For the most part, the Wrestlemania card has been announced and the show is only two weeks away. But this year, it feels a lot different from past. Around this time last year, I was excited to see John Cena vs. Batista, Undertaker vs. HBK and CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio. The year before that, I was excited to see Undertaker vs. HBK and Randy Orton vs. Triple H. And two years ago, I was excited to see Ric Flair vs. HBK and Undertaker vs. Edge. This year, however, I’m not excited to see much of anything on this year’s card for various reasons.
When the Rock came back and delivered the best promo in arguably seven years, rumors were flying around that Sting was coming back and, after Elimination Chamber delivered way above my expectations, I assumed WWE was on the right track and Wrestlemania would ultimately become the most looked forward show in a long time.
Sting ended up declining the contract offered by WWE and instead signed with TNA again, but WWE countered it when they booked Triple H to barge in on Undertaker’s re-debut after Undertaker was buried alive by Kane and Nexus, which all made perfect sense because HHH was visibly bitter about his best friend retiring due to the fact that Undertaker defeated him last year in a career vs. streak match.
In Undertaker and HHH’s encounter, the feud was set up perfectly, because both wrestlers didn’t say anything in the segment, yet they got the message across flawlessly by mannerisms and facial expressions.
But as each Raw passed, there wasn’t a lot of sizzle added to the build in order to spark enough interest into it, albeit Triple H is HBK’s friend, Undertaker retired HBK, thus Triple H wants a piece of Undertaker, and oh yeah, for whatever reason (none that was really explained), the match is under no holds barred rules.
The entire card is similar to this match because there are a lot of good matches on the card, but there isn’t enough material behind them in order for me to care to see any of them.
The Miz vs. John Cena could be a great match. The Miz has come a long way in the ring since he has debuted and has proven that he can go toe-to-toe with the best. John Cena, on the other hand, has proven that he is a good wrestler and even better under pressure. But the entire feud has been overshadowed by The Rock and wounded by silly booking.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that the Rock is going to be at Wrestlemania, but this match seems more about post-match rather than the match itself. I mean, it’s gotten so bad that people actually forget that the Miz is the WWE champion (mostly because people are already assuming that there is no doubt in the world that he’s going to lose this match).
There is no way to sugarcoat the build for this match. In fact, they haven’t really feuded over much other than about the Rock and Alex Riley. Speaking of Alex Riley, I thought he was supposed to be fired if he lost to John Cena…
So on top of the feud lacking heat, having horribly written promos and segments, it has transparent inconsistencies as well. Not exactly what I would call a Wrestlemania mainevent.
Time is becoming an issue for these feuds to fully develop, but there are still two weeks left for the WWE to start putting some extra effort into them. Right now, it feels like Summerslam is around the corner, not Wrestlemania, especially if you take the Rock, Stone Cold and Snooki out of the show.
Wrestlemania feels like Wrestlemania because there’s tons of anticipation before the show and that feeling hangs onto the fans throughout the matches. To get my point across better, I’ll use an example. Ric Flair vs. HBK at Wrestlemania 24 was a slightly above-average match from an in-ring perspective. The feud, however, had so much drama and importance around it that it made it a magnificent match. When Dragon Gate USA had their first PPV (from an in-ring perspective), the show was top-notch. But since there wasn’t enough drama surrounding the matches, it felt like a pre-season NFL game because a pre-season game is ultimately irrelevant to a watcher due to the fact that it has no true meaning or drama behind it.
Wrestlemania might in fact have great matches on the show, but if there is no excitement behind the matches, they’re not going to feel as epic as if they had intriguing backstories behind them.
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