After news surfaced that Mark Calaway was officially walking away from the wrestling industry as an in-ring competitor, AJ Styles has commented, realizing he'll forever be known as The Undertaker's final opponent.
The front of Sunday's wrestling news pages reads like an homage to one of the greatest wrestling icons in the world. Wrestling feeds are flooded with talk that The Undertaker is done as an in-ring wrestler, using the final episode of his docuseries The Last Ride to say farewell. The legend explained he's got no reason to come back and that he's ready to spend time with his family and call it a career. He says his match with AJ Styles at WrestleMania was the ideal way to walk away.
Taker adds that not a lot of wrestlers get to ride off into the sunset, yet his character drove away on his motorcycle at WrestleMania 36 in a moment that everyone will remember. He says that moment was planned and a lot of thought had gone into it. Still, WWE teased the idea of a Styles rematch with The Undertaker the moment Styles returned.
Styles saw images and struggled with the memory of that night, so much so that it affected his performance at Money in the Bank and afterwards. Why use so much television and air time for an angle WWE was never going to do?
As the hours since the announcement have passed, Styles has responded to WWE's promotion of the final episode of The Last Ride. He wrote:
"Still floored by the experience and reaction to the Boneyard Match at WrestleMania. If it was the last time Undertaker laced up his boots, I'm honored it was against me."
In the past, Styles said he wanted another "wrestling" match with The Undertaker, but there's no mention of that in any of today's messages. Was he "in the know" about Taker's retirement? Did WWE simply change their minds? Hard to say, but there could be a couple of reasons the company teased a second match between these two.
Styles vs. Taker II?
Speculation is that Styles teasing another match with Taker was simply to leave the ending of this docuseries in question. If Styles vs. Taker II was in the cards, Calaway couldn't possibly retire, right? The distraction seems to have worked as a lot of fans weren't necessarily expecting The Undertaker to officially retire, possibly announcing he had unfinished business with The Phenomenal One.
That's not what happened.
At the same time, Calaway has said he'll be around in a "break glass situation". If Vince McMahon is in real trouble and needs The Undertaker, Vince won't need to look far. And, if WWE has previously teased the idea of Styles and The Undertaker battling again, the story is ready to roll without much build-up required.
So, while The Undertaker has "officially" retired, it seems to be that the door is still open. As Tom Colohue of Sportskeeda said, "Throughout the #TheLastRide documentary, The Undertaker has repeatedly stated that he had no intention of returning to wrestling on multiple occasions. I remain confident he'll be back on our screens in the years to come. #WWE."