WWE: The Five Worst Roads To WrestleMania
The Road to WrestleMania for many wrestling fans is one of the most exciting times of the year because of what is expected to take place at the biggest wrestling event of the year. The road to WrestleMania always starts at the Royal Rumble event because it is where WWE decides who will become the next championship contender. The month of February is usually throwing away Pay-Per-Views, but the introduction of the yearly Elimination Chamber made the Road to WrestleMania interesting because you never know if the champion will make it out with the championship.
Over the last couple of years, it seems like the writing during the Road to WrestleMania has taken a horrible turn downhill with WWE producing some of the worst shows it has ever made. The wrestlers always deliver, but the storylines that the wrestlers are in make the fans believe that WWE creative has no idea what to do with their talent. In this article, I will be discussing the five worst roads to WrestleMania.
5. WrestleMania 27
The WWE in 2011 was a lot different than it is now. The WWE still had the original NXT, which is nothing like what it has become today. This would be before WWE started signing former TNA and ROH stars and giving them the chance to shine. At this time, only CM punk had broken free and was on his way to delivering the legendary pipe bomb that Summer.
The Miz was the WWE champion during this Road to Mania, but the focus was on The Rock hosting Mania and him and Cena finally being in the ring facing off. The Rock returning to the WWE was the biggest story for WWE leading up to this WrestleMania that year. The WWE also had Triple H challenge The Undertaker streak and what ended up being a good match, but it felt like WWE was once again pushing the stars from the attitude era to get fans to watch the show.
4. WrestleMania 22
When it comes to the world of professional wrestling, it seems like nothing is off-limits, so it was no surprise that the WWE would use Eddie Guerrero’s death to push Rey Mysterio to win the Royal Rumble and title at WrestleMania 22. Rey Mysterio won the 2006 Royal Rumble match because Eddie Guerrero died in November of 2005. The storyline would have been an excellent heartfelt storyline if WWE would have just let it happened naturally.
The thing that makes this one of the worse roads to WrestleMania is because WWE wanted Randy Orton to talk bad about Eddie to Rey to give the storyline some heat, but the type of heat felt evil because of Randy telling Rey that Eddie was in H*ll. The whole thing felt wrong to be watching. While that was happening on Smackdown on the Raw show Triple H was getting a shot at John Cena and the WWE championship, and this match just felt like another chance to remind everyone that Triple H should be in the main event of WrestleMania.
3. WrestleMania 29
WrestleMania 29 felt more like a part two of WrestleMania 28 because of the fact that we got The Rock vs. Cena again. The WWE had turned the most popular wrestler in the world at that time, CM Punk, into a heel so that Cena had an opponent to face in the Summer. CM Punk was used to get the title so that The Rock and Cena could wrestle again.
This road to WrestleMania was very predictable because Rock won the title at the Royal Rumble, and on that same Pay-per-View, Cena would win the Royal Rumble earning a match against The Rock at Mania. This WrestleMania included another rematch from Triple H and Brock Lesnar, who wrestled at Summer slam in a decent match. This was a match that fans didn’t really care about because of the retirement agreement being added to the match. The fans knew that this was the match that the WWE was having so that Triple H could get even the score with Brock.
2. WrestleMania 32
For many people, WrestleMania 32 had the worst build in Mania history. When it comes to WrestleMania 32, it was the booking of the matches that made this one of the most disappointing WrestleMania’s of all time. Dean Ambrose and Brock Lesnar were involved in a rivalry that should have been better than what it was, but because of WWE booking, the fans were left wanting a lot more than what we were given.
The Undertaker and Shane McMahon match and the triple threat between Becky Lynch, Sasha, and Charlotte were good matches, but the booking leading to these matches was another disappointing situation that happened on the road to Mania.
1. WrestleMania 37
The 2021 build towards WrestleMania 37 has been the worst build to Mania ever because it is like the WWE writers aren’t even trying to come up with creative ideas. The Bobby Lashley vs. Drew McIntyre storyline could have been done so much better. Lashley is the WWE champion, but the storyline has been more focused on McIntyre vs. Sheamus. There’s no doubt in my mind that the two will deliver, but WWE could have taken the time to build a good storyline for these two great wrestlers.
When it comes to other stars such as AJ Styles and Randy Orton, they have been two of the most protected stars in the company, yet the storylines that they are involved in feel as they should be on a Disney kids show. When it comes to the entire women’s division on both brands, WWE has been using the same storylines for Raw, Smackdown, and NXT. WrestleMania 39 will be the first WWE event since Covid-19 happened to have fans in attendance; you would think that WWE would have put in more effort to make their biggest event feel special.