The Undertaker is entering his 23rd WrestleMania tonight in Santa Clara to face off against fellow supernatural heavyweight Bray Wyatt. Though the streak came to an end last year, Undie is pluggin’ along, entering maybe one of his most unpredictable matches yet. Before he does, here are six facts every Undertaker fan should have in their arsenal to look cool at any WrestleMania party. Well…as cool as you can look at a wrestling-themed party, I guess.
1. The Undertaker holds the record for most consecutive WrestleMania appearances
Everybody knows about The Streak, but most people forget that 21-1 didn’t happen consecutively. The Undertaker made his WrestleMania debut in 1991, but ended up missing out on two. Yokozuna kayfabe “killed” him at the Royal Rumble in 1994, (we wrote about it here) making him miss WrestleMania 10. The real reason was to undergo surgery to repair his injured orbital bone, but that’s nowhere near as cool. He was also injured in 2000, leaving an Undie-shaped hole in WrestleMania 16. John Cena, Randy Orton, and Kane are each tied for second place, having all competed in consecutive WrestleManias since WrestleMania XX.
2. The Undertaker has never entered WrestleMania as champion
Undie is a 3-time World Heavyweight Champion, and a 4-time WWF/E Champion, but has never entered the grandest stage of them all with a big belt around his waist. He has, however, walked out with one on three occasions: He won the WWF Championship by defeating Sycho Sid in a no-DQ match at WrestleMania 13, then won the World HEavyweight Championship from Batista at ‘Mania 23. In 2008 at WrestleMania 24, Edge entered the match with the World Heavyweight Championship and an undefeated WrestleMania record of his own, only for the Undertaker to take both of those away.
3. The Undertaker is tied for the second-most world title wins at WrestleMania
The second-place winning record for the WWE/F Championship and the World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania is shared between three people:
1. The Undertaker (victories at WrestleManias 13, 23, and 24)
2. Stone Cold Steve Austin (victories at WrestleManias 14, 15, and 17)
3. Hulk Hogan (victories at WrestleManias 5, 7, and 9)
John Cena holds the record for most major title wins, walking out with the title at WrestleManias 21, 25, 26, and 29.
Bonus fact: The WWF/E Championship title is now known as the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Randy Orton defeated John Cena at SummerSlam 2013 to unify both belts. The unified championship now retains the lineage of the WWE Championship. The World Heavyweight Championship was retired.
4. The Undertaker has faced (and defeated) every member of Evolution at WrestleMania
The Undertaker has beat a lot of people at WrestleMania (it’s kind of a big deal), but Evolution is the only faction to have been completely individually decimated by the Dead Man. Ric Flair lost at WrestleMania 18, Randy Orton at 21, and Batista at 23. Triple H just can’t quit you, Undie, being both the first and last member to face off. Triple H lost at WrestleMania 17, then came back for second and third helpings at WrestleManias 27 and 28.
5. The Undertaker Has competed in every WrestleMania match on his own, but not every one was a singles match
In fact, his WrestleMania 19 match was initially set up as a tag match. Nathan Jones was actually supposed to team with ‘Taker against the team of Big Show and A-Train. Jones was taken out by Nunzio on the preceding episode of Sunday Night Heat. Though he was removed from the match, Jones still interfered in the 2-1 handicapped match, attacking Big Show and letting the Undertaker give A-Train a Tombstone Piledriver for the win.
6. The Undertaker has had five finishers, but has only used three to win at WrestleMania
The Tombstone Piledriver has been the go-to finisher for the Undertaker at WrestleMania, using it to defeat his opponents 15 out of 21 times.* The Last Ride was used only once against Triple H at WrestleMania 17, and the Hell’s gate finished Edge at 24 and Triple H at 27.
WrestleMania 9 saw Undie get a DQ victory when he got chloroformed by Giant Gonzalez. At WrestleMania 11, he used a flying clothesline from the top rope to beat King Kong Bundy, and at WrestleMania 22 he won by putting Mark Henry into a casket as per the match stipulation.
*We’re going to add an asterisk in for those more particular statistic types: Technically he used a jumping Tombstone Piledriver to win his second ‘Mania match against Shawn Michaels at WresleMania 26 after HBK kicked out of a regulation one.
