Minus-Star Match Reviews: The Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns – WWE WrestleMania 33

These days Roman Reigns is considered one of the biggest and most successful wrestling stars of the past twenty years. Over the past four years he has shattered records and become an undeniable international star. But no amount of erasure or revisionist retelling of history will ever remove the fact that Roman Reigns was one of the most hated men in WWE history.

It wasn’t his fault, either; as his most recent run has proven, the man behind the gimmick has possessed the skills to be a believable and compelling villain who can draw and exude a megastar aura with the right creative (and plenty of smoke and mirrors). But Reigns is like a character actor: he’s naturally inclined to fit a very specific role and his shortcomings are exposed when he’s miscast in a role he isn’t fit for.

Such was the case from 2015 when he was given the terrible misfortune of being groomed to be John Cena’s replacement. That resulted in a historic level of hostility and combativeness between WWE and its fans, one that saw many other wrestlers get caught in the crossfire. And today we revisit one of the many matches that saw Roman Reigns become the most hated person in WWE history, all because the man in charge stubbornly refused to acknowledge that his particular vision was outdated and unpopular.

The Story

WWE’s insistence on pushing Roman Reigns as not just a top star but as a babyface top star will forever go down as one of the most arrogant decisions in wrestling history. The company went to ridiculous lengths to doctor and edit footage to make Reigns look good despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Accusations emerged of anti-Reigns fan signs being either confiscated or censored on broadcasts. WWE’s editing machine was said to be piping in cheers because live crowds weren’t reacting either strongly enough or in the ways Vince McMahon wanted. At Payback in 2016, Reigns allegedly went off on fans after cameras turned off. All throughout 2016 and into 2017 he was booed much more than he was cheered, but there was an odd duality to this. While older and more dedicated fans were louder in their rejection of him, he was cheered by WWE’s target audience (children and families). He was also being pushed as a sponsor-friendly entity, which was critical to WWE and especially Vince McMahon because he loved the positive PR he got from those charity relationships.

But at some point this combative relationship between WWE management and vocal pockets of fans turned into spite from the company. If audiences weren’t going to eat what Vince was serving them then he would take away the other dishes they still did like. That led to a match that was expected yet dreaded: Reigns facing The Undertaker at WrestleMania. And so, Reigns eliminated The Undertaker from the Royal Rumble match to set this up. In the weeks that followed Reigns began claiming that WWE was going be his yard going forward. He also started copying some of ‘Taker’s other signatures including the suicide dive to the floor, raising his fist like ‘Taker, and calling himself “the Big Dog”. It was all very artificial, mechanical, top-down and ham-fisted, but such was to be expected when Vince and his inner circle were on the warpath.

As for the Undertaker, well, his time in WWE post-WrestleMania XXX was a mixed bag. After losing to Brock Lesnar in 2014 there was no good reason for him to be around. The last genuine gimmick he had was gone and him appearing at WrestleMania – or at all for that matter – lacked the magnitude it had when the Streak was still intact. It also didn’t help that his creative around this time made little sense: he beat Bray Wyatt twice in 2015, further killing the gimmick’s momentum. Then in 2016 he wrestled Shane McMahon in a stupid, plot hole-filled story that was only put together so that Shane could jump off an elevated position. With each passing match more people, including loyal fans, began claiming that ‘Taker, like Ric Flair before him, was tarnishing his own legacy by coming back solely out of blind loyalty to WWE.

So when this match was announced it wasn’t seen as either a surprise or something to look forward to. It was all but guaranteed that Reigns would win; even a child could see how WWE’s ridiculous and almost insane degree of effort was put into making this man a star was going to lead to another big win for him on the company’s flagship show. Worse, expectations weren’t all that high about the match’s quality, either. Reigns was still a subpar worker compared to most of Undertaker’s previous opponents. He wasn’t someone who had proven that he could lead a match or come up with creative and compelling ways to work around an aging wrestler’s injuries and physical limitations. As such, people went into this expecting a styles clash and not in a good way. For this to succeed it would need plenty of smoke and mirrors and enough creativity to help both men accentuate their strengths and conceal their weaknesses. But was there enough in both men to pull such a monumental task off?

The match

This took place on April 2, 2017. It was rated *** by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer.

