When WWE refers to WrestleMania as the biggest show of the year, they aren’t kidding, and this time around, it’s absolutely overstuffed with two more weeks left to fill in more of the blanks.
In some ways, this is a good thing, as it ensures the card isn’t going to be stretched thin like Fastlane 2018 was, where a bunch of filler matches will be added at the last minute just to eat up time and try to justify four hours of sitting in front of your screen for really only about 120 minutes of value.
However, with the good comes the bad: there isn’t enough room for everything to breathe.
The Math of Matches
WrestleMania 30 was the first on the WWE Network, so that is the best time to start the gauge of how WWE’s booking trends have been.
That event had 8 matches on the card with an average ring time of 17:02 minutes.
WrestleMania 31 had 9 matches with an average of 14:05 minutes. This dipped down to 13:42 for the 12 matches at WrestleMania 32 and 13:53 for WrestleMania 33’s 13 matches.
Clearly, there’s a trend here, as we’ve gone from 8 to 9 to 12 to 13 matches and this year, we are currently already booked for 14 with the potential for a 15th.
Current Projected WrestleMania Lineup:
1. Universal Championship: Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Roman Reigns
2. WWE Championship: AJ Styles (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
3. Kurt Angle & Ronda Rousey vs. Triple H & Stephanie McMahon
4. John Cena vs. The Undertaker
5. SmackDown Women’s Championship: Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Asuka
6. Raw Women’s Championship: Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Nia Jax
7. Intercontinental Championship: The Miz (c) vs. Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor
8. United States Championship: Bobby Roode (c) vs. Randy Orton vs. Jinder Mahal
9. Raw Tag Team Championship: The Bar (c) vs. Braun Strowman and ???
10 Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn vs. Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan
11. SmackDown Tag Team Championship: The Usos (c) vs. The New Day vs. The Bludgeon Brothers
12. Cruiserweight Championship: Cedric Alexander vs. Mustafa Ali
13. Women’s Battle Royal
14. 5th Annual Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
If Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt do something together, that’s a 15th match.
Then, there’s also the musical performance of America the Beautiful by Chloe x Halle, Kid Rock and Elias (although to be fair, Elias may have his merged with Kid Rock to a certain extent).
Even if we go with the shortest average ring time of 13:42 per these segments, we’re looking at exceeding last year’s WrestleMania by half an hour or more, as none of this even factors in all of the extraneous stuff like entrances, video packages, pre-show panel analysis, the Hall of Fame parade, and so on.
They have the same amount of time to work with as last year: 7 hours (2 for the pre-show, 4 for the main card).
This means one of two things: either some of these matches are going to feel rushed, or something is going to have to be cut.
The Pre-Show Dead Zone
Competing at WrestleMania in any capacity is something to be proud of, but there’s an undeniable bias against being put on the pre-show.
There is just no roundabout way to say it other than that the kickoff is reserved for the matches that WWE values the least, unless there’s some sort of odd scenario where management realizes something is better used as a bathroom break later on in the night as a buffer between two other, more important matches.
If you’re on the pre-show, there’s a chance you’re not wrestling in front of thousands of people, but a few scrambling to get to their seats while everyone else is busy getting merchandise or concessions or waiting in line to get in.
Sadly, some matches have to go on the pre-show, as there just isn’t enough time otherwise to put everything in the 4 hours of the main card.
Well, to be perfectly honest, there would possibly be time if WWE utilized the pre-show to contain all of the video packages and did nothing but entrances and matches on the 4 hours of the main show, but that’s never, ever, ever going to happen.
The last two years, there have been three matches on the pre-show. This time around, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are four, but there will definitely at least be three.
My assumption is that the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal will be one of them, as the women’s battle royal is going to be heralded as more “historic” and thus, more important, and they won’t want to have two of the same match type on the main card.
I’m also going with the obvious pick of the Cruiserweight Championship Finals being on the pre-show and possibly the true kickoff of the whole night, going first before anything else. I think that’s a shame for Cedric Alexander and Mustafa Ali, who deserve more eyes on them in order to draw more attention to 205 Live and give them the proper credit for what I’m sure will be an amazing match, but you can’t fight City Hall. Shout out to my fellow Rocko fans out there.
Those third and fourth matches are up in the air, though. Kid Rock’s segment isn’t happening here, so that can’t fill the void, but if Elias has a solo performance, that might just take place on the pre-show. I think it’s more of a filler bathroom break gap, but it’s a possibility.
More so, I think we’re looking at the United States Championship match being thrust in one of these spots. It’s a shame to think that, but last year, the Intercontinental Championship match between Dean Ambrose and Baron Corbin fell victim to being on the pre-show when the previous women’s match was switch out from that slot. I don’t think WWE has put much real effort into this story between Bobby Roode, Randy Orton and Jinder Mahal, so I can see them coming up with the excuse that it’s a “big match” and will draw attention to the pre-show, as part of their responsibility, instead of just “meh, we like everything else more, sorry guys.”
If there’s a fourth match, I really hope it isn’t The Usos defending the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, as they made it a point to mention how they’ve never had a main card match at WrestleMania after all these years. Cut those guys some slack and if necessary, give this to either the Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt segment (if it happens) or Alexa Bliss vs. Nia Jax.
