Backstage News On The Undertaker’s Return

Roman Reigns got some help in his battle against Shane McMahon from a former opponent on Raw — The Undertaker.

It all went down during a 2-on-1 Handicap Match pitting Reigns against McMahon and Drew McIntyre, which got turned into an anything-goes free-for-all where no tags would be needed.

McMahon and McIntyre took advantage of the situation and beat Reigns down until he was immobile. McMahon then took to the top rope to set himself up for the Coast-to-Coast dropkick, when suddenly the lights went out. The Undertaker was then standing in the ring when the lights came back on.

The Undertaker blocked McMahon’s dropkick attempt before him giving a chokeslam and dropping McIntyre. Taker would continue attacking the two before sending them retreating up the ramp.

There was no interaction besides Undertaker and Reigns, but Undertaker briefly looked at Reigns as “The Big Dog” recovered in the corner.

WWE then announced during the third hour that Undertaker and Reigns will face McMahon and McIntyre in a tag team match at WWE Extreme Rules on July 14.

The Undertaker’s match at Extreme Rules was planned before his match with Goldberg at WWE Super ShowDown on June 7, according to Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. So this isn’t something that WWE planned very recently due to lackluster ratings.

It has also been speculated that Undertaker is returning to action due to his panned match with Goldberg at Super ShowDown, which went off the rails after Goldberg suffered a concussion just minutes into the match. WWE Hall of Famer Booker T speculated on his podcast this week that Undertaker is returning to get the “bad taste” out of his mouth.

“No one thought that they would see The Undertaker this soon after Super ShowDown, in what we would call, ‘the incident,'” Booker T said. “No one thought we would see him this soon, but me personally, I think Undertaker was thinking, ‘Man, I gotta go get this bad taste out of my mouth. I gotta get rid of it and do something to make me forget.'”

According to Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, the tag bout was primarily put together because McIntyre was on the short list of Undertaker’s requested opponents. Meltzer doesn’t know if the match is setting the stage for an additional appearance at SummerSlam.