This is a No Holds Barred match. They bring out Jim Ross to call the action because THIS IS SPECIAL, DAMMIT. Then Reigns’ old Shield music plays and he is bombarded with boos. I remember it being bad watching live and honestly I’m surprised no one in WWE’s management fucked with the audio on the Network version of the show. After the initial torrent of boos dies down Reigns still gets a smattering of them here and there but for the most part the audience watches his entrance in silence. Whether that’s because they hate him or because they’re all dead tired from the show being a hundred hours long is a matter of opinion. Meanwhile, Undertaker’s entrance is cut short somewhat by having him spawn halfway up the entrance ramp so that he can actually start this match before midnight. He still gets his trademark gong pop but again, the response thereafter is pretty muted since the crowd is exhausted.

The bell rings and ‘Taker lands the first barrage of strikes. He throws Reigns out of the ring and shouts “MY YARD”. Reigns tries retaliating but ‘Taker shitcans him again and says “STILL MY YARD”. Reigns stalls and then hotshots ‘Taker on the top rope. They trade punches until Reigns clotheslines ‘Taker to the floor. A “Roman sucks” chant breaks out as ‘Taker whips him into the steel steps. Back in the ring Reigns reverses an Irish whip and lands a Samoan drop. The action spills back out of the ring and the guys trade strikes yet again. Undertaker gets Reigns on his shoulder but Reigns escapes and shoves ‘Taker into a ringpost. That’s followed by a running dropkick which gets very little reaction. Not even Jim Ross with his bottomless well of passion and creativity can breathe life into this plodding affair so far.

A yay/boo strike exchange occurs in the ring and then Undertaker no-sells a kick meant to stop a back body drop. Undertaker hits a corner clothesline followed by his snake eyes/big boot/leg drop combo for two. Reigns rolls to ringside to avoid a chokeslam and this time ‘Taker punches him to block another dropkick. ‘Taker dismantles one of the commentary tables and the crowd barely acknowledges it. Reigns lands another dropkick and charges once more but then Undertaker hits first with a chokeslam onto that table, which doesn’t break. He sets up another table, climbs onto a different one, and teases a Tombstone, only for Reigns to hit first with a spear that sends both of them crashing through one of the tables.

The crowd boos vociferously as Reigns looks confident in the ring but then they pop when Undertaker sits up. Reigns hits a bevy of corner strikes until ‘Taker counters with a pretty weak-looking Last Ride powerbomb. He’s done much better versions in the past is all I’m saying. Reigns kicks out so ‘Taker grabs a chair. Reigns reaches for it but ‘Taker boots him and then whacks him in the back with the chair a few times. It’s hard for people to react to chair-shots – no matter how loud they are – when the guy taking them is wearing body armor. Seriously it seems like only a tiny fraction of thought and effort was put into this match. Reigns rolls out of the ring again, which is smart, and the crowd boos him, even though he’s supposed to be the babyface in this match. Reigns hits two Superman punches and charges for a third but Undertaker counters with a chokeslam onto the chair for a two-count. Tombstone Piledriver connects. One, two, Reigns kicks out and a few fans chant “bullshit” in response.

And now it’s time for the match to fall apart.

Reigns escapes a second Tombstone attempt and goes for the reversal into his own Tombstone spot that has been seen many times before in Undertaker matches and elsewhere (*cough* Okada *cough*). But instead of a smooth transition both guys collapse forward in an awkward heap and Reigns fails to get Undertaker up. The crowd starts to groan. Reigns tries covering with another Superman punch for two but now things are really starting to get bad. Reigns lands a spear but ‘Taker counters a cover with his Hell’s Gate submission hold. Reigns gets the ropes with his foot which apparently forces a ropebreak…in a NO HOLDS BARRED match.

Undertaker crawls towards the chair but Reigns steps on it to stop him. Reigns hits him with the chair several times and then lands a second spear for a two-count. a third spear also gets a two-count and finally the crowd actually response positively as they do Bryan’s Yes chant. Reigns lands another Superman punch and waits for ‘Taker to sit up again. ‘Taker does but crumples down shortly afterwards. There’s some trash-talking between them and then Reigns charges for…something…and an awkward collision is narrowly avoided. Then Reigns gets a big running start and hits a full-power spear to get the three-count and the win to become the second person to pin The Undertaker at WrestleMania.

