Normally, WrestleMania is the best time of the year for wrestling fans. This is the biggest show that is months in the making, with the biggest names taking part in matches that we wouldn’t see anywhere else.
This year, though, the morale seems worse than ever. A slew of injuries and a card that doesn’t have as much mass appeal as usual has put a damper on the mood of a lot of fans. Instead of looking at this as something to be excited about, they’re saying they’ll skip it or at best, watch it out of curiosity for being a potential train wreck.
WrestleMania is WWE’s version of the Super Bowl in more ways than one; the most obvious being that it is the longest show of them all with the most pageantry and an extra added level of importance compared to normal events.
Just like the Super Bowl, though, tons of people watch it purely out of it being a yearly tradition. I’m sure I’m not the only one who knows people who may not watch WWE programming (or football) all year round, but will check out this one show because of how it’s perceived as an event.
When it comes to the NFL, people will watch the Super Bowl without having any particular stake in either of the two teams playing or because it’s a social gathering to eat pizza and wings with some friends and not much else. Hell, some even watch it just for the commercials—something nobody is doing when it comes to WWE, we can guarantee that.
But when it comes to WrestleMania, those fans are not who we need to address here. Ignorance is bliss in many ways, and they’ll likely have fun watching everything unfold with no connection to what came before it or what will follow after. YOU, on the other hand—someone who follows wrestling sites and actively engages in the product on a regular basis as well as a deeper level—are who we need to ask the following question to:
Are you actually excited for WrestleMania this year, or is that feeling in your stomach not the butterflies of anticipation, but the pangs of nervous anxiety?
First off, let’s just get something out of the way before anyone thinks it—this article is by no means written up just to complain about either side of the argument. If you’re looking forward to it, you have every reason to be, because WrestleMania has defied expectations before and if any show is going to surprise us, it’s likely to be this one. If you’re someone who thinks it’ll be terrible, you have all the right to feel that way, too, as there are certainly problems in the build that we can point out. Both sides are justified, so we should let everyone feel whatever way they’re feeling.
That being said, there’s no shortage of opinions on this site and all over the Internet Wrestling Community about the quality of this year’s event. In a way, it’s similar to what happened with WrestleManias 30 and 31, where the WWE Universe had a black cloud above its collective head forecasting doom for The Grandest Stage of Them All. However, this year, it seems like there aren’t as many fallback options that are keeping people hopeful of a miracle to be pulled off.
Let’s take the main event for example. For WrestleMania 30, fans hated the idea of Batista against Randy Orton, as the champion they wanted to endorse was Daniel Bryan. Although he wasn’t advertised as officially being in the main event, WWE dangled the possibility in front of the crowd by having his match against Triple H be for a spot in that title match. The crowd anticipated him having two wins and celebrating at the end of the night, and all was good in the world (minus the injury that would soon follow, but at least for that show, things turned out well).
Last year’s WrestleMania had a similar conundrum, as WWE pushed someone to win the Royal Rumble that many fans weren’t in favor of. Those who didn’t want Roman Reigns to win held onto hope that Brock Lesnar would prove to be too difficult of an opponent, or at the very least, the backup plan of Seth Rollins cashing in the Money in the Bank briefcase could come into play.
Two years in a row, WWE went with a plan the fans didn’t like, but a Plan B option saved the day. This year, nothing of the sort is being set up. There is no Money in the Bank, nor is there a universally beloved main eventer like Bryan to somehow be shoehorned into the title match at the last minute. This is just a scenario where the logical conclusion is Roman Reigns winning the title, pissing off a good portion of the crowd.
While I myself don’t subscribe to the hatred of Reigns and I’m more than fine with him taking the title, I’m not exactly looking forward to seeing it. Why? Because the response from everyone else is probably going to sour it too much. Having my own site and writing articles for others, I guarantee if I enjoy the match and say it’s a positive, everyone will jump down my throat to call bullshit because they didn’t want me to enjoy it (similar to how I’m defending Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice lately on Fanboys Anonymous). We can all agree that nothing seems to be better than when a whole crowd is pumped about something happening, and the worst thing to happen to a segment is for the arena to yawn and not give a shit. The fans against this match are going to voice their concerns (as they are entitled to, mind you) with chants for Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, probably even JBL, along with “you can’t wrestle”, “this is bullshit” and a chorus of boos to end the show. That puts a damper on the mood, doesn’t it? Nobody wants WrestleMania to end with the audience letting out a sigh of frustration and heading to Twitter to complain that they’re going to stop watching because this was “the worst WrestleMania ever” and the company has passed the point of no return.
