After two meh WrestleMania showdowns following WM X8, The Undertaker runs into his next significant opponent in a young Randy Orton at WrestleMania 21 in 2005.
The Road to WrestleMania 21
This feud is part of Randy Orton’s path to the dark side as he begins to become “The Legend Killer”. He’d RKO’d Jake the Snake, Stacy Kiebler, and so on but knew his greatest prey would have to be a living legend in The Undertaker.
What I love about The Undertaker during the early 2000s is that he was doing whatever and a lot of it isn’t worth diving too deeply into.
Meanwhile, his eventual opponents usually have something interesting percolating and The Undertaker is often interrupted from whatever he’s got going on.
Either he’s answering a challenge or putting someone in their place but it will always come to a head at WrestleMania. With Orton goading Taker into a fight, he eventually gets his opportunity and crosses a line by paint-brushing “Big Evil” during an interpromotional contract signing.
Orton continues taunting Taker while the “Deadman” uses his powers to intimidate the Ortons. Remember Bob Jr was around at this time.
The Undertaker vs. Randy Orton at WM 21
This match was dope. Honestly, that’s all that needs to be said but we have to break this down a bit. First, Randy Orton was rebounding from a mediocre—well sub-mediocre—face run.
Now in his natural role, he’s been looking much more impressive and like a true main event threat. He’s hungry, eager to prove he’s an apex predator in WWE and his performance shows that in this bout.
Across the ring, you have “The Deadman” period of Undertaker where he’s in high-performance mode. See, Taker always maintained a certain level when it came to PPVs but he wasn’t always given prime opponents.
When he became a regular part of television and less of a special attraction, there was still a high level of performance he could deliver that was serviceable. It wasn’t as great as his PPV game but it did the job. With the brand split and early 2000s WWE, SmackDown became the good TV match brand.
WWE had younger performers coming in and SmackDown was packing some physical, athletic, hard-hitters. Taker added a little something in the Triangle Choke, ditched the Last Ride, and began wrestling a faster brawling style that preserved his knees to a degree.
Just watch Taker from this period, he was wrestling similar to his mid to late-90s PPV form on television and PPV. Not only that but he had diverse opponents to face: brawlers, technicians, heavy hitters, high-flyers—all in abundance.
Orton is another such opponent and he delivered against the Deadman here. It was a fast-paced match and you could say that it’s the match that made ending the Streak an achievement to vie for in the lead up to WrestleMania.
You don’t have a title match or something important with stakes? Oh, you have a match against The Undertaker? Taker is a title or achievement.
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