Mailing In Wrestlemania

Just pretend he's pointing to the sign.

It's time we face facts.  Wrestlemania is not for us.  Take a deep breath and let that sink in.  The granddaddy of them all, while a celebration of everything that is professional grappling, is meant for the mainstream audience.  Vince McMahon knows you and I will watch regardless.  Its the fringe fan that tunes in for entertainers and celebrities like Rock and Snooki who's dollars they're reaching for.  And yes we should feel betrayed.  But also foolish if we ever expected anything different.  That is how its always been.  Perhaps I'm still not completely over Daniel Bryan losing his Wrestlemania debut and the WHC title in 18 seconds to Sheamus because he kissed AJ last year.  It felt like Vince just fired me.  At Wrestlemania.  But in tradeoff they gave us Punk vs Bryan for the next three ppvs in a row.  Seriously, that was the best.  So I know my day is coming so forgive me if I grumble too much about the current state of affairs.  But something does seem oddly strange about this year's grandest stage of them all.  And its not just that once in a lifetime turned into twice in a year.



The two marquee matches of WM29 involve three part-time wrestlers in rematches that weren't very good to begin with.  Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar at Summerslam was terrible.  Brock completely dismantled Trips like everyone knew would happen.  And nothing short of a sledgehammer will prevent that from happening again.  Because no way does Triple H beat Brock Lesnar cleanly.  Not to mention that I fear we're only doing this because Hunter didn't get the "Thank You Trips" standing ovation at Summerslam because LA wasn't selling his lackluster performance.  That's not even to speak of the lay around the ring until we both do our five moves of doom and kickout twice show that will be Rock v. Cena II.  I get that this match made them more money last year than they had ever made before.  But that's because people hadn't seen it yet.  Now that they know what they're getting you can understand why there's more buzz about people not being excited than the match itself.  Not to mention that even the folks who its still real to damnit know what the outcome will be.  Sorry if I fail to wane the proper amount of enthusiasm but when the buyrates that some revere as so important come back you'll find that I'm not alone.

I've said in this space before that I really like Alberto Del Rio's face turn and how its playing out and I'm also in favor of the the addition of Zeb Colter as Jack Swagger's mouthpiece.  But that doesn't mean that I want to see them wrestle at Mania for the title.  ADR is a great technical wrestler and Jack Swagger's in-ring ability is two steps below boring and not nearly over as Dirty Dutch.  But Zeb brought the heat, controversy sells, and this is your opening match.  But there is a glimmer of hope.  Despite the rampant rumors to the contrary we will get to see Deadman and Punk go at it.  I'm insanely excited for this.  But I'm troubled that Taker hasn't seen better build than this.  The conscience of the WWE who's streak is the greatest accolade in professional wrestling lore and the voice of the voiceless and the longest reigning WWE champion of the past quarter century can't get a better build than Punk won a fatal fourway on Raw and Taker returns via Tout?  This is by FAR the greatest thing on the card and will most likely be the match of the night.  Its a really big deal and I want it to see the proper push.  Best in the World versus The Streak.  It writes itself.  So where is it?  If the answer is so not to overshadow Dwayne and Trips I might lose it.

As I said when I began, I understand that you must do certain things for the sake of putting on such a large scale event that depends on a significant amount of mainstream exposure.  I get it and I'm fine with that.  That means John Cena with the championship, big spot highlight reel moments, and a big fight feel.  And you know what?  I'm on board with that.  Grandest stage of them all vibe, go for it.  What I'm saying is that this isn't it and its not working.  The two big events have been seen and aren't that good.  And the failure to give Taker more push than Fandango is just inexplicable.  It feels like Vince McMahon has already looked past this year's Mania as if something else has his attention and creative is just sitting around nervously wondering where the hell any of this is going this year.  Since they're finally putting a price on the long promised WWE network it might stand to chance that Vince has his eyes on a bigger payday than even he has ever seen.  And if that's the case, I'll grin and bare while I wait for the smark payoff that comes post Mania.  I'll be more than happy with another trio of Punk v. Bryan.  Its a rematch actually worth having.