Return of the Deadman

[The Architect of Anarchy]

Here's an idea I'd like to pitch out, thats been scratching my mind. In my opinion, Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton aren't ready to hold the ratings and quality programming togther that the WWE produced between Wrestlemania and Summerslam. With Monday night football on the horizon, will WWE prosper with Bryan and Orton at the helm in Cena's place?

Last Monday night, Shield joined the corporation in taking down Bryan. Bryan is going to need some help, so the questions is...who? Punk is busy feuding with Heyman.

The Shield have started to lose a tiny bit of momentum because they haven't feuded with anyone significant during No Way Out and Money in the Bank. Before this, they feuded with one man..Undertaker.

If Undertaker was available to come back in an onscreen role with less physical activity, would you insert him into the corporation angle? Why? It would certainly bring in Wrestlemania fans who see it for the streak. May be, have Taker and Bryan feud with HHH and Shield for a bit?

Even one PPV match would be enough to spice things up for the fall.

 

[Jack G]

I personally think Taker will return to tackle the Kane/Wyatt angle. Kane in this scenario get's "brainwashed" and becomes an animal...unleashed by Bray when called upon.

Up steps Taker to try to reason with Kane, stop Kane from becoming demonic...Massively outrageous call here, but if the storyline is long enough, Kane vs Taker at WM30 would be amazing, if done correctly.

Taker would come back soon, try to reason with Kane to snap away from the Wyatts...Kane then attacks Taker and "injures" him for a few months. Royal Rumble, Taker returns for revenge on Kane, along the way to WM defeating Bray and family. The idea is mental I know, but I'd love to see Taker in a storyline that isn't just another guy going after the streak....make it personal!

 

[The Architect of Anarchy]

I personally think Taker will return to tackle the Kane/Wyatt angle. Kane in this scenario get's "brainwashed" and becomes an animal...unleashed by Bray when called upon.

Up steps Taker to try to reason with Kane, stop Kane from becoming demonic...Massively outrageous call here, but if the storyline is long enough, Kane vs Taker at WM30 would be amazing, if done correctly.

Taker would come back soon, try to reason with Kane to snap away from the Wyatts...Kane then attacks Taker and "injures" him for a few months. Royal Rumble, Taker returns for revenge on Kane, along the way to WM defeating Bray and family. The idea is mental I know, but I'd love to see Taker in a storyline that isn't just another guy going after the streak....make it personal!

We need to consider the possible significance Taker's match at WM30 has. It might be his last match on the 30th anniversary of WWE's biggest event of the year. Creative would make this one special, to both us and Taker himself. Having someone like Kane face off against Undertaker one more time, would be nostalgic and a 'true' sendoff to an all time great.

No doubt, he'll return later this year to build his match against whoever it is at Wrestlemania. The point that I'm worried about is, he needs to face someone with a lot of momentum going into a match of such prospects. Kane has been apart of team Hell No, WWE's attempt to try and salvage a dying Tag Team Division. He's lost multiple times at the hands of the shield. Has lost this one match against Bray Wyatt. Futhermore, people have seen quite a lot of Kane vs Taker over the past five years. So the creative team just can't book the match because of this special occasion.

WWE needs to think about it's future as well, so why not someone like Orton, Bryan or Cena? Orton currently holds the WWE Championship, maybe he could drop it and take on Taker at mania? Then again, we've already seen the two at it before.

Bryan is hot right now and is the face of the company. (Even though Stephanie stated that Orton was, but 'face'.) A question looms over whether he 'deserves' it? Punk had a 434 day reign before he went toe to toe with the phenom. Plus, with the likes of HHH, HBK failing behind him, what makes Bryan move up there and be comparable to them?

Cena is the only logical option, WWE has at the moment.

 

[Jack G]

I completely agree about Cena, I did say it was an outrageous suggestion...But the nostalgia of the spectacle between the two would be unmatched...how about this cheeky scenario...

