The main event of WrestleMania 33 in Orlando, Florida was supposed to mark an iconic "Passing of the torch" moment.

The Undertaker — the greatest WrestleMania performer of all time — squared off against Roman Reigns, who was being pushed as the top face of the company at the time.

Vince McMahon and WWE creative had hoped that a victory over The Phenom would further elevate Reigns' rising stardom and popularity among the fans. But the match, in many ways, failed to live up to expectations.

Though WWE was pushing Reigns as a face, he was largely booed and rejected by the fans at this point. On top of that, The Undertaker was wrestling through a hip injury (he eventually underwent hip replacement surgery), which affected his performance throughout the match.

Reigns thoroughly dominated the match, and he became just the second person to defeat The Undertaker on the Grandest Stage of Them All.

During an appearance on the Victory Over Injury podcast (h/t James Sullivan of Sportskeeda), The Undertaker detailed why he was so disappointed with his performance against Reigns:

"It was disappointing to me, and I knew in January when I was in the (Royal) Rumble. You could tell I was overweight, I was out of shape, but I knew what they wanted to do. It was important for me to pass the baton on or do what I could for Roman, who’s the next generation.

It was just a bad, bad deal. That was probably as honest a moment as you’ll ever see in wrestling. Me taking that hat and coat and putting it in the ring, because I knew at that point I was done. I was so disappointed. Anything else I’d ever accomplished, I couldn’t think of that. I couldn’t think of WrestleMania 25, Houston with Shawn Michaels, all those thoughts were gone. It was, 'You just stunk the joint out and you let a lot of people down.'"

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the undertaker roman reigns

It was largely implied that The Undertaker would retire after the loss. Reigns went on to brag about "retiring" him at WrestleMania, but of course, The Undertaker would continue wrestling for three more years.

His final outing took place against AJ Styles in a cinematic "Boneyard match" at WrestleMania 36. The match, won by The Undertaker, was largely well-received by fans and critics. The future Hall of Famer announced his retirement at the end of Survivor Series 2020.

The Undertaker Shouldn't Be Hard On Himself

The Undertaker deserves a lot of credit for fighting through a serious hip injury. It's not his fault that the match disappointed. It shouldn't have been the main event to begin with, and WWE officials should have known that Reigns was going to get booed out of the building.

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