PWP Nation’s Eron Ramadanov explains why he’s having trouble with the current matches set to main event WrestleMania 32.
The stage is set. The WrestleMania 32 main event matches have been announced. If you’ve been living under a rock, here’s what you can expect come Dallas on April 3rd, where WWE is expecting to surpass their all-time attendance record that was set at WrestleMania 3, of over 93,000 people.
As decided at WWE Fastlane, Roman Reigns will challenge Triple H for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the main event. This story between Roman Reigns and Triple H/The Authority has been brewing since the back end of 2015, and it appears like we’re finally going to get some closure to this feud, whether fans like it or not. And when I say closure, I mean it appears like WWE is finally going to crown Reigns as their WWE World Champion and face of the company.
On the post-WWE Fastlane edition of Monday Night Raw, we saw the shocking return of Shane McMahon, as he is searching for power of WWE’s flagship show from his sister Stephanie McMahon and brother-in-law Triple H. In doing so, Vince McMahon gave Shane the option of getting a chance to have control over Raw, if he wins his match, which we now know is going to be against the Undertaker inside Hell in a Cell at WrestleMania 32.
And last, but not least, we’ll see a no holds barred street fight between Brock Lesnar and Dean Ambrose, which is definitely going to be an awesome match and story.
But the focus of this piece is the lack of transparency with the WWE Title match and the Hell in a Cell match. Now, some might call me a stickler; someone who is complaining about things that don’t really matter, but I don’t buy that. The little things ALWAYS matter. When you’re booking the your biggest show of the year, details matter, especially when it comes to your main event matches and when you’re trying to get new stars over as bigger stars.
Let’s start with the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match.
Roman Reigns has been through a crap ton of… well… crap. He’s been on a rollercoaster ride of fan emotions and questionable booking, through his time as the dubbed new face of the company. Since WrestleMania 31, Vince McMahon has been dead-set on giving us his dream, “pie-in-the-sky” moment where Roman Reigns stands tall, closing his biggest show of the year, holding onto the WWE Championship, as 70,000-100,000 fans cheer with glee. That hasn’t happened and probably never will.
Sure, the part about him standing tall as champion is probably a lock to happen, but the whole being cheered thing just isn’t going to happen. We saw this week on Monday Night Raw, Triple H beat the crap out of Roman Reigns and get overwhelmingly cheered by the fans in Detroit. Not only did he beatdown the former WWE Champion, but he did it clean. Hunter, who’s suppose to be portraying a heel, literally walked up, face-to-face with Roman Reigns and got the better of him, without have to cheat or resort to any heelish tactics.
So, in booking that segment, you’ve basically indirectly told your audience that Triple H is better than Roman Reigns because when it comes to a one-on-one fight, Triple H is superior. That’s not how it’s suppose to go; in actuality, Triple H should jump Reigns from behind or have assistance from his buddies, the League of Nations. Of course, unless this is exactly the message they wanted to send, this segment was poorly booked. Sure, the “blood” and beatdown was cool and everything, but again, no transparency. It didn’t make any sense.
The purpose of this feud is to get Roman over, right? Unless I’m missing something.
Triple H is already over. I understand that the heel (or whatever Triple H is playing) has to gain some heat so that the babyface (or whatever Reigns is playing) can comeback for the big pop, but this is a different animal. This formula isn’t going to work. We’ll talk about that later.
Let’s transition into the other big main event match that was shockingly announced this past week on Raw. Shane McMahon made a big return and will be facing the Undertaker. If Shane O’Mac can walk away with a victory, he will gain control of Monday Night Raw (oddly, he doesn’t want control of the entire company, but just Raw) away from Stephanie McMahon and Triple H.
Keep in mind, Shane McMahon, who’s an over-the-top babyface, who people will NEVER boo is going up against the Undertaker, who is also a babyface that people will likely never boo. Also, Shane has a chance to take control of the company away from a guy who is being cheered as the WWE Champion, and not-to-mention loved by hardcore fans for creating and booking NXT. How is that exactly suppose to work? So in one match, Triple H is being cheered and people are rooting for him, but in another match, people are cheering for Shane McMahon, which means people will be rooting against Triple H.
No unity, no cohesion and no transparency.
I’ve talked before about the multiple personalities of Triple H. The people that know me, know that I like Triple H a lot. He’s my favorite wrestler of all time and he’s had a big impact in my life when I was getting into professional wrestling in the early 2000s. He’s my Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair or Hulk Hogan. But, I like to think I’m able to stay objective when it comes to the guy and in this situation where you have these three different personas of Hunter, it just isn’t good for business and for the overall product.
