Undertaker's Return Will Ultimately Disappoint WWE Fans

With the toll of a bell still echoing, Undertaker materialized in the ring at the end of WWE Battleground, an icon returning home in emphatic, larger-than-life fashion. Fans chanted his name, wore out the exclamation-mark button on their computers and roared in unison.

Now comes the uncomfortable part. 

Now comes another physical clash with Brock Lesnar and one of the last verses of Undertaker's swan song. Now the audience will watch as a myth morphs into a man, as a legend limps toward the horizon.

The expected collision with Lesnar at SummerSlam is, of course, a meeting of two special attractions and two major names. It's going to be a draw. It's going to generate plenty of buzz. But it will also be a letdown.

Their match is going to be tough to watch. 

Undertaker is at the stage of his career where he can no longer live up to our expectations. We peer at the ring hoping to watch this giant of the squared circle club and scratch his way to another storied victory, but instead we see only frailty and the reality that Father Time wears down all of our heroes eventually.

Glimpses of that showed at Battleground. 

Undertaker stood across the ring from Lesnar not nearly as intimidating and not nearly as awe-inspiring as he once was. The Deadman struggled to lift Lesnar into position for the Tombstone Piledriver. His legs nearly buckled.

That awkwardness wore off some of the mystique surrounding the man dishing out this revenge-inspired attack. 

When Undertaker got up off the mat at one point, he stumbled. One could imagine that if the arena had been silent, we would have heard his knees creak like an unoiled door hinge. 

And now WWE proceeds with this aging version of Undertaker against a man it has presented as an unstoppable force of nature.

Remember that he turned 50 this year. Remember the underwhelming nature of his last two efforts in the ring. Remember that the last time WWE paired these two, The Beast Incarnate left Undertaker woozy from a severe concussion, as reported by WWE.com.

As Bleacher Report's Big Nasty reminded us, Lesnar vs. Undertaker I was far from great:

That 2014 bout shined a light on just how many steps The Phenom has lost. Once one of the very best performers in the industry, he instead looked slower and less crisp—a sputtering car with a well-used odometer. It was hard to suspend disbelief enough to think that this graying, worn-down future Hall of Famer had a chance against a man who seems like something a mad scientist of a wrestling fan created.

Much of the lack of quality of that contest has to be blamed on the concussion Undertaker suffered.

The chances of another injury happening again are high. On one side of the ring, you have a middle-aged man who has undergone a lengthy list of surgeries. Staring him down from the other side is Lesnar, with his unreal power and hard-hitting style. That's a formula for a trip to the trainer's room.

Credit: WWE.com

Ask Jamie Noble post-broken ribs how dangerous it is to take a scripted beating from Lesnar.

And while one may argue that Undertaker's match against Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 31 was far better than his one against Lesnar, it wasn't anything special. As Denny Burkholder wrote for CBS Sports, "The Undertaker-Wyatt match was fine."

It wasn't what fans were talking about after the event. Daniel Bryan's win, Seth Rollins' cash-in, Sting's WWE debut, Roman Reigns' looking like a main eventer and even Rusev's entrance were more appealing topics.

That's in part because the mythos of the Undertaker character isn't nearly as strong as it once was. How can it be? He doesn't exude the immortal aura that he once did, at least not anywhere near as much of it.

Alice Radley of the RWR Podcast, said that Undertaker is in the midst of an unflattering period:

"

I'm gonna get killed for this, but Undertaker looks like he's in the Fat Elvis part of his career. He's all tummy, hair dye and droopy pants

— Alice Radley (@AliceRadley) July 20, 2015"

That's uncomfortably close to the truth.

This isn't the Undertaker we want to remember. This current incarnation of the legend is too much like Hank Aaron producing his worst statistical year for the last-place Milwaukee Brewers in '76—an all-time great becoming inconceivably average. 

Can you blame some fans for saying that they just flat don't want to see Lesnar vs. Undertaker again? Maffew, creator of Botchamania, is one of many expressing a distaste for the likely SummerSlam battle:

Justin LaBar of TribLive says he'd like to see the bout but admits, "It might be more voyeurism for me to see exactly how Undertaker holds up in the physical match."

How well can we reasonably expect him to hold up? He's long been in the twilight of his career. He's a way to drum up interest in the WWE Network and SummerSlam—not the in-ring artist he once was.

WWE needs to put in an order for bells and whistles. It's going to need lots of them to dress up this match and mask the fact that one of our most accomplished wrestling superheroes is no longer faster than a speeding bullet and no longer more powerful than a locomotive.