However, that opens up another discussion…
Which Matches Get Rushed?
Nia Jax vs. Alexa Bliss has to be a squash. It can’t possibly reach that 14 minute mark, certainly not higher. In fact, I’m aiming for more around the 5 minute mark, tops.
This is not just because those minutes need to be taken into account for other segments, but because it makes no sense for someone Alexa’s size to stand a chance against someone Nia’s size, particularly with Jax wanting to tear Bliss’s head off.
It’s not going to be a five-star classic if they try to pull off the David vs. Goliath story with Bliss working on Jax’s legs and using her speed to counteract the strength of her opponent. She’s dwarfed by her, and this is a feud that revolves around the personal story of friends splitting up rather than the air of mystery around the two of them having a great match, like Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles.
This should be the quickest match of the night, as the more time gets cut from this, the more can be given to Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka and the other fights that actually need the proper time to tell a good in-ring story.
We’ll get just as satisfying an outcome with a squash as we would with a longer match, but it would just cut to the chase and not drag anything out.
That’s the only match that I can justify being quick, as I don’t want to see some cop out like Randy Orton vs. Rusev where, for instance, Brock Lesnar hits an F5 and Roman Reigns kicks out, hits a Superman Punch and a spear and wins the Universal Championship in 3 minutes flat. Don’t give me the Goldberg vs. Lesnar booking, as even if that’s a match that I didn’t care to see happen here, structuring it like that would just validate my problems. Prove me wrong, instead, by making it good.
I do have a feeling the Raw Tag Team Championship match isn’t going to last super long, as Braun Strowman by himself could potentially run through Cesaro and Sheamus. His partner is the big X-Factor in all of this, as his involvement could be the reason the match goes longer than just a few minutes. My estimate is under 10 no matter what, though.
Frankly, I’m also going into WrestleMania with low expectations for Ronda Rousey, Kurt Angle and Stephanie McMahon. Triple H should be fine as the anchor, but Angle isn’t the performer he once was, Stephanie was never a mat general and Rousey is new to this style and hasn’t shown any promise yet with that Samoan Drop and her timing on other things. WWE needs this more for the publicity of it happening in general, rather than it being some broadway.
I’m really, really hoping this Kid Rock musical performance is very short and not some 10 minute long ordeal or longer. Frankly, I’d be fine with them cutting it entirely, but I know he does have some fans out there and I’m sure you disagree with me on that. I’m just not fond of musical performances at WrestleMania unless they’re playing someone to the ring or part of the character like Jeff Jarrett, Honky Tonk Man and Elias. Any time it’s just “here’s a celebrity doing their thing” for more press, I use that as my time to get more pizza, which I could just as easily do in the 5th vignette of the same promo recap footage of any of the matches during the night.
Which Matches Get Cut Entirely?
Looking at this list, I don’t think WWE will actually bump any of the matches off the card at all, save for possibly the Matt Hardy situation, although that is just pure speculation at this point anyway and not something officially announced.
It’s just as likely that Hardy is one of the participants of the battle royal and either so is Wyatt, or The Eater of Worlds doesn’t make any appearance at WrestleMania whatsoever. Alternatively, there could just be a quick 5 minute promo featuring the two and that’s it, although that’s somewhat underwhelming as it would feel like it could have been done on the Monday Night Raw episodes preceding Mania.
In the worst case scenario that one of the matches does indeed get nixed, I can’t see anything being cut without it causing an uproar in some fashion and being a really bad situation for all parties involved. Everybody deserves to have their spot and it’s up to WWE to plan this stuff out to make room for everything, not the wrestlers themselves and certainly not the fans.
The Ideal Time Crunch
In a perfect world, the way WWE would prevent this kind of an issue would be to trim down the video packages recapping the feuds to a very lean and crisp minute or two maximum.
At this point, when it comes to WrestleMania, you’re either one of two people: someone who is a die hard fan or someone who is a casual and just checking it out because it’s the Super Bowl of professional wrestling.
If you’re a die hard fan, you already know everything that is going on and you’ve seen it every week multiple times, as well as on the pre-show. You don’t need to see it before the match itself. If your memory is that bad, that’s your problem, and I’d hate to go grocery shopping with you.
If you’re a casual fan, you’re more than likely not watching this on your own, but with a group of friends. They can fill you in on anything you missed out on, and that’s if you even care to begin with, as I know plenty of casuals who are only interested in the pure in-ring action and couldn’t care less about the backstories of the feuds. A 1-2 minute recap would suffice, especially if you watched the pre-show like you were supposed to and they gave a more in-depth breakdown. If that isn’t enough, well, how about you just watch Raw and SmackDown, then? Maybe this will be your motivator to start tuning in and not having your hand held, which allows for the excuse to not check out the weekly episodes WWE clearly wants you to watch.
Is WrestleMania 34 Overpacked?
Yes, and there’s a chance in the next two weeks that it gets even more crammed with material and starts to look like a mess, but there is still potential for this to all work out well in the end.
In fact, the sheer number of segments that have a chance at being entertaining as hell could mean that this is one of the most streamlined and energetic WrestleMania events we’ve ever seen, with little down time to get bored. That in itself could be amazing and really help this show out, if everybody performs as well as they possibly could.
Time will tell if time is a plus or a minus for this show.
