Should Undertaker show up as the American Badass at Wrestlemania?

[KaiserGlider]

So Cena vs Taker is officially happening, and during his promo Cena literally said Taker posts workout vids on Michelle McCool's Instagram and he's scared of being called an old man. Fantasy booking on Reddit is that the "deadman" character retired at Mania last year and that Taker has been un-kayfabed now by Cena and will come back as a regular person, AKA American Badass. Personally I don't buy it and I think it's just a case of Cena being Cena to get people talking. But the question is, if you're gonna get Taker anyway, would you rather see ABA for a change?

[AkydefGoldberg]

Nice of Cena to be direct and to the point rather than going round in circles.

Had Taker not appeared on the 25th Anniversary show, the theory of him returning as the ABA would have been plausible but appearing as the Deadman and coming as the ABA for Mania seems unlikely although with WWE's planning, it could happen.

With the Deadman gimmick past its expiry date many years ago, a gradual transition to the ABA would have been a more humane way to end his career and more authentic but from a character perspective they probably felt ending as the Deadman would have been more symbolic but because the end doesn't seem near it's just dragged on...and on..

[The Legend]

Deadman Undertaker/cryptkeeper Undertaker is the best Undertaker and always will be. I have no interest in ABA Taker or seeing him again. The ABA character makes no sense in the chronology of the Undertaker and I prefer to forget it ever happened.

[DBSoT]

Well Kid Rock is going into the Hall of Fame. So, I could see him playing ABA Taker to the ring. Personally, I don't want to see Taker wrestle again. He is a shell of himself and no level of workout video is going to change my mind on that. Cena's promo was pretty damn good though, so it at least made me more invested in his appearance.

[The Legend]

The thing that really bugs me about this story is simple though. I mean it feels a lot like the Roman/Brock story. I mean two of your marquee matches are going to be about two guys that want nothing to do with WWE/Mania. It's hard to sell your product with that going on throughout RAW in the coming weeks.

[Hanley!]

I don't think Undertaker should be showing up at all, but the American Badass would be the lesser of two evils here. Biker taker was a bit cheesy maybe, but I actually enjoyed the character a lot when he turned heel and dropped the motorbike. He should come back as that guy. Seeing some humanity from Undertaker would be refreshing after all these years.

In terms of in-ring work, Undertaker had his best run since his return to the Deadman gimmick in 2004. But in terms of character work, it's been his worst run by far. I enjoyed the nostalgia of that character for a couple of years after he came back, but I grew to loathe it. Almost anything else would be preferable.

I used to think that the problem with his character from 2004 onward was that it didn't fit in the modern era of wrestling. It was a campy 90s character that worked back then, but doesn't now. But there's more to it than that. The problem with the modern Deadman character is that it's completely one-dimensional and empty. In the 90s the character was campy and mysterious and constantly evolving. There were extra elements which made him more interesting, like Paul Bearer and the urn, or his Ministry of Darkness.

90s Undertaker was comparable to good Lucha Underground. Modern Undertaker is just a fucking slooooooooooooow entrance, a coat, a hat, and the ability to turn the lights off at will - a power that every creepy character has inherited because WWE is that creative. There's nothing to him. And 14 years is a long time to survive on nostalgia alone.

Let him be a person again. Let the fake retirement from last year be the retirement of the Deadman character. It'll be more entertaining. Besides, he'll have to retire and go into the Hall of Fame one of these years, and it'll make that transition a lot less jarring.

[KaiserGlider]

Had Taker not appeared on the 25th Anniversary show, the theory of him returning as the ABA would have been plausible but appearing as the Deadman and coming as the ABA for Mania seems unlikely although with WWE's planning, it could happen.

It was so stupid to have him make that appearance. It accomplished nothing and it killed the suspense of what condition Taker's character was in following the loss to Roman. That Raw 25 appearance is why I'm pretty sure he's coming back as the deadman and will retire (eventually...) as the deadman. Fuck that segment and fuck Raw 25 while we're at it.

Anyway, I don't think he should come back as one of his gimmick characters necessarily. Maybe just come back looking like the deadman but cut a normal promo addressing Cena's challenge without all the "rest in piece" and "soul" talk. That would be something new and I would like to see it very much. Frankly, deadman Taker doesn't really work with this version of Cena anyway. I just can't picture Taker coming back and telling Cena "I'm going to take your soul at Wrestlemania". Cena would probably no-sell it and then kill Taker with a one-liner. So I'm interested to see how they play this, though not getting my expectations too high.

[Everlong]

I just really don't care about either of these. Is there really any sort of heat to this match any more? It would have been cool, say, 10 years ago to have a Cena/Taker WrestleMania match, but right now there's no real reason for me to give a shit. Undertaker's been washed up for years. Cena is a part timer and is so stale that people on the internet can't even be bothered to talk about how stale he is any more. Heck, he's long since been overtaken by Roman Reigns in terms of the guy in WWE who's the internet lightning rod.

I just really don't get it. Why does the Undertaker need a match? Why should I care that it's against Cena?

[Messiah]

I couldn't give a single shit about Undertaker/Cena, but the one thing it has going for it (barely) is that the visual of a Cena/Undertaker staredown will be cool. It is a nice WrestleMania moment.

However, that only works if the Undertaker is in his deadman persona. Otherwise, as much as I enjoyed ABA Undertaker, it would ultimately just be Cena vs another tough guy. Everyday man Undertaker doesn't make as good of a dream match as deadman Undertaker.

It's too late to make it nearly as special as it could have been, but they would ruin it by changing Undertaker's persona. If they were going to do it, it should have been years ago.