WWE: Long Term Booking Is Hurting WrestleMania Season
By Josh Raibick
Another WrestleMania season is upon the WWE Universe, and yet a bit of the excitement is lost due to the fact that the marquee matches appear to be predictable. This begs the question, is WWE making a major mistake by booking most of their big WrestleMania matches months to a year ahead of time?
The rumors of Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns at WWE WrestleMania 34 have been circulating for the better part of a year, and it has felt inevitable for at least the past few months. A major issue with the match is that it has not only already been seen before at WrestleMania, but both superstars have the same character traits that they had a few years ago.
For whatever reason the decision to go forward with this match was made in the first half of 2017. Vince McMahon once famously referenced before WWE (then WWF) Survivor Series 2001 that he was not a gambler, but one who took “calculated risks”.
Booking a match almost a year ahead of time without an idea of what the reactions will be for certain superstars, and without the knowledge of who could have the most momentum entering WrestleMania season does not seem like a calculated move. It is a guess based on personal bias.
While there is not a recording of McMahon admitting to his Reigns’ bias it is pretty clear when reviewing the facts. Reigns is on pace to headline his fourth straight WrestleMania and the third in four years as the babyface 265 pound, Division 1 standout, third generation underdog.
Reigns is the heavy favorite this Sunday at WWE Elimination Chamber 2018, but is not the best fit to go on to face Lesnar at WrestleMania. Two names that should be ahead of the rest of the pack are Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman.
Strowman has steadily gotten more and more over in the past year, and a feud with Lesnar seems due for a final chapter. Whereas Rollins put on what might have been the greatest wrestling performance in the history of Raw this past week, when The King Slayer lasted over an hour in the seven man gauntlet match.
Both Strowman and Rollins at this moment are the most “over” babyfaces on Raw, and neither have the big event resume of Reigns. Why not take either Strowman or Rollins and elevate them as a more credible main event star?
That said, making credible main event stars has been an issue for WWE for the past several years, because long term booking eliminates any chance of the hot hand working their way into a major spot of WrestleMania. Another recent example of this was Dean Ambrose in the build to WrestleMania 32, and how that not only affected The Lunatic Fringe but also the main event.
The first inkling of doubt that Reigns vs. Triple H might not have been the correct route was at the end of the 2016 Royal Rumble match. Fans cheered as babyface Reigns was eliminated by corporate heel Triple H, yet immediately after fans started cheering for Ambrose.
In that moment there it became clear that the fans chose Ambrose to be their “knight in shining armor”. Even after WWE Fastlane 2016 where Reigns earned the #1 contender spot for the WWE Championship fans were still cheering on Ambrose.
So much so in fact that a WWE Network event named WWE Roadblock would see Ambrose get another chance at Triple H and the WWE Championship. This was it. This was WWE’s opportunity to right every wrong that was committed in the booking during the 2016 WrestleMania season.
Unfortunately, WWE stuck with the previous plans having The Lunatic Fringe lose and kept Ambrose with Lesnar and Triple H with Reigns. Instead of an easy to book fatal 4-way, both matches suffered where the others succeeded.
Ambrose vs. Lesnar had the WWE Universe’s interest, but the match fell flat due to the little bit of time that was allotted. Whereas Triple H vs. Reigns had the proper time allotted, but did not have the fans’ interest due to the predictability of the match.
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Whether it is an example of this year or two years ago, WrestleMania is the biggest show of the year. Fans deserve to get the marquee matches that they want to see, but how can WWE predict which matches we want to see a year ahead of time when our opinion is like a stock? Always changing.