That, of course, brings up the issue of the angle where the future of the company is on the line. I’ve spoken about it at length on various articles and podcasts, but to reiterate, I think the Shane McMahon vs. Undertaker match is so tricky to pull off that it’s nearly impossible. The optimist in me sees a lot of fun in watching my #2 favorite wrestler of all time face off against someone I’ve wanted to see return to WWE for years, especially inside a Hell in a Cell cage, with the likely outcome of a big change in the status quo being the end result. That sounds awesome on paper, right?
The quality of the match could be terrible, though. Shane’s been out of the game for so long and wasn’t on par with a performer like Shawn Michaels even in his prime. When’s the last time a Hell in a Cell match was as brutal as it used to be, instead of just resting on the laurels of the past and playing it too safe to be as cool as it’s marketed to be? Does it matter if this is a regular match that just happens to include a few spots where they pick each other up and half-assed ram their opponent against the cage?
I’m expecting no real hardcore elements to take place here and for those to be saved for the Intercontinental Championship and No Holds Barred Street Fight matches. Those are two matches I’m legitimately excited and not nervous about, even though I do think the ladder match has some questionable people involved. If this Hell in a Cell match consists of the modern WWE mentality of “chair shots only to the back” and “don’t do anything too crazy, we want to save some steam for later” rather than “go kick ass and let the people who follow you figure out a way to top that”, then this could be underwhelming to say the least.
Then there’s the outcome. If Undertaker loses, I’ll be pissed that he lost to someone like Shane, particularly if that’s his last match and this is how he goes out with a retirement. If Shane loses, then I’ll be bummed that we don’t get to see that big shake up. If there’s too much interference that muddies it all up, then it renders the whole thing somewhat pointless and invalidated. If things get too messy, they more often than not end up being stupid, and the WWE Universe dubs it as being a textbook case of “overbooking.”
You may think differently—and I hope you do—but when I personally look at the majority of the card, I don’t feel that spark of anticipation that I should. The Divas Championship match is pretty much the best match they could have given us, but I don’t care. The tag team match with the divas, well, that’s something I don’t think would even be interesting for Raw, let alone the biggest event of the year, and I can’t believe it isn’t one of the pre-show matches. Taking the Tag Team Championship off the line with The New Day vs. The League of Nations? Why downgrade it? The participants in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal? Come on. So on and so forth.
This all basically sums up to an event that is shaping up to be the caliber I would expect a bad SummerSlam to be, not a good WrestleMania, and instead of being excited about what’s to come, I’ve found myself and many others who are in a similar position as I am to be more curious and concerned rather than legitimately interested in the entertainment of it. Rather than looking forward to what fun could be had, we’re setting our expectations low based on the show’s promotional weight and still projecting that it could fail to live up to what little hopes we have.
That’s a terrible way to spend WrestleMania season as a wrestling fan, and since I’m on that side of the spectrum, I figured this would be as good of a platform as any to just point out to everyone else who is synced up with myself that maybe we need to turn off our brains a bit. Why should we be nervous about this event? In the end, it’s just WrestleMania, and Payback and Extreme Rules are soon to follow.
For every bad time in wrestling, if you stick with it long enough, you get to see things turn around. Virtually no event is completely and utterly terrible. While I think Ryback and Kalisto fighting for the United States Championship seems like a weak addition to a WrestleMania card due to how poorly both have been set up for the match, maybe they’ll put on a hell of a show in the ring.
We might not be excited like we were hoping to be a few months ago, but it does no good to be nervous, as the product will continue to move on and adapt accordingly. If the show sucks, WWE will be forced to try to make it up to everyone. If it’s great, then crisis averted. If it takes too long to fix itself, you can stop watching and WWE will still be around when you are willing to come back to it to give it another shot.
So in the end, if you find yourself feeling anxious about WrestleMania rather than excited about it, try to step outside of the bubble we normally live in, where we read backstage reports and analyze every detail all the time in an attempt to predict the future and reflect on the past. Look to your friends who are more casual fans and see if there’s a lot of enjoyment in their faces. Piggyback off that and try to have fun when watching the show, cause that’s supposed to be what this is all about, isn’t it?
For the cynics who think WrestleMania will suck, it would be better to be proven wrong and to enjoy the show than to be correct about our presumptions and hate the show, wouldn’t it? Keep that in mind.
For the optimists who think WrestleMania will be amazing, don’t let the naysayers ruin it for you. If WWE flubs this, you can hoist the black flag with the rest of the WWE Universe and then we can all have fun talking about what we would have done that would have been better in our minds.
But where do you stand? Are you looking forward to WrestleMania, thinking it will end up being a great show that stands up to the history, or are you heading into the event with low expectations?
Tell us where your mind is at in the comments below, and in either scenario, here’s hoping you have fun on Sunday night!
