Bray Wyatt vs. The Undertaker

[6.0] "The last several minutes were really good, but felt more like they would have come out of a classic Undertaker WrestleMania epic, rather than an otherwise unsubstantive 10 minutes beforehand. [***]"

[5.0] "Bray should've ended the streak here. It shouldn't have been over at this point. But whatever, we got what we got. This match doesn't carry the same feeling as previous taker matches, for obvious reasons. Which absolutely harms this match. With that being said, it's not poorly worked, and I did enjoy it moderately."

[6.0] "This was a solid encounter from two of the greatest dark characters in wrestling. I revisited this match and it's so nostalgic how we got this dream match to happen so early, it would've been interesting to have the Fiend vs the Undertaker in the following years. What could've been the new face of terror ended up in a what-if when Bray passed away so young. So watching this match again felt magic, since the entrances they were decided to give the best they could of a 28 or 29 year old Bray and a vet like Taker. I still would've loved more to see Sting vs Taker instead, but again, it's all about what-ifs. The result was correct because even though the fans complained about Taker losing his streak, it's still magical how he raised the number the following years, which again, it's a very good record to show off, no one has ever competed in such amount of wrestlemanias and acquired victories on their matches. This match will age like wine."

[6.0] "Credit to Bray carrying this story up until Wrestlemania. This match was more about the Undertaker regaining his confidence just a shame it halted Bray Wyatt's potential. The in-ring work from both was fine. A few good cool face off moments."

[6.0] "The Streak is dead, but the aura remains. Plus, this is such a haunting match-up between two mystic forces. The thing is, it's in broad daylight, and it hurts that mystic a bit. Taker is 50 years old here so of course it's tedious, but they have good chemistry together and there are some cool moments like Taker countering the Sister Abigail into a Chokeslam, Bray kicking out of the Tombstone, and of course, Bray crab walking towards Taker and Taker sitting up, which is hauntingly memorable! Taker is back in the win column at WrestleMania. ***1/4"

[5.0] "Too many cool spots and reversals to be called bad, but also too plodding to be called good, guess we'll settle for mediocre."

[5.0] "It was just average. They just did it to give The Undertaker another win at WrestleMania after he lost the previous year. The commentary tried so hard to talk about Undertaker as if he was better than ever and it was pretty silly, but they sure tried to drive that point home. Like the Rusev/Cena match, they could have put the young guy over, but this outcome was also obvious with Undertaker getting another WrestleMania win."

[4.0] "The Undertaker's "woe is me" attitude at the time is what prevented a match with Sting. Instead we got this match with no heat. It was all wrong. From the build up to the entrances. Bray and Undie coming to the ring in broad daylight killed their aura. Undie wore his leather pants again for no reason. The whole thing is bad."

[6.0] "[3, 25 Stars] Well, I was expecting much worse from what I'd heard and then with Wyatt's injury, but on the other hand, making this match during the day is criminal. And obviously Taker shouldn't have lost at Mania 30, but losing this match and retiring. (***, 25)."

[7.0] "[6, 5/10]-Honestly? This match is way more fun than people give it credit for. No, the stakes weren't high, and no, it didn't "matter" in the grand scheme but Bray and Taker had great chemistry. Taker looked much better than the year before, and Bray carried a lot of the match with energy and presence. It felt like a strange, spooky one-off dream match. Not a classic, but absolutely enjoyable if you just sit back and watch it for what it is."

[6.0] "I always hear people say "I wish we could have seen Undertaker vs. Sting! " No you don't. You think you do until you realize someone has to win and someone has to lose. No one would want to see that match with a non-finish, and no matter who wins, there's too many negatives either way to be worth it. This match was very similar. Bray desperately needed this win. After losing a match he had no business losing against Cena the prior year, he'd JUST started to build himself back up again. He wasn't as red hot as the year before, but he had momentum again. He needed a major win to solidify himself. At the same time, absolutely no one wanted to see The Undertaker lose two Wrestlemania's in a row. Especially after how sad the loss the prior year was. Losing this would have made Taker look like a past his prime grandpa. There was no good winner here. I'd have never booked this match for that reason. But I guess Vince thought Bray losing after he booked it was the lesser of two evils. They TRY to make him look strong by kicking out of a Tombstone, and in years far gone by, that would have worked. But by this point, finishers in general, and more-so Wrestlemania Tombstones were so not protected, it just would have looked like a squash if he DIDN'T kick out of one. To add insult to injury, Bray hurt his foot or ankle quite badly very shortly before the day of this match. So you had a semi-retired Taker in there with a taped-up Bray Wyatt just trying to hold it together. There's one or two points where you can see Bray's foot give out too. It's AMAZING to me that this match was even as decent as it was! This isn't great by any means, but it's a solid match considering these circumstances, and the spooky psychology worked very well. Bray looked as strong as he could in defeat (though not good enough), and Taker came out not looking like damaged goods anymore. These two are two of my all-time favorites, so I have a soft spot for this match. I've given it 6 points for that reason. It really probably deserves an average 5 points."

