The Undertaker vs. AJ Styles: Why Phenomenal One Must Win at WWE WrestleMania 36

The Undertaker and WrestleMania have been a match made in heaven for WWE for the past three decades. The Deadman has created some of the most iconic moments on the Grandest Stage of Them All, and his legendary streak will go down as one of the best concepts in professional wrestling history.

But for all of Undertaker's past accomplishments and despite his status as a legend in the business, WrestleMania 36 should be AJ Styles' moment to go over.

There was a way for WWE to build this contest that could have made it feel like a dream match between two icons who took very different paths in their respective careers before ending up in the same place.

Styles spent years working for various promotions, including Ring of Honor, TNA and New Japan Pro-Wrestling, to hone his craft and become one of the best wrestlers in the world.

The Undertaker is on WWE's Mount Rushmore. He is the sport's most enduring gimmick and has main-evented a number of the promotion's biggest shows of all time.

It was such an easy, simple story to tell that WWE's creative team never even bothered to consider doing it. The feud started with Undertaker's random appearance at Super Showdown, where he hit one move on Styles and pinned him to win the Tuwaiq Trophy in a gauntlet match he wasn't even in.

At Elimination Chamber one week later, Undertaker showed up to chokeslam Styles in a match against Aleister Black.

If anything, Undertaker started this feud as the heel. Styles did nothing to provoke the Dead Man and got screwed in two matches.

The rivalry then took an unusual turn, with Styles "shooting" on Undertaker in promos, calling him by his real name and bringing up his wife, Michelle McCool, who has made just three appearances on WWE television since retiring in 2011.

The go-home episode of Raw featured a promo segment with the Undertaker in which he not only buried Styles, but the entire roster by saying the Phenomenal One waited until big stars like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Rock, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Kurt Angle and Mick Foley were no longer around before coming to WWE.

All of these things add up to a match in which Styles losing makes him look like just another guy who doesn't belong on the same level as Undertaker or the stars he mentioned.

The only sensible finish for the Boneyard match would be Styles going over the Undertaker. He's the one in this match who works full time, needs the rub based on the booking of this program and will be featured on television after WrestleMania is over.

The Undertaker doesn't need to win at WrestleMania anymore. His streak ended six years ago against Brock Lesnar; Roman Reigns gave him a second loss in the main event of WrestleMania 33 in what seemed like the Phenom's retirement match.