You have executive Triple H, who is the heel authority figure on Raw and SmackDown. You then have badass, leather jacket, blue jeans, taped hands, asskicker Triple H, who is usually portrayed as a babyface and then you have NXT booker and showrunner Triple H, who is adored for the wonderful developmental product he gives us.
Is anyone else’s head spinning?
So, WWE is asking their audience, who’s mostly made up of casual viewers, to be able to tell when we’re seeing which Triple H. How are they suppose to do that? Based on how he’s dressed? And how are the characters that he’s facing suppose to act? It’s just an utter mess.
And this isn’t the first time we’ve seen WWE completely disregard details and move forward with stories that don’t make logical sense. As much as I love the idea of Shane McMahon back in WWE and it was a really cool moment to see him back in the company, the Shane O’Mac vs. Undertaker match doesn’t make any sense; there’s no transparency or logical reason why it should happen. What loyalty does Undertaker really have to Vince, unless they decide to break Undertaker’s character, which they rarely ever do.
As for Triple H and Roman Reigns, WWE is hellbent on giving us this match. Don’t get me wrong, I think Triple H and Roman Reigns can have a really good match and it’ll probably surprise people on how good it will be, but it’s obvious and clear that people would rather see someone like Dean Ambrose in that spot over Roman Reigns.
For the last two years, WWE listened to the fans and changed their plans to what they (we) wanted. In 2014, instead of giving Batista his moment as WWE Champion ending the 30th anniversary of WrestleMania, they (Vince) swallowed their (his) pride and gave us what we wanted. Last year, instead of going ahead with a crowing of Roman Reigns as WWE Champion, WWE decided to have Seth Rollins cash-in his ‘Money in the Bank’ contract and win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, to a thunderous Levi’s Stadium.
What do both of those WrestleMania endings have in common? They were great and amazing moments. They worked. They pleased a vast majority of WWE’s fan base, hardcore fans or not. So with the proof in the pudding, why insist on something that will make almost no one happy?
“Eron, what does this part have to do with WWE’s lack of transparency and cohesion?”
This is the root cause of the chain effect.
If WWE would cast someone like Dean Ambrose in the role of Roman Reigns, we’d have a much more sound and logical WrestleMania 32 card. With Dean Ambrose in the role against Triple H, a vast majority of the fan base would be cheering and rooting for the Lunatic Fringe going into WrestleMania, which would then make the overall story of WrestleMania more logical.
In both marquee matches at WrestleMania, you’ll have the heel authority figure and the heel WWE Champion being rooted against, which will in result make for a more transparent and cohesive story for probably the biggest show in the company’s history.
But, someone might try to play devil’s advocate and say, “why should WWE change their plans just because a handful of fans don’t want to see something?”
Firstly, it’s not just a handful. Plus, I hate that excuse. They should listen to the hardcore fans because we’re always here. The casuals will come and go, but we’re the ones that are the backbone to WWE’s success. The hardcore fans are the ones buying the merchandise, subscribing to the WWE Network and buying thousand dollar travel packages to see WrestleMania.
So, yeah, when things don’t go as planned, the ones that are die-hards should have the right to complain and bitch about not liking something and wanting to see something else. And if those people feel so strongly about it that they’ll intentionally crap on what WWE plans instead, that’s perfectly okay with me.
Here’s the underlying point of this whole piece. When you have a product that so blatantly defies logical and understanding, it’s hard to stay and be invested. When you have a product that ignores glaring creative and production issues, it’s hard to stay and be invested. When you have showrunners who do what they want even though there’s a better option, it’s hard to stay and be invested. When you have a show that goes out of its way to disregard details that are vital to the storytelling process, it’s really hard to care.
I’m finding myself growing less and less patient and more and more angry, and I feel like I speak for a good amount of fans when I say that. But eventually that anger turns into sadness and that sadness turns in carelessness.
Hopefully, I don’t stop caring, because it seems like WWE has.
Thanks for reading, everyone. Please leave any comments or questions below. Also, you can follow me on Twitter @Eron_PWP or follow us on Twitter @PWPNation.
Please tune into Eron Ramadanov’s radio show on the PWP Nation Radio Network called, “Wrestling Rope Break,” where he talks about all the latest happenings in the world of professional wrestling.
