No Chance – Excited for Moments, not Matches (WWE Wrestlemania 31, Sting, John Cena)

Columns, Top Story

We have three episodes of Raw left Before WrestleMania, and for the most part we have a fairly good idea of what the card is going to look like by the end of the month. We know that Sting will face Triple H, Brock will face Roman Reigns (despite everyone’s cries to the contrary), Bray will face The Undertaker, and Cena will face Rusev. And somewhere sprinkled in there, we will have a ladder match for the IC title featuring everyone we wish was in the main event, and another Andre the Giant Battle Royal featuring those who couldn’t get into the Ladder Match. So the big question is, which of these matches are you the most excited about?…Ok Which of these matches are you excited about at all?…Ok, are you excited at all for any of the matches scheduled at WrestleMania? Because I have to say, I’m really not. Sure there are a few things that I’m excited to see on March 29th.

I’m excited to finally see Sting have a match in a WWE ring, but I can’t really say that I’m excited to see the match between him and Triple H. Partially because in the back of my head there’s going to be that little voice saying that as good as this match can possibly be, imagine what it could have been if the stars had all aligned when both of these guys were in their prime? And it doesn’t help that every single time Triple H cuts a promo about the match, he finds a way to mention “14 years ago.”

I’m excited to know that last year didn’t end up being the last Taker match because as monumental as the ending was last year, the match itself wasn’t really that great. But at the same time, with The Streak no longer on the line, the majesty of the Undertaker match isn’t what it’s been in years past. And it’s hard to really get excited for a match between two wrestlers when only one of them is present for the build. (This is also true of the Sting/Trips match and the Brock/Roman match as well) The last time I saw Taker he was lying defeated in the center of the ring, and  now you just have three weeks to remind me that he’s a terrifying force and a legitimate threat, but instead he’s nowhere to be seen.

I’m excited at the idea that at the end of the night John Cena might be the United States Champion. This could be a win-win situation with Cena finally holding a mid card belt. It will keep Cena out of the main event feud, making room for the gaggle of wrestlers who have been trying to get there for the past seven years, and will have Cena focused squarely on mid-card feuds with some of the younger talent. At the same time being on Cena can help get the United States championship out of the obscurity that it’s been in for who knows how many years, and remind people that this is a championship we’re talking about. The only thing is that I’ve already seen Cena vs. Rusev. I saw it two weeks ago at Fast Lane and I’m not super pumped to see it again. This isn’t like Cena’s rematch with Brock after SummerSlam where I knew that there had to be a different match. Rusev and Cena’s match at Fast Lane was fairly by the book, back and forth with both guys getting some good offence at different points in the match. It wasn’t a bad match by any means, it’s just that I’m expecting to see pretty much the same match as before but with a different ending this time around. Kind of hard to get excited about that. (This also applies to potential filler matches at Mania such as the Rhodes brothers or the Tag team match that might be nothing more than rematches of Fast Lane two weeks ago)

And at last we come to the championship match. What is there to be excited about the championship match this year? We’ve dedicated so much time to this one match since The Royal Rumble. Talking about it, complaining about it, trying to think of alternatives that the WWE might be taking, but looking back on the last month and a half or so of wrestling, the Main Event hasn’t ever changed since the Rumble. It’s always been a singles match between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns and it looks like WWE is determined to see their original vision through to the end this time around. And what is there to get excited about in that? Well honestly the thing I’m looking forward to the most at the main event of WrestleMania is the crowd’s reaction. WWE has tried everything to get Roman over. They had the Rock come out to endorse him. They had Daniel Bryan call him the better man in the ring. They had Paul Heyman talk about what a threat he was. And just this past week, Roman single handedly took out every enforcer on The Authority and was the only one left standing in the ring. But come Mania time, when Roman comes out to main event, I don’t think it will work. I’m counting on the crowd to do what the WWE has refused to do, and make sure that Roman mind end the show as champion but that he doesn’t leave as both champion and a face.

Joel Leonard reviews the latest movies each week for Inside Pulse. You can follow him @joelgleo on Twitter though he's not promising to ever tweet anything from there. Joel also co-hosts the Classy Ring Attire podcast and writes the No Chance column on Inside Pulse as well.