The Undertaker’s undefeated WrestleMania streak was the stuff of legends. The Streak lasted 21 WrestleManias and The Phenom beat literally all the Big names along the way. Brock Lesnar finally broke his streak at WrestleMania 30, making his record 21-1 at WrestleManias.
Taker’s current record is 25-2 with the second Mania loss coming via pinfall to Roman Reigns at WM 33. However, the streak wasn’t meant to be broken by Lesnar in the beginning but by a very unlikely opponent.
While on an interview with combat sports journalist Ariel Helwani on BT Sport, The Deadman revealed something unimaginable. He told the interviewer that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon wanted former WWE superstar Vladimir Kozlov to break the streak.
His words, “There were a few people that he wanted to break the streak. Kozlov It was early on.” [from 36:28]. McMahon was high on Kozlov in the beginning of his career in 2008. This was visible in Kozlov’s push on SmackDown where he would squash wrestlers every week, sometimes 2 or 3 of them.
Why Vince McMahon wanted Vladimir Kozlov to end The Undertaker’s streak
Vince’s choice of Kozlov over Undertaker was evident when the Russian beat Taker clean on SmackDown once. But his push soon ended as he started losing regularly and it was The Undertaker himself who ended Vladimir’s undefeated singles streak on SmackDown.
After a stint at WWE’s ECW, lasting almost an year, he came back to the blue brand and became a comedy act. He teamed up with Santino Marella and they started dancing in the ring, which got them over with the crowd. But this kind of booking generally means that you are done with the World Title picture. Eventually the two were able to capture the World Tag Team titles but then lost them soon. WWE broke up the team and later released him from contract in August, 2011.
Vladimir Kozlov may not have been the most charismatic superstar because of his language limitations and eastern European sensibilities. But he was more than capable in the ring and fun to watch with his Judo/Sambo moves. Maybe if he had a good manager like Paul Heyman, he could’ve been a big star and a top heel. But him beating Taker and breaking the streak? What was the oldman thinking?
