SPOILERS Wrestlemania 33: The Good and The Bad
Nothing plays with my heartstrings like pro wrestling at its finest. It can bring about any range of emotions and leave you exhilarated or depressed for days on end. Nothing captures the magic of professional wrestling like Wrestlemania (though New Japan fans may beg to differ).
Some Good
This year’s Wrestlemania will be as star studded as any in recent history. Goldberg, Brock Lesnar, Triple H, Big Show, Shane McMahon, Mickie James and The Undertaker highlight the list of legends competing at ‘The Grandest Stage of Them All’ this year. Most may have been around last year but the real reason this year’s show will be deeper lies within the active talent.
Thanks to the brand split, shows have more hours to fill and in turn the WWE roster has been given far more opportunities to stand out. Now we have a show that almost cannot fit all of the premier talent it has. Smackdown’s male stars consist of AJ Styles, Baron Corbin, Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose, John Cena , Miz and Randy Orton. Raw’s top performers are: Braun Strowman, Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens, Roman Reigns, Sami Zayn, and Seth Rollins. This doesn’t include recent call up Samoa Joe or the injured Finn Balor.
In total you are nearing twenty performers (when factoring in the legends) who need a main card match. That list does not include anyone from the women’s division (which has 7–10 legit stars of their own) or any tag team. So to say this card should be loaded is an understatement.
Some Bad
So what is the plan for this abundance of talent at Wrestlemania 33? They have one, though it does not appear to be very good. The main event is almost certainly going to be WWE Champion Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar. A match we not only know the end result of but a match that bombed twelve years ago when both men were in their prime. Now we are relegated to a fifty plus year old man who looks like he only has a few spears left in him and another guy who abandoned his entire move-set so that he could lazily suplex his opponent the entire match until it is time for him to end it with the F5. If the run time for this match goes longer than five minutes I fear Goldberg may be horribly exposed, and the Main Event of Wrestlemania should not be anything less than a half hour.
AJ Styles aka the WWE’s MVP of the last year will be facing Shane McMahon at Wrestlemania. This is a huge step down from putting on WWE championship match classics with Dean Ambrose and John Cena and an absolute waste of AJ while he is in the prime of his career. He is too talented not to drag something decent out of Shane but it will not be anywhere near what AJ should be capable of doing on wrestling’s biggest stage.
Kevin Owens title run finally gets past the never-ending rematches with Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns only for him to surely get decimated by Goldberg and now feud with Jericho over a far less worthy prize. How much more important would this match feel if it was for the Universal Title? By my estimation: quite a bit. Brock and Goldberg is an attraction on its own, the title is not required for their match to be a big deal. Kevin Owens has been getting his ass-kicked for by ex-Shield members for months, he needs the title to elevate this feud.
Dean Ambrose, Baron Corbin and The Miz have been a huge part of why Smackdown has been the real “A Program” since the brand split. Dean and Baron at least get to face each other, though it will benefit neither. Miz looks to be in a mixed tag against Cena, which again, seems like an utter waste considering his outstanding 2016.
With the depth we have this year due to big returns, debuts and significantly less injuries than last year, this should be the year WWE officially takes a big step forward and made the current players big time stars. There is no need to keep cutting your talent off at the knees anymore. It is time to let them shine on the biggest stage of them all.
I personally would have booked Wrestlemania 33 around these key matches:
John Cena vs Dean Ambrose
Triple H vs Seth Rollins
Goldberg vs Roman Reigns
Brock Lesnar vs Kevin Owens
The Undertaker vs Braun Strowman
AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe
Randy Orton vs Bray Wyatt
Shane McMahon vs Baron Corbin
Every second name on that list would win. Can you imagine the intensity in a Roman Reigns vs Goldberg match? Not only do we crown a master of the spear but wrestling’s most hated superstar toppling, arguably, the most loved would certainly create the type of emotional response we all want from wrestling. Kevin Owens slaying the Beast (his dream match) would cement him as a big-time player and he is one of the guys with enough skill to drag a memorable performance out of Lesnar again. Braun taking down Taker would officially make him the WWE’s next monster and a legit threat to anyone. While Shane may be a step down for AJ, Baron would benefit greatly from going against his authority and working a match with a name like him. These are the kind of matches we need to propel wrestling forward into the future and rid ourselves of its current stagnation.
