Determining WrestleMania Main Event Too Early Doesn’t Work

It’s never too early to start thinking about WrestleMania in the WWE and with 2017 winding down, the buildup to WrestleMania 34 will begin ratcheting up.

WrestleMania is better than four months away and while fans often fantasize about what they want the WrestleMania card to look like, sometimes the WWE has totally different ideas.  And the same can be said for the apparent main event the company wants to build towards for WrestleMania 34.

Rumor mills have called for a Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns main event for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 34 for a few months.  With Lesnar’s sparse appearances leading into WrestleMania, he will all but certainly carry the strap into the granddaddy of them all.

And although Reigns is the current Intercontinental Champion and back with The Shield, a lot can change for his WrestleMania plans and The Big Dog seems like the guy who will square off with The Beast Incarnate.  But is this the right move?  That is the question at hand.

Many don’t want to see another Lesnar vs. Reigns main event at WrestleMania given how the duo main evented WrestleMania 31 better than two years ago.  The match itself was very good, but often times duplicating the same WrestleMania main event twice doesn’t work.

Just look at a recent example of this between The Rock and John Cena.  The icons had “Once in a Lifetime” battle at WrestleMania 28 that didn’t exactly turn out to be once in a lifetime. The two main evented WrestleMania 29 as well, receiving far less praise for the second battle.

WrestleMania is supposed to be a fresh show every year with the most stacked card of the year.  And while Lesnar vs. Reigns can work at nearly every pay-per-view, its odds of working twice in the main event of WrestleMania are slimmer than putting together a fresh Universal Championship match.

Simply put, determining the WrestleMania main event months in advance is an injustice to what the industry of sports entertainment is all about.  Of course this technique has worked in the past, but it has also failed many times as well.  Pro wrestling is all about going with the hot hand and listening to what the crowd wants.

But predetermining the main event of the biggest show of the year doesn’t always give the fans what they want.  Two recent examples of this are quite glaring.  Just look back at the original plans of WrestleMania 30.  Batista’s return and Royal Rumble match win in 2014 was very negatively responded to by the WWE universe.

The original main event of WrestleMania 30 was expected to be Batista vs. Randy Orton, but in 2014, it’s just not a match anybody will buy into as the WrestleMania main event.  Maybe in 2006, but not 2014 when another superstar was developing into the hottest superstar in the WWE.

Daniel Bryan’s “Yes Movement” took the WWE by storm in early 2014, so much to the point where Bryan was included into the WrestleMania 30 main event alongside Batista and Orton.  Batista’s return went so badly as a babyface that the company had no choice but to turn him heel leading into WrestleMania 30.

And what happened?  One of the greatest moments in WrestleMania history when Bryan got the win for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.  It was all possible because the company wised up and listened to the fans rather than sticking with its original, outdated plan of Batista vs. Orton.  But unfortunately, this didn’t happen two years later.

The WrestleMania 32 main event was one of the most disliked main events in WrestleMania history pitting WWE World Heavyweight Champion Triple H against Roman Reigns.  The writing was on the wall for this match months in advance and despite the lack of interest in this match main eventing the biggest show of the year, the WWE stubbornly stuck with it.

Reigns predictably won the championship that night, much to the dismay of a wide portion of the WWE universe.  The company could have gone in any different direction for the WrestleMania 32 main event, but it stuck with the original plan that the WWE universe vocally shot down.  And to make things worse, the match itself was very average for a main event of WrestleMania.

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Stubbornly sticking with a main event fans want no part of is bad business, especially at WrestleMania.  And unfortunately, it looks like the WWE is headed down that same path with the WrestleMania 34 main event.  A lot can change in over four months, but with how the WWE views Reigns, it seems all but certain he will challenge and defeat Lesnar for the Universal Championship.

Maybe the match will turn out great, who knows.  But a lot of fans want no part of it already and aren’t willing to give it a chance.  Especially given how the exact same match happened at WrestleMania 31.  This might be another example of the WWE needing to listen to the fans and changing their predetermined WrestleMania main event.

The Beast Incarnate will be the Universal Champion at WrestleMania 34, there’s no denying that.  But there are many different options the company could go in his opponent.  The WWE could even keep Reigns in the main event, but add another superstar like a Braun Strowman or a Samoa Joe or a Finn Balor in the mix.

Next: WrestleMania 34 Match Card Predictions After Survivor Series

Vince McMahon has been criticized for his stubbornness in the past, and that criticism will only intensify with the WWE universe if Lesnar vs. Reigns main events yet another WrestleMania.