It seems that all anybody is talking about from this past Monday’s Raw is the buildup between CM Punk and The Undertaker for their WrestleMania match. There has been lots of discussion as to whether or not lines were crossed or CM Punk was showing too much real life disrespect to Paul Bearer. Personally, I thought Punk did a great job of walking the line between getting character heat while still refraining from disrespecting William Moody. I also thought that the video tributes throughout the night were a great touch that allowed the company and the fans to pay genuine respect to the man while not interfering with the storyline. But there’s something else that this affects that hasn’t been touched on quite as much.
The thing about Undertaker’s streak at WrestleMania is that as the number of victories grows higher and higher, the idea of somebody breaking the streak in any give year seems more and more unlikely. As we approached the 20-0 mark it seemed that there was no way that the WWE would let the streak end before then, so Undertaker’s win was already guaranteed before the opponent was even announced. The same thing holds true as we approach WrestleMania 30. Surely there will be a streak match at that PPV so anything before then automatically is an automatic win for the Undertaker as well.
That being said, over the past few years the WWE has actually done a fairly good job of being able to plant a seed of doubt each year that maybe, just maybe this could be the end of the streak. The right things have gone into the buildup each time around that even though logically you knew that the Streak had to continue, that lingering “What if…?” question was still there. A special note needs to be made of the build up to the second time that The Undertaker faced Shawn Michaels in 2010. Even with the match being a career threatening one, meaning that we all knew Shawn Michaels was headed toward his final match, that seed of doubt still got planted. The buildup that took place over multiple months and the emotion in several promos from both competitors worked so well that that lingering “What if…?” question was still there. And that’s really all it needed. Sure it was a forgone conclusion that Taker would be walking away the victor, but as long as that tiny “What if…?” was in the back of your mind, each two count could get you that much more caught up in the match.
But this year, for the first time in several years, that seed of doubt isn’t really there. In addition to the fact that next year is the 30th WrestleMania, and there is no way that a Streak Match won’t be a part of that, this year is the first time in several years that The Undertaker will be defending his streak against a heel.
And because of this week’s episode of Raw, CM Punk is more solidly a heel than ever before. And not just a normal heel that insults the current city in an effort to get chap boos, but rather a true monster of a heel, a person that genuinely deserves to get thoroughly defeated come WrestleMania. One of the things that has always been able to help plant that seed of doubt that Taker will continue his streak in recent years is that he has faced heroes, some of the biggest fan favorites in fact. The challengers are guys who split the crowd reaction because a huge number of the audience would genuinely love to see their favorite break the streak. Now obviously there are still going to be cheers for Punk come WrestleMania time no matter what, and my cheers will most likely be among them. But these are cheers for Punk the wrestler, and not the current Punk character. CM Punk has to lose at Mania now, because he has to be punished for the way he acted this past Monday (and I assume for the way he will continue to act in the coming weeks)
This is not to say that Punk and Taker won’t have a fantastic match come time for Mania. I’m fairly sure that in December, it will be one of the top choices for match of the year. This isn’t even to say that WWE creative shouldn’t have gone the way that they did with Punk or this storyline. There are undeniable advantages to Punk being able to get this level of heat for his actions, and I can see why creative would want to jump on that. But this year, the outcome of the Streak match seems to be a little more certain than years past, and that’s when Taker’s victory was pretty much a guarantee to begin with. And in a year where I want The Streak to be broken so badly, I just wish that that seed of doubt were a little bit bigger this time around.
