22 Days Of WrestleMania (The Undertaker's Winning Streak)

Since the Undertaker's first appearance in 1990, he has gone on to become synonymous with the world of sports entertainment. Never before has a character so over the top been so successful, making it even more interesting that his popularity has not declined one bit. His 3-disc DVD set is one of the best selling DVD's in WWE's history. His merchandise is still a hot seller. But what's even more impressive than all of that is that he is 13-0 at wrestling's biggest yearly event, WrestleMania. However, there are some people like myself who never really cared for the dead man. Yes, I consider him to be one of the greatest big wrestlers of all time, but his character is lame and he lacks the ability of having good matches with anyone who isn't in the same league as someone like a Kurt Angle or Steve Austin. I am going to breakdown his streak and look at how many of his WrestleMania competitors were legit.

WrestleMania VII - "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka
While there is no doubt that Snuka had a huge impact on modern wrestling, in 1991 he was nothing more than a glorified jobber doing his best to make sure the 'Taker got over. This was just your typical 5 minute TV match.
Quality Opponent Scoreboard: 0 for 1

WrestleMania VIII - Jake "The Snake" Roberts
This was an intriguing feud, but Roberts was already on his way down at this point. Even at the age of 9, I knew Roberts didn't stand a chance.
Quality Opponent Scoreboard: 0 for 2

WrestleMania IX - Giant Gonzales
Of all the bad matches the Undertaker has competed in, this one takes the cake. This is without a doubt the worst match in WrestleMania history. This was not all the Undertaker's fault though. Vince seemed to have no idea what to do with him and kept feeding him lame characters to feud with.
Quality Opponent Scoreboard: 0 for 3

WrestleMania XI - King Kong Bundy
Undertaker was in a looooooooong feud with the Million Dollar Man, and this is who they give him to fight at the biggest event of the year? King Kong Bundy was well past his prime at this point and this match was horrible. Next.
Quality Opponent Scoreboard: 0 for 4

WrestleMania XII - Diesel
Despite the whole world knowing Kevin Nash was on his way to WCW, this was still a well built match featuring two of the top stars at the time. So even though technically we all knew who was going to win this, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
Quality Opponent Scoreboard: 1 for 5

WrestleMania 13 - Sycho Sid
After 5 WrestleManias, Undertaker finally made it to the main event, even if it was by default. This is often regarded as one of the worst WrestleManias, and having this as the main event is a good reason why. Undertaker finally got a chance at a real title reign and it failed big time. Boring.
Quality Opponent Scoreboard: 1 for 6

WrestleMania XIV - Kane
Vince McMahon's next brilliant idea was to have the Undertaker have an evil brother by the name of Kane. The build for this match was actually quite good, especially compared to most Undertaker feuds. I didn't know that it was going to go on forever, but at the time, this had a big match feel.
Quality Opponent Scoreboard: 2 for 7

WrestleMania XV - Big Boss Man (Hell In A Cell)
Ugh. Another star past his prime, this time in a Hell In A Cell match. When you have a Hell In A Cell match, it should have a special feel to it. This one was just horrible.
Quality Opponent Scoreboard: 2 for 8

WrestleMania X-7 - HHH
This was definitely one of the finer moments for the Undertaker. This was a quality match that sometimes gets overlooked because of the numerous great matches that were on that card. It figures that the one time an Undertaker match is good at WrestleMania that it's not even the best of the night.
Quality Opponent Scoreboard: 3 for 9

WrestleMania X-8 - Ric Flair
Another solid match featuring one of the greatest of all time, Mr. Flair. Undertaker was the heel in this and it made for a more compelling storyline. Even though at this point it seemed as if the Undertaker would never lose a WrestleMania match, if there was one man they'd let defeat him, it'd be Ric Flair.
Quality Opponent Scoreboard: 4 for 10

WrestleMania 19 - A-Train and Big Show
This match was a joke. It was supposed to be Nathan Jones teaming with the Undertaker, but he sucked so bad that he got dropped. Then he came out and helped Undertaker out. This match should have never made the show.
Quality Opponent Scoreboard: 4 for 11

WrestleMania XX - Kane
This was the return of the "dead man" Undertaker after a few years of the "biker" Undertaker. They had nothing better to do with Kane, so they had him job to his "brother" 6 years after he got jobbed for the first time. Boring.
Quality Opponent Scoreboard: 4 for 12

WrestleMania 21 - Randy Orton
I'm one of the few geeks who think Orton is a solid superstar and I think they did a good job of making it seem that the "legend killer" was going to be the one to end his streak. This match was also overlooked due to 3 high quality matches that same evening.
Quality Opponent Scoreboard: 5 for 13

Looking Ahead...WrestleMania 22 - Mark Henry (Casket Match)
What in God's name did we do to deserve this one? I mean I guess the one positive is that the card is going to feature a lot of matches and this should be kept short. I'm predicting this to be about a 0 out of 5.
Quality Opponent Scoreboard: 5 for 14

Like I said, Undertaker is as good as any big man I have seen, but that really isn't saying all that much. I've seen him in some memorable matches, but for the most part he has been in a lot of average-to-terrible matches. His 13-0 undefeated streak is definitely overrated, but I do have to give him credit for staying on top for so long.