More Good
For as disappointing as the card may look this year Vince has a habit of turning years with low potential into memorable shows. Wrestlemania 30 and 31 on paper looked weak and well exceeded expectations. Fans will be reliving ‘The Yes Movement’ and the streak ending for decades as some of the best/most shocking moments in wrestling history.
Last year we had what looked like a great card on paper and it was underwhelming. Now that half the roster is back from injury and they have something to prove I look forward to seeing how they plan to create their Wrestlemania moment. Not to mention, the Hall of Fame with a returning Kurt Angle and the always excellent NXT Takeover. Your craving for wrestling will definitely be fulfilled Wrestlemania weekend.
While most of the matchups do not benefit anyone, Bray Wyatt has a chance to solidify himself as a top star by beating Randy Orton. He finally has his title run and now we need to see where he can take it. This match has a chance to be an awesome bout of storytelling. Seth should finally be able to get revenge on Triple H after this eight month feud where they have interacted three times (it will not be worse than Roman/HHH) so that will be something to look towards (he’s not missing two Wrestlemania’s in a row).
Roman Reigns vs The Undertaker should be amazing. Taker is my favorite wrestler ever and I despise Roman. Even if the Royal Rumble exposed how he can barely move, Taker knows how to tell a great story in the ring, something Roman also excels at. They both bring the big fight feel to all of their matches and the emotional investment and environment for this match will be top-notch. Who won’t be at the edge of their seat to see if Taker can kick out of multiple spears? I feel there is a great chance this will exceed expectations.
More Bad
The Women’s Division and Tag Division are in need of desperate fixing. I skim Raw and Smackdown every week and had to google who held the tag team titles. I do not know who is feuding in the tag division and I do not care. I have no reason to and that is the problem. Until they start getting treated better and more important, this will not change.
Raw beat Sasha vs. Charlotte to death then over-pushed Bayley too quick to create interest again. Characters gain followers when they have a visible journey and arc they follow. What was Bayley’s? She fought Dana Brooke for a while, did nothing for a while, then felt like she should challenge for the title. When she did, she won it. How can anyone get invested in that?
Bayley’s character is at its best as a lovable loser who eventually gets on a roll and wins the gold after a long hard-fought journey (much like Becky Lynch last year). Winning the title within a year of debuting in her second or third title match and facing no obstacles along the way defeats the purpose of her. The reason people loved Becky is because she was screwed or stabbed in the back at every turn so when she won it (only to lose it shortly after) everyone felt that she had earned it. The same cannot be said of Bayley right now.
On Smackdown they gave us exactly the opposite and somehow still managed to get it wrong. Naomi recently won the title after eight years going all the way back to her time in FCW. However, they jumped the gun too early. Alexa Bliss has been by far the best female in the company since just before she won the title. Letting her walk into Wrestlemania only to lose the title to Naomi in her hometown would have been a great feel-good moment.
Having her pin Alexa 2–3 times, beat her in a title match and walk into Wrestlemania as champion is just backwards booking. If she loses at Wrestlemania, oh well, she already won the big one. If she wins, cool, she had the title anyway. Either way you don’t care as much. Mickie James returning was awesome, as I have been a huge fan of hers for years. Except she has not done anything worthwhile and lost her first big match. Now what does it matter what she does from here? She is not the champion and lost to her main competition, she is just there to take up time on your screen each week.
The divas division is as talented as it has ever been and it needs to be treated as such. The non-sensical booking for Bayley and Naomi has made it a lot harder to care about their successes (and failures) and that’s a shame because these are women people really do want to see succeed. It does not make as big of an impact when they do not go through the struggle to get there.
The single most important aspect of pro-wrestling has always been the story being told. If fans wanted straight-up brawling action they would watch something that isn’t scripted. When your storytelling isn’t up to par, what is the point of watching? The purpose of wrestling is to evoke as much emotion as possible and I think the WWE has a ways to go in that regard right now. Here is to hoping that Wrestlemania pulls off another surprises and ends up being the show of the year, it has its work cut it out for it.
*This article was written prior to the 02/21/17 episode of Smackdown Live
