Formally unveiled during the two-hour Friday Night SmackDown! telecast, WWE’s new storyline for The Undertaker has fans buzzing.
As of 11:30PM, the Undertaker storyline was the subject of the top four searches on Google. The queries, in order, were “undertaker died,” “what happened to the undertaker,” “is the undertaker dead,” “wwe undertaker.” ‘Mark Calaway’ was the twelfth most popular search.
The storyline, which kicked off this week, claims that Kane found his brother The Undertaker in a vegetative state last weekend and is now seeking to identify and have vengeance against the person responsible. A scripted angle, the storyline was designed in response to Undertaker suffering facial injuries, notably a broken orbital bone, during his match with Rey Mysterio last week.
Because the injury was serious enough to keep Taker out of the Fatal 4 Way main-event, WWE needed to offer a storyline explanation for his absence. The original plan called for the storyline to last for the bulk of the summer, although given WWE’s historical trouble of keeping storylines hot for a long period of time, it is possible Undertaker will return as soon as he is available.
— From Chris Jericho’s Twitter: “Sorry to everyone for not making the signing or the show in Ashville. I promise to make it up to you next time around!”