Credit: WWE.com
WrestleMania XXVI was the last one that didn't prostitute old men and part timers to fill the card. Sure, Bret Hart and Vince McMahon had a horrible match you likely didn't remember happened. My bad. Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels literally had a year of build where they were full time wrestlers on the roster. Batista and John Cena were the two biggest stars in the company clashing in a mega match. Randy Orton beat Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. Edge won the Rumble but lost a grudge match to his former tag partner Chris Jericho. Now, WWE thinks it's a better idea to have Edge knocking on 50 winning the Rumble and getting a championship match than to believe in any of its barely younger talent. I say barely, because if you really think about it, most of the guys in WWE now, from NXT to Raw and SmackDown, everyone is mid thirties or in their 40s. WWE doesn't do that thing where they sign someone in their early 20s and push them to the moon and lets the company grow with them 10 years down the line. A year later, WWE pissed John Morrison off by giving a spot at Mania to Snooki. I wonder if he's mad to be in a match with Bad Bunny this year. Some things never change! WWE needs to change their trend of using their biggest show of the year to prove that none of the stars that fill the television time on a weekly basis are not actually stars.
I'm not writing this to say that Dominik Mysterio needs to be undefeated and winning every belt available in his first year. I'm saying that the wrestlers Vince has major plans for tend to storm out of the gates like an Undertaker or Brock Lesnar. Those are generational talents and not everyone deserves that level of push. Not every wrestling fan is as smart as me, I mean that in terms of raw intellect and understanding of the wrestling business. Not everyone has a sense of history. Sure, Kurt Angle and The Rock were world champions almost immediately. Stone Cold Steve Austin and Chris Jericho had to work much longer and harder to sniff top gold. If you could choose, you would likely want to be the guy who debuts on Raw by winning the world championship. The fans tend to turn on that guy. Fans didn't care that John Cena was a nobody until he started rapping on television and it took him years to become the Super Cena LOL CENA WINS meme star we know now. It FELT like one day he was the cool wrestler throwing nuts at people and overnight he was beating all the wrestlers people like in main events. Roman Reigns didn't go on NXT before it was the name for developmental and lose every match and get fired for choking Justin Roberts with his own tie. He got no character arc or development whatsoever before all of sudden there he was in main event matches consistently. You can NOT rush a star. Hi Jinder Mahal.
I recently watched that b crew house show WWE aired where they had some of their top names work with Indian developmental talent, and I almost forgot Jinder Mahal was forced down our throats as a main eventer and no one got mad. Not no one, because I was mad, but as a Roman Reigns fan... it was weird to watch people be ok with a literal jabroni get no build or character development just POOF world champion. Roman Reigns had over a year beating up all the main event talent in WWE in The Shield then he was unbeaten until right before he was supposed to beat Brock for the belt. Nope. Not ok. You don't push a pushed talent, Vince. Give us random jobbers though. Because, this dovetails perfectly with the point I was making earlier:the part of us that naturally sides with the underdog appreciates seeing a guy like Kofi Kingston win the belt. Not me, I still wouldn't have done that. But, other people for whom the words "a draw" and "main event level" mean nothing. WWE made the mistake of working themselves into a shoot. Daniel Bryan. Literally. Won. Every. Belt. between the years 2011 and 2015 and told fans on TV he was a B+ player at best and could never be the face of the company because he is not very attractive AND THOSE THINGS ARE NOT ACTUALLY LIES. Wrestling is a weird place where if you say something enough and present something a certain way, somebody might get worked into believing it, so even though Daniel Bryan is one of very few men to ever beat Super Cena LOL CENA WINS clean in the middle in the main event of a pay per view, even though Daniel Bryan is a grand slam champion, even though Daniel Bryan had literally beaten Evolution in two matches at Mania including the main event... nope. Fans believe that in real life THEY forced Vince to do those things. Nah fam. Vince worked you. He made you think he didn't want it so it made you want it more. See how they told the story of Daniel Bryan versus Kofi Kingston. Listen to those promos where they're saying the same things about Kofi they once said about Daniel Bryan, who was going into HIS THIRD WRESTLEMANIA AS EITHER THE CHAMPION OR CONTENDING FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP.
I remember shaking my head at how fans were so mad that Vince kept screwing Kofi out of the match at Mania and folk were crying racism and they were gonna quit watching. THESE WERE SMART FANS BRO. Getting WORKED. These things are how I know fans still want to believe in the year of our Lord 2021.WWE doesn't need to keep taking the bubble wrap off Goldberg and Brock Lesnar, they just need to present a realistic, believable scenario that fans can sink their teeth into. DASSIT. We didn't believe Steve Austin was The Ringmaster but dammit we believed that he was crazy enough to run in a man's house that had the pistol loaded and ready for bear. I think fans could actually like the Roman Reigns that comes off as arrogant saying he is the head of all our tables and our tribal chief... unless WWE decided it would be better if he talked about Looney Tunes and comic books instead. I heard somewhere that it takes about 8 years of someone being on tv for them to become a star in wrestling. Few wrestlers are even getting 8 years in the same promotion. It's crazy when you think about it. R Truth has been in WWE forever. He was there, left and went to TNA and came back and has been there 5ever. Not everyone can have a prolonged run like him. Some guys are lucky to get 2 or 3 years. WWE needs to stop pushing old men and give its talent a chance to be the stars that bridge to the next generation.
In time I guess?