[6.0] "Taker's entrance didn't look magnificent because of the still shining sun, however the match fulfilled his role - should happen a year ealier and have the other winner, but in 2015 it was pretty predictible."

[7.0] "This was a perfect return match for Taker. No one can alter that thought from me. People give too much hate on this match. But I liked it. It was as much it needed to be. Taker played his role well. I also liked the fact that it wasn't night out too. Made the whole Taker return more "real"."

[3.0] "I don't know why this match happened. Undertaker's next appearance after this would be costing Brock Lesnar a WWE Title match to set up a feud in the summer. How much more impactful would it have been if Taker's first appearance after losing the streak was showing up to get payback on Brock instead of this random match with Bray Wyatt? Bray Wyatt's character at this time was described best by Rich from the Podswoggle podcast: "Oh yeah! Well, beat me again! " Bray Wyatt allegedly hurt his ankle while doing the walk-through for this match, although I'm sure he wasn't going to channel Kawada during this match either way. We're getting to a point where I'm looking forward to the megashit Wyatt matches because at least those are interesting to talk about. This was just a boring, formulaic match. Taker didn't look particularly mobile here, and Wyatt's control period was not notable in any way. Well, there was the one spot where Wyatt basically did the Mick Foley stair spot to himself. Tombstone kickout, Sister Abigail kickout, Sister Abigail counter into the Tombstone, Taker wins. Yawn. *1/2"

[6.0] "A match that I don't find all that bad. Bray Wyatt does most of the work and Undertaker does the bare minimum to make it work. It's quite successful in the end, even if I find this match slightly too long. (3*)"

[5.0] "Perfectly serviceable match that was very plodding and slow paced. Which is to be expected at this point in Undertakers career. The highlight in my opinion was Bray Wyatts awesome entrance with the scarecrows. I did like the story being told with the question of if Undertaker was over the hill after his first Wrestlemania loss."

[5.0] "slow and plodding but serviceable, it's just kinda sad to see how much ring rust taker had gotten over the last two years because his match with Punk is one of his best ever. those leather pants probably didn't help **1/2"

[7.0] "Well I get why people would hate this match, this was the first match after taker had lost the streak and this was still in the sun, they had the Rock, Ronda Rousey waste time promoting the then upcoming movie furious 7 by beat Stephanie McMahon and triple h. And well people had the slow action. But I think it's due to psychological WWE were trying and it's great. Plus the fact that bray had to work with an injured ankle makes this even more awesome.."

[5.0] "Spooky vs Spooky, highly anticipated. Sadly they didn't connect really well during the match. I wasn't excepting anything crazy considering they have the same slow style of wrestling, but it kinda lacked of intensity and chemistry between the characters."

[6.0] "A good match on paper but in my opinion they underdelivered. Also I think Bray should've won to pass the torch but I get there decision because you can't have Taker lose 2 years in a row at Mania."

[5.0] "On paper, two of the WWE's spookiest wrestlers, Undertaker Vs Bray Wyatt sounds cool, but the execution wasn't too good and not that strong of a redemption match for Undertaker's first ever WrestleMania lost the year prior."

[7.0] "A good match for Undertaker's return after his defeat at WrestleMania 30 which had ended his legendary Streak. (7/10)"

[5.0] "I've seen some pretty harsh comments about this match, but I thought it was fine at the time, and I still think it's fine now. Perhaps it was just lowered expectations after how bad The Undertaker looked at the previous year's WrestleMania, but I thought this was a decent little brawl with an interesting enough story regarding how much Taker has left in the tank. It is a little slow and uneventful at times, and I can understand why people would have hoped for something more, but compared to some of Undertaker's other late career matches I thought this at least got the job done."

[6.0] "This match seriously is not as bad as i remembered it. This is my first time watching it in a few years and i actually enjoyed this match alot and what these guys got in. Idk why but i remembered taker squashing bray a lil here and it being shorter but no it wasnt that at all bray got plenty of offense and it was back and fourth for a while there i did actually enjoy this match quite a bit. 2.75 stars"

[2.0] "Pretty bad match, Undertaker has clearly seen better days and Bray Wyatt is not a guy who can carry others. Not a complete dud but definitely not worth seeking out unless you're a completionist for Undertaker 'Mania matches."

