Topics: The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar, WrestleMania
The Undertaker has opened up on who should have broken his legendary winning streak at Wrestlemania, more than a decade after Brock Lesnar was picked as the chosen one.
Mark Calaway, who is better known by the ring name The Undertaker, beat the likes of Giant Gonzalez, Triple H, Kane, Shawn Michaels, Edge, Batista and Ric Flair on the grandest stage of them all.
For years, debate around who should break 'The Streak' was rife but on April 6, 2014, "The Beast Incarnate" Brock Lesnar hoisted Taker on his shoulders and delivered a third F5 before referee Chad Patton counted one-two-three.
As the camera panned towards a man with his mouth wide open, those inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans were stunned into silence as people tried to comprehend the magnitude of what had just happened.
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So why did Lesnar get the opportunity over everybody else? According to journalist Dave Meltzer, then-WWE chairman Vince McMahon made a last-minute call on the day of WrestleMania 30 as he thought Undertaker's career was coming to an end.
"Vince McMahon was going on the assumption that this was Undertaker's last hurrah, and he could either win, or lose," Meltzer explained, as per talkSPORT.
"McMahon chose the idea that it was better to lose on your way out...One person close to the situation said McMahon talked Undertaker into doing it.
"Another, who would also know, described it as McMahon making the call and Undertaker agreeing and that he wasn’t talked into doing something he didn’t want to do. It was not his original call, but he was in on it and never protested the call."
Calaway, meanwhile, has previously explained why Bray Wyatt should have broken the streak instead of Brock Lesnar.
Speaking on the Six Feet Under podcast, he said: "I don’t think Brock needed it. Brock was already, in my opinion, an established star, a megastar.
"Roman ended up being another megastar, but it would have been good for Roman to do it at the end of my career if you’re going to pass it on, but Bray, you know, if the storyline would have been done right, that would have been ideally, I mean, there’s so much you could have done there."
Taker added: “I mean, not only are you passing the torch, you’re passing the spirits. There would have been so many levels to that.
"Obviously, things happened different than what they did with him, but I mean, he would have been able to pull that crap out for years and years and years. There would have been so many, like I said, so many layers and I think that would have been the ideal person to do that with.”
Bray Wyatt, real name Windham Rotunda, tragically passed away from a heart attack in August 2023, aged just 36. He had previously contracted COVID-19, which exacerbated a pre-existing heart problem.
