It’s No Chance time everybody. Lets skip the pleasantries this week and jump right in with the wrestling talk, shall we?
So this is it. Just a few more days, and we will see the past two months of buildup all come to an end with WrestleMania on Sunday. Do you know what this means? It means this is the last chance to talk about the Streak before everyone gets annoyed by it (if they aren’t already). This Sunday, Triple H will take a second stab at trying to end the legendary Streak of The Undertaker, but to me it really feels like he has no chance (tee hee, title reference) of accomplishing that. The lackluster promos combined with the fact that we’re just two away from the 20 matches mark, mean that I will be stunned if the Streak is ended this week. That being said, when will the Streak end? It has to be soon because I don’t think that The Undertaker has too many years left in him. So who will finally end the Streak? What options does the WWE have?
If Triple H does somehow win this Sunday, please disregard the following column.
Leave the Streak unbroken: Undertaker wins this year and next year to get his 20th win, and then rides off into the sunset with the Streak intact.
Pros: In this day and age, there are few truly great accomplishments left in the WWE. In a world where a Heavyweight championship can change hands twice on a single episode of Smackdown and people are 9+ time Champions, holding the belts are not the accomplishments that they once were. A perfect WrestleMania streak can be something for wrestlers to aspire to, something that can be pointed to as a true accomplishment in the world of wrestling.
Cons: The only problem is that nobody even comes close to a WrestleMania record like Undertaker’s. Feel free to correct me in the comments if I am wrong, but I can’t think of another current wrestler with an undefeated streak that is bigger than 1-0. (RVD doesn’t count due to the extreme low chances of him appearing at WrestleMania in the near future.) This means for the Streak to become relevant again, someone has to go undefeated for almost 20 years, and by then will audiences even know or care about who Undertaker was? Remember, a good chunk of that audience hasn’t even been born yet. Letting Undertaker retire undefeated would be a great way to give the guy a real legacy, but there are so many more story options by having him lose at some point.
Triple H does break the streak: This Sunday, or sometime in the future, Triple H makes good on his threats and finally ends the streak.
Pros: For the most part, what Triple H has said in his promos these past weeks has been true. He and Undertaker are the last two members of an earlier generation of wrestling. The two of them are basically working legends at this point, and if any fan was asked to make a list of who could end the streak, Triple H would be somewhere on that list. Though the buildup to the mach has been a bit lackluster, the fact that I am still excited to see the match proves that sometimes, legendary status is enough.
Cons: Doesn’t matter how good the match is or how clear it is that Triple H truly deserved the win, if this happens, there will be people saying that Triple H abused his creative privileges to end the Streak. Regardless of whether he did or not, the mere possibility of it will taint the victory. Not to mention that Triple H doesn’t have too much more time in the WWE, so even though he would have the title of “Streak ender,†there’s not a whole lot that he could do with it.
Kane ends the Streak: In the final rivalry of the Brothers of Destruction, Kane does the impossible by ending the Streak.
Pros: There is no wrestler that Undertaker has more history with than Kane. With these two guys, the match could be about so much more than ending the streak. Instead of Kane simply being the latest in a line of people trying to beat The Undertaker, the match could encompass the entire history of the Brothers of Destruction, including their two previous WrestleMania encounters. As The Undertaker’s defeat will likely mark the end of his career, this could be a good way to bring his entire storyline to a close.
Cons: I can already hear the screams of “Not this rivalry again!!!†mostly because I myself was the one screaming that as I typed the words. If their fights last year proved anything, it was that their storyline has nothing left. I’ve seen them fight each other more times than I care to count. I’m tired of it, you’re tired of it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were tired of it too. Frankly, any match that these two ever have will probably be near identical to one that can already be found on DVD somewhere.
John Cena ends the Streak: The long clamored WrestleMania match finally happens and Cena becomes the one to finally break the Streak.
Pros:  Cena has long been the next great thing in the WWE. Ending the streak could be the final step in going from the previous generation of wrestlers to this one, a figurative passing of the torch if you will. And while it isn’t 18-0, Cena probably has the second best WrestleMania record right now. Plus, if you want to start picking at it, his only loss was in the triple threat match where he wasn’t pinned. So his 6-1 record could also be viewed as 7 WrestleManias without getting pinned.
Cons: Like Triple H, there’s not a whole lot to be done with Cena beating The Undertaker. The man is about as over as he’s going to get at this point, so a big win like this won’t do much to add to his resume. And as long as he’s the company’s biggest face, bragging about ending the Streak won’t fit very well into the character.
A no name wrestler ends the streak: At the Royal Rumble, some NXT level punk starts pestering Undertaker and getting involved in all his matches. Finally, Undertaker decides to teach the guy a lesson at WrestleMania only to have the unknown guy win the match.
Pros: WWE has been a fan of catapulting new wrestlers past the mid-card level as of late, and whoever ends the streak would instantly be a top level wrestler from that point onward. In a single night this new guy would be the most interesting character in all of wrestling. Think the fast rise of Sheamus, plus the first invasion of the NXT rookies, times a hundred. This would instantly create buzz and would guarantee some additional viewers for the next several episodes of RAW.
Cons: As interesting as it could be, this would probably be too risky of a move for WWE to ever really consider it. So many things can go wrong with a new star, and if anything happens, the Streak will forever have been ended by a footnote wrestler. Not to mention the fact that you can’t just take away an accomplishment like that, the way you can a championship. If this hypothetical wrestler decides to leave two years later, he can just take the title of “Streak ender†with him, something that WWE won’t allow.
Thank you for sitting through a column of what was essentially repeat armchair booking for the same match. What is your vision for the Streak? Feel free to post your own ideas, comments on mine, or basically anything you want to talk about in the comments below.
