Mani's 6 Degrees: What More Will It Take for Triple H to Battle the Undertaker?

Welcome to Mani's 6 Degrees!

The Road to WrestleMania is well underway, and after this past week's Raw, we have begun to see the development of new and exciting feuds.

CM Punk versus Chris Jericho looks to be a lock, but there is some doubt for Triple H versus The Undertaker III, with The Game not looking up to the challenge.

What sort of events will have to take place for The Game to change his tone and take on The Phenom at WrestleMania XXVIII? In the end, will Trips even change his mind, or is this tease all for nothing?

Either way, things should get very interesting with Shawn Michaels showing up on the program. Will he agree with Triple H or will he try and motivate his best friend to take on the streak one more time?

Let's get started.

1) Triple H

The Game is in a position that just about every other superstar on the roster dreams of: he can have a high-profile WrestleMania match by simply saying "yes."

Yet he won't. He can't, because he sees The Undertaker as a broken down, 46-year-old man. The Game does not want to end the streak against someone who cannot bring their A-Game to the table anymore. The honor of being that one man to beat The Undertaker on WrestleMania night has now turned into a burden for the Cerebral Assassin.

This past Monday on Raw, Taker made his presence felt without being in the building. The WWE video producers deserve tons of credit for the clips they put together, and this was one of their best. It is the first step in what may be an arduous adventure to get to the rematch...of the rematch.

Shawn Michaels will be making an appearance this coming Monday, and it will be interesting to hear his take on the situation. Last year, the final shot we got of Michaels before WrestleMania was the sight of him saying to Triple H, "I'm sorry. You can't win." 

According to this, HBK may very well come back and and agree with Trips, saying he should not fight him again. But then again, Michaels showed more determination than anyone trying to get his second straight shot at the Streak, so maybe his tone will change.

In the end, Triple H will face The Undertaker. The tease will not be for nothing, especially with the WWE championship picture coming into form. That rules out The Game's other rumored contest, which was a title shot against...

2) CM Punk

The feud we all wished would happen is starting to take shape. The question now is: will he be defending the title at WrestleMania or chasing it once again?

Of course, there is always the scenario that the WWE championship will not be involved in the feud. That, however, is very unlikely at best. 

After Raw, this battle of two of the best on the microphone has started off as a bit of a copying drill. While it is all fun and well for now, I hope this develops into a heated and personal rivalry. It certainly has the potential to do just that.

On a side-note, wouldn't it be great to see Punk come out on Raw with Jericho's jacket on and not say a word? That would really get things going between the two. 

Jericho and Punk are the only two likely candidates to walk out of the chamber next Sunday. It would add a huge triple-header headline for WrestleMania, joining the ranks of Rock-Cena and Taker-HHH. It will be a joy to watch develop, and either man can hold the title.

History says that the face is better chasing the champion than being the man on top, so a Jericho win in the Elimination Chamber would not be surprising. A somewhat surprising entrant in the Raw Chamber is CM Punk's former tag-team partner...

3) Kofi Kingston

So, where is the ceiling on Kofi Kingston?

Answer: Until he gets a new gimmick or becomes a heel, it will never go any higher than it has been in the past three years.

Kofi is undoubtedly one of the most talented men on the roster. But even after dropping the whole Jamaican accent deal, he needs to get more serious theme music and a more serious gimmick to be taken as a serious main event threat.

Turning him heel would be a bit of a risk. While it would no doubt help character progression, many of the fans are still behind Kingston. He gets pretty decent face reactions, so not the entire universe finds him boring yet.

But there is a difference between being liked and being revered. Ask guys like Stone Cold and The Rock. Their gimmicks were a bit weird and goofy early on, but then they made a change and got serious. Austin became the beer-drinking rebel of the company, while The Rock got cocky and started referring to himself in the third person.

Unless Kofi enjoys mid-card purgatory, he needs to change things up. While he is not in bad shape with the company, he should be aspiring to be the best, and he must realize that a new gimmick is necessary. It's time for him to make his own opportunity, since he has not had a real one since being buried by...

4) Randy Orton

Is the Viper in danger of not having a solid feud heading into WrestleMania?

In this case, the easy button for the creative team is to give him the title at the Elimination Chamber. While that is very possible, it seems that we might be headed towards more than just a one-on-one contest for the World Heavyweight Championship.

Even if Daniel Bryan loses his title, he can still make a legitimate claim for a shot back at WrestleMania. Unfortunately, that scenario would basically rule him out of winning at the big show.

Sheamus has the option to pick either champion, and chances are, he will stick to the blue brand. As for Randy Orton? Well, he's Randy Orton. He is in consideration for a title shot almost all the time.

Orton has been doing good deeds lately, spending months building up names such as Wade Barrett and Cody Rhodes. Now, he may be looking to cash in his "community service" for a high-profile match at WrestleMania.

I see Sheamus versus Orton versus Bryan for the title, with a possible addition of Wade Barrett. It would be better than another one-on-one rumored match on the slate. This is an opponent that Orton has faced many times before, and he is none other than...

5) Sheamus

I know Randy Orton versus Sheamus is compelling, but why see it again when they already had an extended feud relatively recently?

Sheamus should be challenging Daniel Bryan one-on-one, but the WWE will do anything to insert their big names into the title matches. Remember John Cena at WrestleMania 25? He had no place in the WWE title scene, so he decided to stick his nose where it did not belong. Well, he ended up winning the World Heavyweight Championship.

A straight up contest between Bryan and Sheamus would be great. The Celtic Warrior has established himself as a top name, and has shown a great ability to both get over as a face and booed as a heel. Not everyone can successfully play both sides of the coin.

But adding The Viper, which seems to be a likely scenario, would not be so bad either. It would brew up some interesting tension between him and Sheamus while Bryan continues to establish himself as the self-absorbed heel, caring about no one except AJ.

It will be the biggest match of Sheamus' career to this point. He did not make the show last year, although he did make a solid debut at WrestleMania XXVI against...

6) Triple H

Complain all you want about Kane not getting a shot at his brother: The Game will try to beat the streak for a third time on April 1st.

Triple H can be one of the most ruthless, motivated and aggressive athletes in the business. Usually, it is not too hard to set his mind to beating an opponent. This time, things are much different, and it may play a huge factor in The Undertaker going 20-0.

Either way, is there any doubt The Undertaker will lose? The only way the streak might possibly end would be if it is a retirement match, and there are no indications that is the case. Trips has a great career anyway and has nothing to gain from a victory at WrestleMania.

On the other hand, this is all The Undertaker has left. Like Triple H said last year, once the streak dies, so does Taker. He is not around enough to get another title run, so this is everything to him.

It would be a mistake to take that away from him and ruin the most untouchable streak in all of sports entertainment.

Follow @RobMani25