Yes wrestling is not a true sport and it doesn’t have playoffs or keep track of your win/lose record over a time period, but Wrestlemania is billed as the showcase of the immortals. Sorry to break the news that Zack Ryder, Rosa Mendez and a list of other jobber level talents are not immortals. They have no business at all being on the biggest show of the year.
The logic as to why they are is it allows people to get Wrestlemania Payoffs as a reward for the year of service. Which by the way has yet to be explained how those will work and likely is a reason that Zack Ryder is in Wrestlemania and C.M Punk is not? That issue aside Wrestlemania is suppose to be a show that you earn the right to be a part of. The plot line of Total Divas that saw the Bellas match get bumped showed how crushing it can be for a performer to be left off the show. You can debate if that was a real or scripted moment but it did drive home the fact that Wrestlemania is special and unlike all the other PPVS in a year.
The WWE has become PG and geared at kids and this idea of everyone getting on Wrestlemania is like every kid getting a trophy in a sports league. What kind of a world have we become honestly? This is a professional business and it isn’t about making everyone feel all warm and fuzzy, it is about putting on the best show possible regardless of the number of people that takes. If I get to see HHH and Daniel Bryan wrestle 10 more minutes and am not able to see a battle royal that means nothing I am all for that. If Bray Wyatt gets 5 more minutes with John Cena and the Divas Title match has to go on the pre-show that is the way it goes.
When exactly was the point the WWE lost it’s grapefruits about booking Wrestlemania 30 the way it should be? If you book it like this is there any motivation for talent to strive to make it to that next level? Just by giving them some manufactured meaningless moment is that suppose to be some carrot to drive them to want to be in bigger more meaningful matches?
Just because you do bust your ass is no guarantee of anything and history shows that. C.M Punk has never made it to the main event. He has surly earned it through his work over the years but he has been upstaged by former stars and even The Miz taking that spot from him. Aside from Daniel Bryan who initially was not going to be in the main event the guys that have had the best year in the WWE you can argue have been The Shield. Their reward for that is another 6 man tag match with lesser stars than the year prior. Big Show, Randy Orton and Sheamus are a step above a match with Kane and New Age Outlaws that have not been in a mania in like over a decade.
Is the Undertaker in a match with someone who is a regular on the roster that can benefit from challenging the streak….5 out of the last 6 years the answer has been no. Granted it has produced classic matches and the Undertaker at the end of the day has to sign off on his opponent but still can we not find someone worthy on this roster of that honor?
Wrestlemania is a brand that has been established for having the very best compete in matches that are meant to have a chance to stand the test of time. The more that concept is watered down the more the brand of Wrestlemania suffers for it. Maybe not next year or the year after but if you continue down this path eventually it stops being the showcase of the immortals, it stops being different from every other WWE PPV and in the end it stops being special.
This is the one show a year that draws even some of the most casual and past fans of the product to it. If your goal is to win those people back shouldn’t you be giving them the very best of what you have to offer? Isn’t that the point of a show like this?
Wrestlemania is starting to lose its magic and just like the age of the Undertaker the warts are starting to show through. Wrestlemania has now reached the number 30 and if it is to keep on rolling to 50 and higher numbers this can’t be the type of attitude that is going to take it there. At some point these new young stars need to take ownership of this event and make it into what it is suppose to be which is not a right but a privilege to be a part of. Signing a contract to be in the WWE should not be a ticket to being on the biggest show of the year. It should be an opportunity to earn the right to be on it.
Hell the Scooby Doo Movie that just came out was harder to be a part of than Wrestlemania. Making the WWE Video Game was harder too. According to the Bauer and Pollock show no less than 63 performers are booked for this Wrestlemania. That is insane and not necessary in any way shape or form. NXT Arrival was harder for the NXT Roster to get on than it was to be on Wrestlemania how screwed up is that logic?
If you want to call wrestling a sport it would never work like that. If you want to call it entertainment how many people are left out of movies and T.V shows on casting calls?
Wrestling is all about establishing some sense of credibility with its audience. Things like this make it hard to take any of this seriously in the slightest. The reason we love the C.M Punk’s and Daniel Bryan’s of this world is their long struggles to make it to this big stage but not just because they made it to the WWE. Once they got there they didn’t stop earning it, they progressed and became two of the biggest stars in the company.
Being handed things like appearances in Wrestlemania for whatever people say it does for moral of the roster is over shadowed by the damage it does to the credibility of the card and the special nature that Wrestlemania has come to represent. Kids that dream of getting into this business dream of being on this show and one day being in its main event. The boyhood dream of Shawn Micheals is as real as wrestling can get. Now you are starting to spit on what that represents by allowing talent that isn’t even good enough to be on Raw be allowed to be a part of the biggest show of the year.
It is just NOT what is BEST FOR BUSINESS in a REAL and significant way.
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