It’s that time of year again where wrestling fans bombard the internet with rumors of The Undertaker wrestling again. The reason for these rumors is that The Undertaker’s fictional brother Kane returned to WWE television this past Monday on Raw and he’s going to be a part of Sunday’s WWE TLC PPV main event a 3 on 5 TLC match.
During the Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns Steel Cage match on Raw, Kane entered the ring by coming in from under the ring and he destroyed Roman Reigns. Kane gave Reigns two Chokeslams plus a Tombstone Piledriver while Strowman gave Reigns two Running Powerslams to pin him. The question that WWE’s fans had after the Kane attack was, why would he do that?
The most sensible answer is that Roman Reigns beat The Undertaker at WrestleMania 33 earlier this year in what appeared to be The Undertaker’s last match. After Reigns won the match, The Undertaker left his signature hat, jacket and gloves in the ring while exiting through the ramp as the five hour show (felt like ten hours, really) came to a close.
The Undertaker hasn’t appeared on WWE since then. Meanwhile, Reigns has done numerous promos where he bragged about retiring The Undertaker. He has also said things like “This is my yard now” on the Raw after WrestleMania and taunted the fans by mentioning The Undertaker. Keep in mind that WWE still books Reigns like a babyface even though taunting The Undertaker like that is heelish behavior.
A report from WrestlingInc notes that there’s speculation amongst the internet wrestling community that The Undertaker may return as part of a match at Survivor Series. The Undertaker could end up teaming in an elimination tag match with The Shield’s trio of Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose or maybe he would be on Kane’s side against them.
This isn’t the first time this year where there are rumors that The Undertaker may return. During SummerSlam weekend, a fan took a photo of The Undertaker on his flight heading to the New York area. The Undertaker was there all weekend, but he didn’t appear on any camera. Maybe he was there planning a return later this year or perhaps it was simply a chance to get away a few days to see his friends in WWE.
This is just my take, but I really think The Undertaker is retired. He’s 52 years old, he’s had numerous hip and knee injuries and the way he retired at WrestleMania earlier this year was a fitting end to one of the best characters in WWE history. The reality is that wrestling fans are always going to think wrestlers have one more match left in them because we’ve seen it so many times. After this year’s WrestleMania, there was a story where The Undertaker had an armed guard protecting the items he left in the ring. You think he did that because it was just another match to him? No. It’s because it was probably the end.
Think about a guy like Steve Austin, who retired at WrestleMania 19 in 2003 and people were thinking he might have another match every year since then. Shawn Michaels retired in 2010, yet fans want him to come back for one more match and don’t believe him when he says he’s done.
With all of that said, it’s possible that The Undertaker is feeling healthy and may want to wrestle again. We have seen it happen so many times before. I’m not say for sure that he is done, but if I had to guess I would say he has wrestled his last match. If that changes, so be it. I’ll mark out for The Undertaker just like I did the first time I saw him when I was 10 years and just like I’ve done 25 years later.
For now, considering all of this Taker talk internet speculation. If there’s more to the story, we will write about it again. Until then, enjoy some Undertaker matches on WWE Network because there’s a lot to choose from.