Taker vs Cena; Taker makes it clear it's his last WM. No whether he loses or not I'm not too sure, a loss would give Cena TOO much of a push as he is so over he's bent...Cena doesn't need the win. So, Taker wins...out comes the twisted Kane who for the months previous has demolished people on behalf of the Wyatts....Taker thinks he's come to attack, until Kane snaps out of it, hugs Taker and warms to the crowd. That moment would be amazing. Just an idea anyway

One more outrageous idea...Kane vs Taker (again) but whoever loses has to retire...leading allll of us to think Taker will finally lose! But it turns out, Kane loses and Kane retires. He get's a WM moment with Taker to end the career...nobody would see it coming

 

[The Architect of Anarchy]

I completely agree about Cena, I did say it was an outrageous suggestion...But the nostalgia of the spectacle between the two would be unmatched...how about this cheeky scenario...

Taker vs Cena; Taker makes it clear it's his last WM. No whether he loses or not I'm not too sure, a loss would give Cena TOO much of a push as he is so over he's bent...Cena doesn't need the win. So, Taker wins...out comes the twisted Kane who for the months previous has demolished people on behalf of the Wyatts....Taker thinks he's come to attack, until Kane snaps out of it, hugs Taker and warms to the crowd. That moment would be amazing. Just an idea anyway

One more outrageous idea...Kane vs Taker (again) but whoever loses has to retire...leading allll of us to think Taker will finally lose! But it turns out, Kane loses and Kane retires. He get's a WM moment with Taker to end the career...nobody would see it coming

Admire the fantasy booking here but I think WWE creative are learning from their mistakes in 2012. They used part timers against part timers in 2012, and now they've decided to put younger talent over with matches such as Bros of Destruction vs Shield or Lesnar vs Punk. I think they need someone younger to face Taker. Then that would elevate that youngster to great heights.

It would bode well for the future of WWE's booking, in the long term.

 

[GelBrache]

No, Undertaker doesn't need to return for this. To partner Daniel would make him look weak after he has already defeated The Real Americans one after another, then defeated the WWE Champ clean with a simple knee to the head.

I think WWE will keep pushing the typical underdog story with DB, have shield keep jumping him, unfair matches and whatnot only to overcome.

I'm sorry but if anyone were to help Bryan, it should not be the aging, balding, pudgy Mark Calloway.


Wouldn't seem smarter to bring in HBK since HHH was the one who screwed Bryan and Bryan was trained by HBK

 

[thebowtiekiller]

i dont really see much taker could do in the new corporation story unless he felt willing and able to wrestle more often unless he sided with vince and co instead of bryan coz then he could have more of a speaking role although it would probally mean he would have to turn heel which for taker would be almost impossible at this point.

ive got to believe that his return will involve kane in some way kanes got his storyline with the wyatts going on i like many was hoping he would get brainwashed and join the wyatts returning as a sort of leatherface character taker could definatly fit in there but apparantly kanes taking time off to make his new film so i guess that wont be happening.i reckon taker wont be back till mania time neways which is miles off yet but i do think it will be vs either kane or cena

 

[Redemption-2012]

Sorry but it's not WrestleMania season, The Undertaker has no reason to return. The only way I could see him making a return is if the Kane/Wyatt story continues which is something I highly doubt at this point. Kane is now gone from TV so that's out of the window for now. The Undertaker is now a special attraction and not a regular performer on television and IMO that is the way it should stay.

If it's his last match, it should be against Cena and no other. Kane is not the answer and and an up and comer would be a waste of time IMO.

 

[Sundar]

Kane vs Taker has been done so many times that I don't think they'll ever do it again. Unless Sting joins the WWE and works with Taker for WM30 I think it will be Brock Lesnar vs Undertaker at WM30.

Brock won his feud with HHH at Extreme Rules and has now beaten Punk and since he is contracted to work only 3 PPV's a year his next appearance will be at WM30. Considering how he has never lost to Taker, the history between the two and the fact that the WWE and Taker were mad at him for leaving them after they had built him up as the face of the company I'm sure they'll be eager to make him lose to Taker at least once, maybe twice in order to even out the head-to-head results between them.

