Undertaker/Lesnar build-up is predictably awful

[Messiah]

This is why I don't care about the idea of Sting/Undertaker or for that matter, any of these part-timers taking part in WrestleMania anymore. In Lesnar's case, sure, him being away is kind of made up for the fact Paul Heyman does the talking for him (still wish he would show up consistently on the Road to WrestleMania) but The Undertaker doesn't do anything other than ramble and talk about the same thing he has since WrestleMania 25. And that is when he actually shows up. To his credit though, he did do just that last year and will be on Main Event but still. The build-up is just horrific.

Like The Rock/John Cena last year, it seems we should expect them to build-up this match with just vignettes. There is nothing interesting about this match. Brock Lesnar is a beast (who is 3-2) and The Undertaker is well, The Undertaker. That is about it. It is a predictable match and nothing really comes out of it - The Undertaker moves and Lesnar probably doesn't care a month after. I actually did look forward to it at first in a kind of, "it will be a lone bright spot," but the Bryan/HHH build-up far exceeds it and I am a lot more interested in stuff like the Andre the Giant battle royal, Wyatt/Cena, and the Real Americans/Usos.

[prophet]

The build up has been nothing short of horrific and Taker/Lesnar is the match I'm least looking forward too at Wrestlemania, I have no interest in it. I'm admittedly being a little dramatic here but I find it disgraceful that the two of them don't appear on RAW. With 3 weeks left to the PPV the two of them should be on RAW every week interacting with each other.

Heyman is brilliant on the microphone and he's done his best to sell the match (his defusing of the CM Punk heavy Chicago crowd was masterful) but even Heyman has become boring in this build up. He appears from nowhere without music, rambles the same stuff about how much of a beast Lesnar is then we go back to commentary and that's that. It's been shitty.

At least if they had brought Sting in the match would've been anticipated on spectacle alone...

[The Legend]

I haven't seen last night's RAW yet, but I thought the first two weeks of the build were done really well. Taker coming out and signing the contract through Lesnar's hand was a great touch and Heyman's speech last week was fantastic at getting both guys over and hyping the match.

[Str8Shooter]

The contract signing was really good, so I can't say it's been all bad. It's been downhill since then though.

And Undertaker was at Raw last night too, he helped Cena fight off the Wyatts after Raw was over.

[ShaneOfan]

Yeah I agree it's been bad, but I think the match will follow suit so at least they are showing consistency.

[KaiserGlider]

Yeah I agree it's been bad, but I think the match will follow suit so at least they are showing consistency.

Nah, the match will be good, I'm pretty sure of that.

I don't think the buildup has been bad but I can understand why it hasn't exactly set the world on fire with you guys. I think the problem is they are afraid of making Taker look weak.

I'm surprised that by now we haven't had a segment where Lesnar attacks Undertaker and beats the shit out of him. From there, Undertaker could play the underdog, which is something he never does. And Lesnar would have looked a lot more dominant beating up his actual Wrestlemania opponent, rather than beating up Mark Henry for the 3rd time. But they seem to be against making Taker look weak, and as a result Taker and Heyman have just been cutting promos at each other, saying nothing interesting (in Taker's case) or repeating themselves (in Heyman's case).

I think we'll still get the beatdown some time before Wrestlemania, but it should have come earlier. I do think the match will be a very strong contender for match of the night, but the buildup has been 100% predictable.

[Hanley!]

Yeah, the feud here was always going to be somewhere between lousy and non-existent. That's part of the problem getting two part-timers to face each other. Though you'd still think they could both at least manage to work once a week for 6 weeks before Wrestlemania. Fucking hell, how precious are these guys? It's not like either of them are injured or have other major demands on their time.

I don't understand why people are supposed to care. I guess it's 2 big names facing each other, but they've done so before and back then it had a story and was relevant to the rest of the product. Even Rock v Cena decided who'd be champion going forward. There is no story for Undertaker/Lesnar and there's nothing at stake. Well I guess Undertaker's streak is on the line, but that's not a selling point for this match because there's no chance he loses to a guy who's never around on the back of a feud that got this little hype and screen time.

It feels like they're just going through the motions with this whole thing. Honestly, people complain about Sting, but I believe that he would have showed up every week at least. And he would have given people something to buy into. This current pairing feels extremely phoned in. The match might be good, but in my mind it's impossible to have a 5 star match without a decent story and two characters that the fans are invested in.

[Racing Guy]

It's hard to build a feud with two guys who rarely show up.

[prophet]

I'm just gonna dig up this thread rather than make my own and post a few comments on the segment last night in which Lesnar and Undertaker both actually showed up...

...it was a horrible segment.

We've already established that the build-up to this match has been awful but last night only confirmed that fact to me. Why are they booking Lesnar so weak? We all know he's not going to win anyway but surely Brock should have manhandled and battered Taker at least once by now? Isn't it the WWE's job to make us believe Lesnar can beat Taker and end the streak? Thus far they've done nothing to even remotely suggest that. Taker should've been allowed to play his mind-games only for Lesnar to shrug them off and drop him with an F-5.

Last year CM Punk got physical with Taker a few times and it seemed like he had the Deadman's number on more than one occasion. Now you've got a legitimate badass and genuine threat to the streak in Brock Lesnar and on both occasions you have him in the ring with Undertaker you have Taker come out with the upper hand? Why? Booking the feud this way only makes sense if Lesnar is going to win and we all know that isn't happening so why are they booking Lesnar so weakly? Or am I the only one that feels this way?

[Everlong]

^Maybe they've just finally realized that everyone already knows that Taker is guaranteed the victory no matter who he faces, so they don't even have to try in the buildup

[PorkChop]

Last night's segment was shite. The only highlight was Brock's voice breaking when he was like "LET'S DO THISssssSSS!"

Btw I timed it, like I said - Undertaker's music from start to finish went on for over 4 minutes.

[The Legend]

The biggest problem with this Taker feud in particular is that if Lesnar would go around throwing Taker around the ring at any point before WM itself there's a chance the old, brittle man wouldn't make it to WM. Therefore every build has to be of the verbal, psychological, special effects variety which Taker obviously dominates Lesnar in. That being said, I enjoyed last night's segment, minus the fact that it took too long to get where they were going once Taker entered in the casket. They could have made it shorter by cutting down some of that.

[SKS]

Last night's segment was predictable, I think you could see the ring apron move when they zoomed out to show the empty casket, so it was obvious someone was crawling in there.

Lesnar hasn't looked strong through the build up at all. He says he isn't scared then when Undertaker shows up he nearly shat his pants. This is probably Undertaker's most legit and strongest opponent yet someone small like Punk looked way better against him last year. I don't understand the booking.

[AkydefGoldberg]

Not a surprise at all. Lesnar is coming across weak big time and thought they might have ignored the Taker schtick as not to make Lesnar look weak by pretending to be scared but they are it seems.