You would be forgiven for forgetting this important professional wrestling fact, but Roman Reigns was the one who retired The Undertaker at WrestleMania nearly a decade ago.
That match ended up being meaningless, because Taker kept taking dates afterwards, largely to cash fat checks from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – and so his real “retirement match” ended up being the Boneyard Match against AJ Styles a few years later during the COVID Era of WWE.
Even though Roman’s retirement of the Undertaker in a totally forgettable match in which his opponent could barely move has been washed away in terms of impact, Reigns has carried on his legacy in one small way going into another WrestleMania season.
The 2026 Royal Rumble winner is on a collision course to face another historic Undertaker opponent, CM Punk, and that match is going to be one for the ages with the first real build to it on the Raw after the Royal Rumble generating by far the best promo of segment of the young year 2026 thus far.
During the segment, Reigns told CM Punk, “At WrestleMania, you will acknowledge me”, and WWE fans could not help but notice the Undertaker vibes of “At WrestleMania, you will Rest in Peace”.
Now, Reigns is not going to have an undefeated streak like Taker at ‘Mania, and he has often been putting wrestlers over at the Show of Shows lately, such as Cody Rhodes and even Seth Rollins in the Triple Threat last year.
He may or may not do the same with CM Punk, but the point is that WWE have positioned Reigns in that top star, larger than life, locker room leader role like Taker and have given him a similar sort of catch phrase to, in the show itself, position him as being on a different plane from the rest.
Reigns is the one everyone has to go through at WrestleMania in order to become the next huge superstar in the company and a legend in their own right. Now, for Punk, it is a totally different case since he is even more established than Reigns and a legend even greater than The Tribal Chief, but since this is his second stint in WWE and with the bad blood of the past, it does make sense that a title defense against Roman is his ultimate full circle redemption arc moment as THE legend in WWE (especially with John Cena now retired).
Joe helped manage the pro wrestling site Daily DDT from 2017 to 2019. He has appeared in many wrestling podcasts and has had his work featured by mainstream media sites and professional wrestlers themselves. Joe also covers soccer, writing about Tottenham for Hotspur HQ, Real Madrid for A Trip to Cibeles, and general world football for The Trivela Effect.