Winner after 23:00: Roman Reigns

Review

There are few matches that make me think ‘Thank God Vince McMahon’s gone’ more than this aggravating atrocity. This match – and indeed this whole show – was every negative thing about Vince all rolled into one. It was long, slow, plodding, uninteresting and ultimately inconsequential until the finish. The stipulation ended up meaning precious little and didn’t open the door to any special interference or unique action. I had to watch this on 3x speed on the WWE Network because every other speed made the match progress as though it was taking place underwater. These guys could’ve cut the match’s length in half and they still would’ve had enough to work with. But because they wanted some forced epic the match was filled with dead air and downtime that stretched way longer than necessary. And when they were doing stuff it wasn’t all that compelling, either. Reigns had the expressiveness of a refrigerator as he robotically shifted from one boring signature move to another. He moved listlessly from move to move and when he tried to show any personality to get a response from the crowd it came across as forced and unrealistic.

As for the Undertaker, he had no business being in the ring at this point. He looked out of shape and physically spent. He moved slowly the entire match aside from that one three-move combo that brought back glimpses of the agility he once had. He didn’t have the same snap or power behind most of his moves. He very clearly looked his age which in turn seriously damaged his mythical aura. I never thought I’d ever use this word to describe the Undertaker, but in this match he came across as pathetic. He was a shell of his former self, soldiering on out of undying loyalty for his company and his boss because this life was all he knew.

Now, with ‘Taker clearly showing his age and weakness they could’ve easily transformed this match into a spiritual successor to Ric Flair/Shawn Michaels from WrestleMania XXIV. But there were three main problems with this idea. First, as I mentioned earlier, Roman Reigns had terrible expressiveness and thus couldn’t pull off the emotional conflict or melodrama that Shawn Michaels was known for. Even when HBK hammed up his performances you got the impression that he was actually conveying a degree of emotion on his face and through his body language. Not so with Reigns; he was portraying a stoic hero at all times and this idea backfired spectacularly.

Second, this match somehow contradicted one of Vince McMahon’s most well-known mantras: send the crowd home happy. He was so stubborn with the Reigns experiment that he was determined to get the guy over his way, even though the crowd rejected it. And since Vince had fans’ money and time he was going to give them whatever he wanted and there was nothing anyone could do about it. So Reigns won even though the crowd straight up didn’t want to see him win. Worse, he did it while miscast as a babyface. Had Reigns actually turned heel and wrestled like a heel then maybe the sour taste in fans’ mouths would be subdued. But Vince’s insistence on presenting Reigns this way flew in the face of not just his own mantras on wrestling but of conventional storytelling as well. Like it or not pro-wrestling in the US is built on the babyface/heel dynamic. Babyfaces are supposed to wrestle certain ways and heels are supposed to wrestle certain ways because the actions they pick elicit different emotional responses from the audience. Here, Reigns was seen as the heel but wrestled as the babyface. The fans, in turn, responded with either apathy or rejection. The story didn’t make sense to them since the Undertaker was the ultimate hero they still wanted to cheer on.

Third, the show was way too goddamn long. Seven hours including pre-show and tons of stretched out moments in and between matches. Entrances were too long, cameos and other announcements dragged on as well, and most of the matches were overly padded, even the shorter ones. The entire show moved at a snail’s pace and the main-event was no exception. Putting on a show like this speaks to the degree of apathy and animosity WWE management had towards the paying customer. It was a great example of the “we have your money now, fuck you” mindset that created the need for an alternative to WWE’s dominance.

Final Rating: -*

This match sucked then and it still sucks now. It remains an unshakeable and unfortunate blemish on both men’s careers. When it first happened it was one of the most frustrating experiences in modern times, both from a storyline perspective and an execution perspective. Even if you didn’t care about the story or didn’t buy into the smart fan rejection of Roman Reigns, this match still failed to deliver as a WrestleMania main event in every conceivable way.

And the worst part about this is that this all could’ve been easily avoided. If the Roman Reigns who returned to WWE in August 2020 debuted years six years earlier, that entire travesty that was Roman Reigns from 2015 to 2018 wouldn’t’ve ever happened. Instead, Reigns could’ve potentially been on the cusp of tying Bruno Sammartino’s first title reign in terms of length and everyone involved would’ve been saved plenty of headaches.

But because the powers-that-be refused to see reason and wanted a specific conclusion to WrestleMania that went against what everyone else wanted, we are left with one of the saddest and most disappointing main-events in WrestleMania history.

Skip this match if you haven’t already seen it or if you had some perverse desire to re-watch it. It’s not worth your time or your energy.

Thanks for reading.