WWE Hall of Famer Jake Roberts has claimed that Brock Lesnar ending The Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak was a “waste.”
For a number of years it was widely believed that The Undertaker’s winning streak at WrestleMania would never be broken. Over the decades The Deadman had defeated Hall of Famer’s, World Champions and some of the very best performs that the industry had ever seen. Sometimes more than once.
However, at WrestleMania XXX Brock Lesnar shocked the world by pinning The Undertaker to the mat. The iconic moment has spawned conspiracy theories, memes, and become one of the most controversial decisions in WWE history.
On a recent episode of his DDP Snake Pit podcast, Jake Roberts (Streak victim number two for those keeping score) took a look back at The Undertaker’s career. With regard to the end of The Streak, Roberts explained that he felt giving the honour to Brock Lesnar was a mistake.
No, they did not [make the right decision.] Why waste it? Because it wasn’t needed,” Roberts said. “Lesnar was already a monster, right? He was a badass, he was a monster. He didn’t need that push. If [they’d] have done it with somebody that wasn’t at that level, then I’d say ‘Okay, yeah, that’d be good.’ Because you’re bringing somebody up.” Roberts continued, “To do it with a guy that’s equal with you, you haven’t accomplished anything but waste the opportunity to get somebody over.”
Continuing on, Roberts added that if the record needed to be broken, he would have chosen Roman Reigns to be the man to get the job done.
“If you’d have done it with Roman Reigns, yeah. That would’ve been something,” Roberts stated. “But, to get the most out of that, you’ve gotta bring somebody that’s down here, up to here. That’s how you get a sustainable pop. You know what they got out of that the way they did it? Disgust.”
Roman Reigns and The Undertaker did meet at WrestleMania three years later, but The Deadman has since admitted that he shouldn’t be been in the ring due to his poor physical condition due to injury at the time.
H/t to Wrestling Inc for the transcription.