Undertaker beats Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam 2015
Brock Lesnar, left, and The Undertaker, wrestle during the WWE SummerSlam 2015 at Barclays Center on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
If the WWE Universe had known 16 months ago that Brock Lesnar ending the Undertaker's WrestleMania streak would produce the epic rematch that happened at SummerSlam on Sunday night, they wouldn't have been nearly as upset.
That loss was the fuel for their SummerSlam rematch at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, in perhaps the most-hyped non-title pay-per-view match since Hulk Hogan faced The Rock at WrestleMania XVIII in Toronto in 2002.
One of the Undertaker's famous phrases is "You can't kill what won't die."
The Undertaker didn't die Sunday night.
He just got very lucky, beating Lesnar after the Beast applied a kimura lock and forced a tapout that everyone saw except the referee.
Lesnar attacked Undertaker before the Deadman could even get his leather jacket off, and the Beast paid for it with a clothesline, sending him out of the ring before the bell could even signal the start of the match.
One the bout officially began, both men got in their best shots. Undertaker opened up Lesnar's forehead early, but Lesnar responded by hitting the first of three F5 finishers on Undertaker onto the announce table.
Lesnar, who is often exempt from WWE's PG standards, threatened Undertaker with "I'll kill you, you son of a [expletive]." But even with two more F5s, Lesnar couldn't get the pin. Neither could Undertaker, even after landing his tombstone piledriver.
Eventually Lesnar powered out of Undertaker's hell's gate triangle choke to get Undertaker in the kimura. Per the instant replay, Undertaker tapped out, but referee Charles Robinson was on the other side, counting a possible pin since Lesnar's shoulders were down.
The timekeeper, seeing the tap, rang the bell, earning the scorn of Robinson for not waiting for his signal to ring the bell. While Robinson chided the timekeeper, Undertaker hit Lesnar with a low blow, then reapplied the hell's gate.
As Lesnar was going out, he offered an obscene hand gesture to Undertaker before the referee stopped the match and awarded it to the Undertaker.
The win sets up a rubber match between Lesnar and Undertaker, likely at WrestleMania XXXII in Arlington, Texas, next year.
