WWEThe StreakRuthless Aggression / PG Era
The Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels
WrestleMania XXV. April 5, 2009. Reliant Stadium, Houston, TX. No belt on the line, just the Streak and two of the finest to ever do it.
The official WWE upload. It plays right here in the center of the page, so you never leave.
Match result
The Undertaker beat Shawn Michaels to run the Streak to 17 and 0, in a match a lot of people still call the best WrestleMania has ever produced. Two men in their forties built a rising ladder of false finishes, one of them a dive that nearly went very wrong, and closed on a leaping Tombstone that felt earned instead of booked.
How this match got made
There was no title and, by wrestling standards, barely a feud. Shawn Michaels went after the one thing in the business that cannot be booked or bought: the Undertaker's undefeated run at WrestleMania, 16 and 0 walking in. WWE sold it as light against dark. Michaels came out in white and dropped from above in a beam of it. The Undertaker rose through smoke on the other side. The pitch was mystique against the self-belief of the man who calls himself Mr. WrestleMania.
The build was short and built on image more than grudge. That is the tell that separates this one from the rematch: in 2009 Michaels wanted to prove a point, and the personal war did not arrive until a year later. What both men brought instead was trust. They had shared a ring since the first Hell in a Cell in 1997, and they used every year of that history to make 72,000 people believe the impossible was about to happen.
The match, beat by beat
The entrances told you the story before a lock-up. Michaels descended in white light, arms wide, daring the darkness. The Undertaker answered with the slow walk and the lights coming up blood red. From there the two built a rising staircase of near-falls so convincing that the live crowd bought the end of the Streak more than once.
The scariest beat was real. The Undertaker went up and over the top rope in a dive meant to be caught by a cameraman at ringside. It went wrong. He came down close to head first and the genuine danger, not the choreography, is what spiked the room. He got up. The match kept climbing.
The finish landed because both men set it up honestly. Michaels went for a moonsault, the Undertaker met him in the air, and the leaping Tombstone got the three. Dave Meltzer gave it four and three-quarter stars and has since explained the sliver he held back. The Cagematch community sits around 9.6 out of 10. It swept most 2009 match-of-the-year honors, and in poll after poll it lands at or near the top of every greatest-WrestleMania-match list ever run.
Watch how it fits
The chapters on either side of this one. Every clip is an official WWE upload and plays in the same center-screen player, so you can run the whole arc without leaving.
The rematch that ended a career
The trilogy closes, HBK as referee
Five years later, 21 and 1
Where both men went next
The Undertaker
Beats Michaels at WM25. The Streak stands at 17 and 0.
Beats him again at WM26, Streak vs Career, and sends Michaels into retirement. 18 and 0.
Two straight with Triple H. The Hell in a Cell at WM28, the End of an Era, has Michaels as the referee. 19 and 0, then 20 and 0.
Beats CM Punk at WM29. 21 and 0.
Brock Lesnar ends it at WM30. One of the most stunned rooms in company history. 21 and 1.
The cinematic Boneyard Match at WM36, a Final Farewell that November, and a Hall of Fame induction in 2022.
Shawn Michaels
Loses at WM26 and retires. He has called the WM25 and WM26 pair his true send-off.
Inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
Breaks an eight-year retirement once, at Crown Jewel, for a DX tag against the Brothers of Destruction.
Runs the developmental brand as WWE's head of creative for NXT and a senior talent executive, shaping the next generation.
Go deeper: the documentary
WWE followed the Undertaker through his last run in a five-part series. Chapter one plays below. The rest are on Peacock.
Undertaker: The Last Ride
The full first chapter of WWE's docuseries on the man behind the character and the decision to walk away. Official upload, free to watch.
FAQ
Who won Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 25?
The Undertaker won, running his WrestleMania undefeated streak to 17 and 0. Michaels kicked out of multiple Tombstones before he was finally pinned.
What star rating did the match get?
Dave Meltzer gave it 4.75 stars. Cagematch community scores sit around 9.6 out of 10. Wrestle Lore rates it a full 5.
Was there a rematch?
Yes, at WrestleMania XXVI in 2010, billed Streak vs Career. The Undertaker won again, 18 and 0, and Michaels retired. See our WM26 breakdown.
Was the Undertaker's dive really botched?
The over-the-top dive was meant to be caught by a ringside cameraman and went wrong. The Undertaker landed close to head first. The real danger is part of why the moment hit so hard.