WWE Superstars Whose Careers Would Not Be the Same Without Undertaker

Throughout his long WWE run, Undertaker has left an indelible imprint on many a Superstar's career.

To cross paths with The Deadman is often to have one's eminence increase, to have one's name more deeply etched into the ever-growing book of WWE history. Try to imagine where Kane would be if not for battling Undertaker. Batista's career arc would look drastically different without facing his greatest rival.

When it comes time to induct Undertaker in the Hall of Fame, there will be a long line of men wanting to do the honors, wrestlers who owe much of their success and some of their most memorable moments to The Phenom.

Bray Wyatt hopes to join that list come WrestleMania 31. Win or lose, facing Undertaker is a career-altering experience, especially with as large as his legend has grown at this point.

Undertaker shapes WWE history. He elevates his opponents. Wyatt awaits to experience that power firsthand.

Batista

Trouncing Triple H announced Batista's arrival, but tangling with Undertaker cemented his status as a marquee star.

His rivalry with The Deadman was the highlight of his career. It produced his best matches and allowed him to grow into a top-tier star.

He told Main Event Radio (h/t F4WOnline.com), "I learned a lot with Taker, and I think that anybody who watched my work before, I can't even tell you how much I improved."

It's not surprising in the least to hear him say that. He and Undertaker had excellent chemistry, two explosive big men smashing into each other in a series of compelling contests.

In the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t ProFightDB.com), Dave Meltzer gave four of Batista's matches with Undertaker four stars. 

Date	Event	Type of Match	Star Rating (out of 5)
4/1/07	WrestleMania 23	Standard	4
4/29/07	Backlash	Last Man Standing	4
10/28/07	Cyber Sunday	Steve Austin as referee	4
11/18/07	Survivor Series	Hell in a Cell	4

His experience with Undertaker made him seem like a bigger star and helped make him a better worker.  

The Animal came to wrestling later in life, debuting at age 31. Having Undertaker as an in-ring mentor sped up his learning process. When he took on Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio in the years to follow, he thrived. 

Shawn Michaels

When one thinks of Undertaker and Michaels, it's hard not to first flash back to their two classic WrestleMania matches in 2009 and 2010. Of course, these two men's careers overlapped long before that.

While serving as a referee, The Heartbreak Kid cracked Undertaker across the head with a steel chair at SummerSlam 1997. That mistake led to the first Hell in a Cell match, one some still consider to be the greatest of its kind.

Take away that bout from Michaels' resume, and it's still Hall of Fame worthy, but it's certainly one of Michaels' strongest offerings.

It was a clash a few months later that would drastically change Michaels' career. At the 1998 Royal Rumble, the two foes collided in a Casket match. In the course of that battle, the small of Michaels' back hit the edge of the casket.

He would grit through the pain for a time, but eventually the injury pulled him out of the ring. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels retired, staying out of action for four years after that.

What Michaels could have contributed to WWE when the Attitude Era truly took off is one of the biggest what-ifs in wrestling history. One false move in his match with Undertaker took away nearly half a decade of his career.

Near the end of his run, Michaels met up with Undertaker again. At both WrestleMania 25 and 26, he and The Deadman stole the show with instant classics.

Those two bouts are among WrestleMania's best ever. Their chemistry, which they had begun to forge back in the late '90s, led to two stunning performances that bolster both men's greatest hits.

Add that to their Hell in a Cell clash, and that's a trio of masterworks Michaels wouldn't have had were it not for Undertaker. One can't help but wonder, though, what Michaels could have composed in the early '00s had a casket not wrecked his back.

Brock Lesnar

Undertaker twice catapulted Lesnar into a new tier.

As a rookie, The Beast Incarnate skyrocketed to the top of the company, winning the WWE title just months after his debut. Defeating The Rock for the strap was huge for his career; fending off Undertaker at No Mercy established him as a deserving, dominant champion.

He and The Deadman collided in a brutal Hell in a Cell bout that was key to Lesnar's rise continuing.

Over a decade later, Undertaker elevated Lesnar again. Riding a 21-0 WrestleMania record into last year's event, The Phenom looked unstoppable, even against a vicious predator such as Lesnar.

The shock of Lesnar handing Undertaker his first loss at WrestleMania reverberated through the Superdome and through the wrestling world as a whole. It gave the current WWE champ an accomplishment that no man had ever earned.

