The Streak, an interesting thought

[dakotabear]

Would the streak have been ended last year by CM Punk, if Paul Bearer didn't die?

It seems that at Mania 29 the focus was all about Bearer, so it could be interesting to think that if Bearer was still alive, would Punk have made it 20-1

[Daz]

I think Taker was kind of bent on losing it to Lesnar, but given the match quality and all these other factors, it would have probably been the better option to lose the Punk in hindsight.

[The Legend]

No, I think Taker was going to keep going until he thought it might be his last Mania match and last year wasn't that time. He had a harder time getting healthy and ready to wrestle this year (I remember stories as late as February that said he might not be ready). I think this year was simply when father time caught up with him.

[Kyle]

I doubt it.

[Everlong]

I think Taker was kind of bent on losing it to Lesnar, but given the match quality and all these other factors, it would have probably been the better option to lose the Punk in hindsight.

Yeah it seems to me as though Taker has known for a long time that he wanted Brock to be the one to end the streak, going to that appearance he made at a UFC event in like 2010. I think this is something that's been building for a while, and this year Taker just happened to be ready to finally let it go.

[Hanley!]

I was going to post a similar thread actually. I think there's a real possibility that they had Punk lined up to beat Undertaker, but were forced to have Undertaker win when Paul Bearer died and the feud became all about him. It would have been too weird to have the heel win in that scenario.

Just another reason that it sucks that Bearer died.

[Messiah]

I think WrestleMania 29 is why The Undertaker went ahead and ended the streak this year. There was a huge cloud over whether The Undertaker would compete at last years WrestleMania or not. He barely passed the physical. I imagine that behind the scenes, there may have been a similar concern this year and far from a guarantee he makes it to next years WrestleMania.

It makes me think they, or The Undertaker, had always planned to end the streak eventually. This quite possibly might have been his last opportunity to do so.

[Hanley!]

It's a good thing that it ended, and he made the right call if it was his to make.

Ultimately it was the wrong person to lose to though. You can already see that everyone is so surprised by the decision (and the poor quality of the match), that it's not really having the intended effect. It hasn't generated a bunch of heat for Lesnar in the same way as we might have suspected. It's been a little bit of an anti-climax.

That being said, it's still better than Undertaker not losing at all. The news coverage it has received has probably already justified its occurrence with plenty of old fans being reminded about wrestling. And this can still totally be used as fuel for new angles. It'll make Lesnar look like an unstoppable beast when he goes to challenge for the title. But it still seems like they should have struck while the iron was hot and had Undertaker lose to a younger challenger a couple of years ago.

For now, I'm pretty glad that the "should the streak end" debate is over. I was getting a little tired of one side being so infuriatingly wrong. But I'm afraid the debate might pop up again in future years, rephrased as "should the streak have ended?" If that happens, I really hope people don't try and use Lesnar's win and what happened afterwards as proof that he should have retired with the streak intact.

[Camstud]

It's a good thing that it ended, and he made the right call if it was his to make.

Ultimately it was the wrong person to lose to though. You can already see that everyone is so surprised by the decision (and the poor quality of the match), that it's not really having the intended effect. It hasn't generated a bunch of heat for Lesnar in the same way as we might have suspected. It's been a little bit of an anti-climax.

That being said, it's still better than Undertaker not losing at all. The news coverage it has received has probably already justified its occurrence with plenty of old fans being reminded about wrestling. And this can still totally be used as fuel for new angles. It'll make Lesnar look like an unstoppable beast when he goes to challenge for the title. But it still seems like they should have struck while the iron was hot and had Undertaker lose to a younger challenger a couple of years ago.

For now, I'm pretty glad that the "should the streak end" debate is over. I was getting a little tired of one side being so infuriatingly wrong. But I'm afraid the debate might pop up again in future years, rephrased as "should the streak have ended?" If that happens, I really hope people don't try and use Lesnar's win and what happened afterwards as proof that he should have retired with the streak intact.

100% what will happen.

[Chewy]

It's a good thing that it ended, and he made the right call if it was his to make.

Ultimately it was the wrong person to lose to though. You can already see that everyone is so surprised by the decision (and the poor quality of the match), that it's not really having the intended effect. It hasn't generated a bunch of heat for Lesnar in the same way as we might have suspected. It's been a little bit of an anti-climax.

That being said, it's still better than Undertaker not losing at all. The news coverage it has received has probably already justified its occurrence with plenty of old fans being reminded about wrestling. And this can still totally be used as fuel for new angles. It'll make Lesnar look like an unstoppable beast when he goes to challenge for the title. But it still seems like they should have struck while the iron was hot and had Undertaker lose to a younger challenger a couple of years ago.

For now, I'm pretty glad that the "should the streak end" debate is over. I was getting a little tired of one side being so infuriatingly wrong. But I'm afraid the debate might pop up again in future years, rephrased as "should the streak have ended?" If that happens, I really hope people don't try and use Lesnar's win and what happened afterwards as proof that he should have retired with the streak intact.

100% what will happen.

It's already being done by virtue of the line: the match wasn't good enough.