[3.0] "Bad match that neither came out of looking better than they did going in. The spot in the steps is the most memorable moment about the match for me which isnt exactly high praise."

[7.0] "Genuine good match for 15 minutes, good storytelling, both Taker and Wyatt looked great, quite a underrated match in my opinion"

[5.0] "this match was just meh. it was NOT a good showcase for taker after losing his streak the year prior. this could've been booked a lot better, especially with their similar characters. wyatt's entrance was awesome though, i cannot lie."

[7.0] "There was nothing wrong with this match. I think the only reason I? m giving it a 7 is because they didn? t go long enough to do anything too crazy. But this was a perfectly good and watchable wrestling match. Bray and taker also had the really cool stare down moment. Nothing wrong with this match. Kinda a bummer it happened when it was still kinda daylight out. The one mania that shoulda been in the dark for this. I do wish Bray won tho."

[8.0] "I have no clue why this is rated as low as it is. This was a good match for Taker to get back into after his loss to Brock. Yeah, in an alternative universe I would've wanted Bray to go over if the streak was still intact."

[4.0] "Undertaker gets to do his signature moves and there's some basic brawling. This is an adequate match."

[4.0] "One of the worst Undertaker mania matches. Some decent psychology was there, but other than that the pace was really slow, the execution just adequate and after all, the booking didn't make sense. Also, the crowd didn't know exactly what to cheer for, after the breaking of the streak."

[8.0] "I'd like just a little bit more time to be given to them and a better, less sudden ending. Other than that, I found the match extremely good with Wyatt's performance deserving of a big praise as he was wrestling injured."

[2.0] "Undertaker returns after a year of losing at Wrestlemania and he doesn't look great. His hair is cut short and he's put on a lot of weight, but the crowd is happy to see him regardless of his appearance or performance. All his signature spots look good enough during his shine segment, but the match comes to a screeching halt once Wyatt takes over the match. That spot where Wyatt launches himself into the steel steps knees first was beyond dumb as he barely scrapped Undertaker and could have busted up his knees in the process. Undertaker looked knackered five minutes in, but they felt the need for Wyatt to kick out of the Tombstone. The Wyatt doing his freaky walk pose right into an Undertaker sit-up spot looked good, but Lawler harping on about 'Wrestlemania Moments' immediately after stopped it from feeling organic. Both men put in poor performances on this night and no one came out looking good."

[8.0] "Very good match, full of psychology and great moments. Great intro, awesome Wyatt's entrance with the zombies."

[8.0] "Underrated match. A good chunk of psychology shown by the two workers, even if it hasn't gotten near the sparkle a lot of fans were expecting from the beginning. Slow transition moments combinated with solid moves. Probably my favorite WM Undertaker match post-Streak defeat."

[3.0] "Very slow paced, lethargic match that was very boring. The layout was good imo but the execution was terrible. Undertaker could barely keep up with Wyatt and I think they could have solidified Wyatt as the next big mystical star. Bad booking and bad match. *3/4"

[5.0] "It wasn? t bad, but it wasn? t that good either, it was just on a conventional average. The promotion of their confrontation was much more intelligible than the match itself. Unfortunately, I didn't add some mystical component during the match. It was simply built that the older generation taught a lesson to the more impudent youngsters. My rating for this match ***."

[5.0] "Quite disappointing especially after coming off losing the streak the previous year. Both didn't look there best here plus the daylight for Undertaker's entrance felt weird. One of the weakest Taker matches in the past 10 years"

[5.0] "An okay match, better than the Lesnar vs. Undertaker in the last year, this was kinda decent and boring at the same time"

[5.0] "This match was fine. Bray definitely should have won here. I think it could have been interesting to see a Taker losing streak at Mania storyline. Instead they just had him go over Wyatt, who was doing a good job at carrying this feud. There? s not much more to add other than it was an okay match where the wrong person won. Also, it was really weird seeing both Wyatt and Taker? s entrances in broad daylight. 2. 5*"

[3.0] "Boring, plodding, at this time Taker was hugely over the hill in singles environment without a stipulation and not working with a guy that can tango for two. Wyatt really cannot help this despite trying and he gets buried uselessly. *1/2 - *3/4"

[5.0] "The match was solid. Not great it was just average. The announcers were talking about it like it was some classic and it wasn't. They just did it to give The Undertaker another win at WrestleMania after he lost the previous year. The commentary tried so hard to talk about Undertaker as if he was better than ever and it was pretty silly. The match was not bad it was slow for most of the time. **1/2"