WWE has since used that to portray Lesnar as a destructive force like no other. It's the triumph that he and Paul Heyman have been bragging about for months.

That first victory back in 2002 pushed Lesnar up the company ladder. The one he claimed at WrestleMania 30 pushed him to the point where a new rung needed to be created.

Edge

Edge collided with Undertaker early in his career. As a member of The Brood, he briefly joined forces with Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness but soon betrayed him.

With Christian at his side, Edge briefly battled The Brothers of Destruction. It wasn't until 2007, though, that The Deadman truly became central to the story of his career.

Edge won his first World Heavyweight Championship by cashing in his Money in the Bank contract on a vulnerable, beat-up Undertaker.

Not only did that win make him a world champ, but winning his second title via cash-in cemented him as The Ultimate Opportunist.

His feud with The Lord of Darkness was one of Edge's career highlights. They produced a number of memorable matches together, including a Hell in Cell bout at SummerSlam 2008 and a TLC bout at One Night Stand 2008 that temporarily forced Undertaker to leave the company.

The entire La Familia angle was built around this feud. It introduced Edge's cronies, The Major Brothers (later Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins), and portrayed Edge as a supervillain of sorts, a heartless leader with few morals.

Facing Undertaker at WrestleMania 24 was key to Edge crafting his legacy. On the 30 Years of WrestleMania podcast, Edge told Renee Young that it was the most special moment of his career, calling it the time he felt he finally arrived.

The Rated-R Superstar was a top star before that, but it's easy to see where he's coming from. Headlining WrestleMania is an honor like nothing else in wrestling. It signifies that one is, in fact, standing on the mountaintop.

His rivalry with Undertaker led him to that peak.

Mick Foley

Remove Undertaker from Foley's career, and it's suddenly missing a surplus of key moments. Undertaker was the ideal complement to Mankind. They were two dark, eerie characters who seemed to exist on a plane all their own.

Foley's run as Mankind needed those battles with Undertaker. He was the perfect foil, the man who would fight with him at the mouth of the casket or slug it out with him in the boiler room.

That feud helped introduce and build the Mankind character. Many of Mankind's best speeches came during that time.

It was their Hell in a Cell match in 1998 that changed Foley's status to legendary. Although their clash at King of the Ring 1998 was by no means Foley's best match, it is indisputably his most memorable, the one that fans can't shake from their minds.

Undertaker launching him off the top of the cell and later through its roof also launched his career.

Talking with IGN, Foley said of the match, "Kevin Sullivan, who was booking WCW at the time, later told me that once he saw that, he told people that the tide had turned. He said he knew right then that WWE was going to pass them and that they'd never catch us again."

That gutsy/crazy move to agree to take those spills that night made fans deeply appreciate Foley. It made him an icon. 

Kane

Undertaker pushed other wrestlers' careers along, giving them a hearty boost, but it goes beyond that for Kane.

Without The Deadman, WWE might have handed Glenn Jacobs one of the many goofy gimmicks he played throughout his career. Chances are, he wouldn't become the steady presence for the company that he has been for over 15 years.

The Undertaker character birthed Kane's character. That red-clad offshoot doesn't happen without Kane's kayfabe brother.

Kane debuted during Michaels and Undertaker's Hell in a Cell match. He ended up being one of the most memorable characters in WWE history, providing Jacobs with a persona malleable enough to allow him to sustain a lengthy stay with the company. 

In an interview with James Delow, he talks about his first appearance as Kane, how it allowed him to get thrown onto the same stage as two greats: 

Undertaker served as Kane's first WrestleMania opponent and his greatest rival. Like Mankind, the Kane character meshed perfectly with Undertaker.

WWE had them battle it out for years in wars that involved caskets, cages and roaring flames.

In addition, Undertaker was Kane's tag team partner. The Brothers of Destruction won three tag team titles together.

Either as an ally or as an enemy, there was never a long stretch where the two brothers didn't share the same spotlight. WWE continually tried to restart their rivalry.

In 2003, Kane helped Vince McMahon bury Undertaker. In 2010, Kane accused Rey Mysterio of putting Undertaker in a vegetative state, an act that he had actually committed himself. That led to yet another set of collisions between these two big men. 

More recently, they formed a pairing again to fend off would-be attackers and teamed together to take on The Shield. 

None of that happens without Undertaker. Who knows—if the idea of Kane had never emerged—what WWE would have asked Jacobs to do and what his career would look like.