During an interview this week on 2 Bears, 1 Cave, The Undertaker was asked to name the match that he’s most fond of from his legendary pro wrestling career. The dead man didn’t overthink this answer or get cute with it by picking a lesser known gem. Nope, he went with the obvious choice, which is his WrestleMania 25 match against Shawn Michaels:
“As far as a wrestling purist kind of match, it would have to be WrestleMania 25, Shawn Michaels. That was as close to perfect that I ever got…and obviously
Shawn is probably one of the greatest, if not the greatest, in-ring ring talent ever. We’re both in our 40’s, late in both of our careers.”
Here is Undertaker’s explanation for why that’s his favorite match.
“WrestleMania 25 is, in my opinion, we were able to, not only be athletic and show all that, but the story that we were able to tell. That’s what wrestling is about. It’s about the story. [It’s a soap opera] with violence. And that’s the hard part a lot of times for guys to understand, and to really grasp, that concept. Yeah, it’s about the wrestling, but really what it is, is the story-telling, and we use the wrestling to help tell the story. And this was about as close to perfect on all fronts…To have [the fans] emotionally connected. I mean, look at the size discrepancy. They all think that there is a chance that I’m losing for the first time at WrestleMania in this match.”
When I watched Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 25 in 2009, I remember thinking it was the greatest match in the history of the event. It clearly should have been the main event over Triple H vs. Randy Orton’s cure for insomnia later that night. Undertaker had plenty of good and great matches throughout his career, but that one will go down as the very best for many WWE fans.
Are there any other Undertaker matches that you thought were better than WrestleMania 25 versus HBK? Do you think that match is overrated to some extent? Let me know in the comments below, Cagesiders.
