers "21-1" displayed on it will be forever etched in the memory of every wrestling fan of this and the past few generations. As Taker made his way up that ramp, you could tell something wasn't right. Yes, this is sports entertainment. Yes, it's scripted. But when the referee completed the three count, the silence that fell upon the Superdome was deafening, seeing that look on Undertaker's face was soul destroying. By this time, he was already heavily concussed, but even through the confusion, the look on his face said "What have I just done?". It shouldn't have ended that way. After the concussion, Brock Lesnar had no choice but to go through with a match against a man who didn't really know what was going on, and basically had to carry him through to the grim end. This had been building up for a while now, and having finally gotten through the shock of it actually happening, it made sense. It all fitted together nicely. So here's my take on why the streak was destined to end the way it did.
When Undertaker first debuted in WWE, there was something that set him apart. Obviously, I hadn't even been born yet, so this is going by watching back on what was happening those days. That thing that set him apart was the fact he was almost unable to feel pain. In the early days of his career, he was THE unconquerable guy in WWE. Almost always no-selling strikes and proving hard to shift. He was a scary guy into the bargain, from debuting as the vintage Deadman, to being the head of the Ministry. Wrestlemania 9, he won by DQ because Giant Gonzalez used chloroform, and even then, after being stretchered to the back, he returned and launched an assault on Gonzalez. Still unbreakable,
That's all good and well, but no one can be expected to perform at the very top of their game for over twenty years without there being physical repercussions. For some reason, Undertaker was. He did have his issues with injury, that's well documented, but he was still expected to come out every year, on the grandest stage of them all, and steal the show. Make no mistake about it, he did. Twenty one Wrestlemania matches passed, and he remained undefeated, undeterred, but as time went on, that weakness was there. Every year that passed, the matches were becoming more grueling, longer, and each time, it looked as though the streak was in massive danger of ending.
As a fan, the first sign would have been with his battles against Shawn Michaels. Wrestlemania 25 first. In what was voted the match of 2009 by almost everyone who bared witness to it, Undertaker only just overcame Michaels, who looked like the first legitimate challenger to the streak. In a half hour epic, which saw Michaels twice hit Sweet Chin Music, only a stroke of luck saw Undertaker seal the win, as HBK climbed the top rope and attempted a moonsault, but Taker caught him in the Tombstone position and hit his second piledriver of the night to finally but Michaels away. He was stretched to his limits, and no one would have really been that surprised, given the nature of the match, if HBK had ended the streak. Business would resume as usual the following year when he would meet the Showstopper for the second time, but this time around, in a "Streak vs Career" match. This time, it took three Tombstones to put HBK away. Again, throughout the match, Michaels looked to have Undertaker defeated. The added stipulation of the match made it all the more special to those of us watching it. We didn't want to see the streak end, but we didn't want to see Shawn Michaels retired either. After another show stealing performance from the two, the show of respect afterwards was heartwarming.
Then Wrestlemania 27 came along, and the next man to take on the challenge of defeating the streak was Triple H. Watching this match, I can remember a certain unease about the whole thing. It was unlike any of Undertaker's other Wrestlemania matches, and by that I mean, you'd struggle to remember any real offense on the part of the Deadman. Being a No Holds Barred match, this was straight up Triple H's alley, as he brutalized Taker with chair shots throughout, hitting him with his own Tombstone and two Pedigrees, but still unable to put him away. Hunter resorted to old faithful, and he retrieved the sledgehammer. However, just as he went to launch an assault on Undertaker with it, Taker had a second wind, and locked in the Hell's Gate submission for what seemed like forever, to which Triple H finally tapped out before he passed out. At what cost though? The damage had been well and truly done, and as Undertaker was stretchered out of the arena, he looked a far cry from his days as an immovable object.
It wasn't to be his last great performance at the showcase of the immortals though, as he went on to defeat Triple H the year after inside Hell in a Cell, and then put on another match of the year against CM Punk at Wrestlemania 29. There was no certainty in the streak anymore though. With each passing minute in those matches, it looked more and more likely that Undertaker would be dethroned, but in the end, there would always be a bit extra left in the tank. That's what made it so hard to take.
We can't say we didn't go into Wrestlemania 30 expecting Brock to take it to Taker. We all guessed it would have been a brutal affair. We knew that physically, realistically, Undertaker just couldn't live with Brock Lesnar. But, surely, he couldn't lose? Even with all the beating down in the world, he'd have came up with something in the end. Surely. That's why after the first F5, we were safe in our minds. He kicked out. Brock pulled him off the top rope when he went for Old School and hit another F5. Shaky, but still confident, he kicked out. Even after that third F5, we sat and waited for his arm to come up. It didn't though. The referee's hand hit the mat for the third time and we were in disbelief. How could we have let ourselves be so certain that this couldn't happen? The entire match, Undertaker looked weak and slow. A quarter of a century of battles catching up on him. The concussion didn't help matters either, but even then, watching the match over and over again, he looked defeated before the first bell rang.
In all honesty, the last time Undertaker looked confident in a Wrestlemania match was against Edge at Wrestlemania 24. That was the last real time that sitting down and saying "there's no chance the streak will end tonight" was a reasonable assumption. After that, every big match took it's toll on him physically, and it wasn't his fault. He was expected to uphold the legacy of the streak until it took it's last, gut-wrenching breath, and that's exactly what he did. But if we're completely honest with ourselves, looking back over the past few years, with Undertaker looking less confident as time went by, then being faced with a challenge like Brock Lesnar, there was only going to be one winner. It was a moment that will define a generation in sports entertainment, in pro wrestling and indeed, in sports. I can remember the day after, people were posting on facebook and twitter who hadn't watched wrestling in years, absolutely shocked and devastated to hear that Undertaker had been beaten at Wrestlemania. That was the problem, we were all too emotionally attached to the streak, that we couldn't ever imagine witnessing it broken. The memory of Undertaker walking back up the ramp, with a chant of "Thank you Taker" echoing around the Superdome, will be one that we won't be quick in forgetting. We didn't expect him to be defeated, never mind in the dominant fashion that he was defeated. Maybe it was a long time coming though, and maybe they were just waiting for the right person to make the breaking of the streak look believable. Either way, maybe we should have anticipated the ending of the streak. After all those tiring matches, the wars against Shawn Michaels, Triple H and CM Punk, was it the streak that was on a shaky nail, or was it Undertaker himself?