When The Undertaker Retires, the WWE Will Feel Empty

Recently, I have been pondering what the landscape of the WWE will look like once the Undertaker retires. 

In the last few years, the Undertaker has been taking noticeably longer breaks from the WWE to deal with injuries and have knee surgery. This can only signal one thing: The Dead Man's time is coming to an end.

I have been an Undertaker fan since he debuted in 1990 at the Survivor Series as Ted DiBiase's mystery partner.  He was a giant of a man compared to most, and he seemed impervious to pain.

His gimmick was no-selling the moves performed by his opponents, and staring ominously without expression.  It went over almost instantly, and within a year he was WWE champion. 

He was one of the only people I can remember to hold the WWE title not only within his first year, but as his first title. 

Over the years he gained more attention by having great feuds, amazing matches, stellar promos, and one of the best managers in the biz, Paul Bearer.  He is forever linked with casket, buried alive, hell in the cell and last ride matches.

Since about 2006, he has been taking more and more time off each year to mend himself from the grueling life of the pro wrestler.  He is moving slower and taking fewer risks, which is to be expected for a man in his forties.

It never really clicked that he might soon be gone forever, because he has been around for so long. 

Not only is he one of two wrestlers to still be with the company since the first episode of RAW (the other being HBK), but he has one of the longest streaks of working for WWE in history, without leaving them for competition. 

The man is WWE through and through.  He is the head of the Smackdown locker room, for sure.

When he retires, we will lose something that the WWE is otherwise lacking: a good gimmick. 

The Undertaker along with many others have stated that the Undertaker gimmick was not supposed to last this long, but the fans responded so well, and still do.

Without the Undertaker, who will strike fear into the hearts of the WWE's evil wrestlers?  Who will intimidate all the guys who intimidate others?  Who will have a Wrestlemania undefeated streak? 

No one.

Once the Undertaker is gone, the WWE will no longer be what it was to me when I was a kid.  It will no longer be the world of outrageous characters and even more outrageous fights.  It will simply be a wrestling company. 

And that saddens me.

Someone on Bleacher Report recently wrote an article about the lost art of the gimmick; forgive me for not knowing who it was.  They are absolutely right.  The WWE, along with all of wrestling, has lost the ability to create an amazing character who is not based in reality.

I am dreading the day when I read the headline "Undertaker Retires," because for me, it will be the end of an era that will never be matched again.