 

[MCMG]

I like this idea. The Shield taking out the Undertaker should lead to something. If it just another Nexus moment then I'm going to be pissed. The Taker is a big name that could help maintain the ratings in Cena's absence. I'm not sure what his schedule is like but hopefully he would be available for a Raw at least every fortnight.

A problem is that he can't wrestle because of the standard of his health. If they are being overly cautious than he might not be available for any physical interaction which could hamper his use. The most important thing is that Taker is fit and healthy for Mania. If putting him into a storyline now prevents him working a 5-star match at Mania then it is not worth it. There is no doubt, however, that he should wrestle at Survivor Series. It could be his last and if he is involved in a multi-man match then it wouldn't be as problematic.

If he is not involved physically then what can he do? If he is there just to cut some promos then it might get a little boring but I suppose Undertaker is better than no Undertaker - especially if he is to retire in the near future.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

The Shield taking out Taker was going to lead to something. At the very least, Taker would have been involved in a tag title match at SummerSlam. Who knows, maybe he would have even stuck around afterward if things went well. However, Taker was injured during his last angle with The Shield in which he was powerbombed through the announce table. So, whatever plans they had regarding the Brothers of Destruction and The Shield for SummerSlam, thus leading to possible storylines & feuds post SummerSlam featuring Taker, had to be scrapped.

As it pertains to Taker's injury, I have no idea what it is. According to every report I read discussing it, the nature of the injury hasn't been mentioned. So, I've no idea how severe or minor is was. I've seen some pics of Taker out & about a few times over the summer, such as showing up at some sort of a strongman demonstration or event to cheer on Mark Henry, who Taker is said to be close friends with. He looked healthy but, then again, that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Now this is just pure guess work from me, and I'm thinking that Taker suffered a relatively minor injury during the angle but it spooked WWE officials. Taker & the brass may have agreed to scrap the SummerSlam plans altogether rather than pushing forward in fear of worsening the injury or causing other injuries that could prevent Taker from working WrestleMania XXX.

As far as Bryan & Orton not being able to possibly carry the ratings, that's a distinct possibility. After all, Monday Night Football is a juggernaut that's going to steamroll over the competition on Monday nights no matter what. I imagine that WWE could book Stone Cold, The Rock, Mick Foley and Taker on Raw every week for the next 4 months and they still wouldn't generate Attitude Era level numbers. However, Cena was still very much pushed & promoted as the top guy in 2012 and that wasn't able to keep ratings from tanking. Bryan certainly isn't as established as a main eventer as Cena is but, as I alluded to, John Cena's presence didn't exactly count for much. Bryan is wildly over right now, he has momentum and he's someone that's extremely fresh in the WWE Championship picture. Maybe, just maybe, that freshness coupled with him taking on the McMahons and their corporate champion could keep the numbers from sinking to the levels of last Fall. I might be completely wrong but I think WWE has a better chance of that happening with Cena totally out of the picture. Cena's still extremely over, no doubt about that, but he's also someone that's been in this spot for so long that it's only natural that some fans want somebody new and fresh.

Besides, with Cena out of the picture, this is the opportunity that some wrestlers claim that they want. Now that he's on the shelf for almost certainly the rest of the year, if you think you've got what it takes to be the next big thing, then step on up and prove it. If WWE is able to do better than last year while pushing much fresher talent to prominence, then that's only a good thing. If the numbers tank or do even worse than last year, then maybe they need to chalk it up to a learning experience, go back to the drawing board and really work on fixing what's wrong from the ground up. And when I say actually work on fixing it, I mean to do actually that whether or not it pisses on the egos of some wrestlers, executives or various other people working the behind the scenes. They can't rely on the aging stars of the Attitude Era to come along and pop a rating every once in a while.