It’s sad. They have no real plans but to call up part time guys and try to crown Roman as the top guy each year so they throw random shyt together for the other 3-4 hours of the show including the pre show. There’s no long term payoff for anything they do at the show anymore. Let’s look at the last few years to see how that changed.
12-20 years ago, you could look 2-5 years into the future and see how big angles and matches were used to build stars at the event, but that seemingly stopped in maybe 2009 when the only undercard match that seemed relevant was the dud of a feud between the Hardy’s and the headlining matches were 44 year old taker vs 44 year old HBK (not knocking the match), alleged face Cena blackmailing his way into the title match to go over edge and big show, and the dud of a feud between Randy Orton and triple h. The only saving grace was that punk winning money in the bank set up his heel turn and first main event run later in the year.
In 2010, I don’t recall any secondary titles at stake at all and the top title matches featured a guy leaving a few months later against a guy who was a failure as a top face, a guy who was gone a few months later against a guy who’d retire a year later, and then the retiring HBK against done as a full time wrestler Undertaker. Money in the bank was wasted on jack swagger
. Rey vs punk was given 7 minutes while Bret vs Vince took what felt like 20-25 minutes
. Cena and Batista dragged on afterwards and punk vs Rey did too when this should’ve been the blow off for both feuds instead of the starting point. Edge quickly turned heel after the show which made his feud with Jericho feel like a waste since he had just come back too. I don’t recall how Cena eventually lost the title he won at this show but I assume he lost it to Orton before he buried the nexus.
2011 was bad too. Once again part time 46 year old Undertaker was in the best match, this time against 42 year old part time triple h. Punk was in a pointless feud with Randy, the big gold belt was on the line in the curtain jerker. ADR was a flop all around and edge retired after the match. Bryan got bumped off the card entirely. Christian was way over and I don’t recall him on the card at all. The awful Lawler vs Michael Cole match took forever. The main event was trash. Miz was a terrible flop as a top heel and Cena still couldn’t get the crowd definitively in his corner for this feud. The match sucked and was used to set up rock vs Cena a full year later. Nothing big really came of Cody Rhodes vs Rey, punk drifted aimlessly until money in the bank, and Miz got demoted badly after this.
2012 had a good card if I recall right, even if the match order was all wrong. Bryan jerked the curtain and got screwed seemingly in an attempt to bury him, but it backfired fortunately. Taker and triple h had a great match that really should’ve been the end for taker. Can’t recall much about the big show and Cody Rhodes feud. Rock and Cena had a good match and it was worth building up, but it shouldn’t have headlined. Punk clearly should’ve been the top guy going forward and he had a good match with Chris Jericho. More or less they seemingly decided any plans go on hold so they can build for twice in a lifetime starting the following night. Long term it felt like the only good to come from this show was the beginning of the crowd getting fully behind Bryan. Of the top 3 matches, only two guys were full time wrestlers and only one guy was getting the desired reaction.
2013 was a flop. The IC title match got dropped to the pre show and changed hands there and went right back the following night. The shield should’ve faced a group of guys who were over. Instead they faced Randy, big show, and Sheamus. Waste of a match that did nothing for the new guys. Ziggler and big e challenging for the tag titles was decent filler before his cash in. Jericho being there was wasted on fandango. Nothing ever came of that. Mark Henry vs Ryback sucked and the fact that they had him lose seemingly his first 8-10 pay per view matches ruined him out the gate. The WHC match was a total waste since jack swagger sucked and so did del rio. One was gone a year later and the other was an afterthought in a tag match that wasn’t even on the main card. Triple h vs Brock was a dud and no real narrative changes came from it for either guy. Once again what should’ve been a blow off match had a rematch a month later. Punk vs taker was a great match, but taker left for a year after, and punk was gone for a few months. Nothing about this angle led to any sort of changes for ether guy. Twice in a lifetime sucked and Cena either closing the show or competing for a heavyweight title for the 9th year in a row was beyond tiresome. Him going over was little more than a “lolcenawins” way to close the show. Once again, of the top 3 matches on the card, punk and Cena are the only two guys who wrestle full time and punk is the only one getting the desired reaction. No real plans for punk or Bryan after this show. The shield won all their gold a month later though so I guess they were being built.
Let’s look at 2014. Let’s start with the battle royale. Cesaro wins and should have a big face run afterwards working his way up the card. Instead they keep him heel, pair him with Heyman, have Heyman talk about someone else nonstop, and then have Cesaro lose nonstop too. That’s called burying someone when they clearly had a budding star. Wyatt vs Cena becomes a waste since Cena goes over clean all feud long, as super Cena spends the spring and some of the summer burying a bright star in his first year on the roster instead of the sensible choice being Wyatt wins and moves on to something else working his way up the card after this match. Taker losing was a terrible choice and killed the crowd so much you could notice it all the rest of the night. It did nothing for Brock and ended a legit draw for the show every year. All the stuff with Bryan worked great. Can’t say if they had a long term plan since injuries derailed him. The big matches of this card were Bryan vs triple h (part timer), Cena (still a failed baby face) vs Wyatt, taker (part time) vs Brock (part time), and the triple threat with Bryan, Randy, and Batista (left the company 2 months later). Of the four biggest matches which saw eight total guys competing, Bryan and Wyatt were the only full time guys getting both a strong reaction and the desired one.
2015 will be shorter. The battle royale is now officially an afterthought on the pre show. Big show wins and does nothing with it. Miz vs sandow fizzles out. Not sure they had any plans for the guys in the IC title match since they just threw them together in a ladder match opener and Bryan was forced into retirement shortly after. This was the start of them burying Rusev. No other way to describe the same guy beating him 3 months straight including in an I quit match. His program with Ziggler later that summer was apparently written by Vince with the hopes of it inspiring Lana to dump him in real life since Vince felt she looked too good for him. Wyatt vs taker once again did nothing for Wyatt. The show closed out well with the cash in, but Roman showed no change in a dull character and Rollins went from his own man to basically having a JBL title run until his knee blew up in the fall. Once again with triple h vs sting we get an old part timer vs old part timer feud too.
2016 sucked and they basically had to rewrite the whole show on the fly due to injury. AJ should’ve gone out later than he did, New day being in a tag match with the titles not at stake was stupid and a bigger waste since some of their opponents were leaving the company if I recall right. Even dumber was them all eating stone cold stunners after the match. Brock vs Dean sucked and nothing really came of it. Shane vs taker sucked and was a waste since Shane got the stipulation he wanted that he was supposed to get only if he won the match. Rock and Cena buried the Wyatt family again, but this time it wasn’t in a match. Roman vs triple h sucked. Boring match that nobody was excited for since everyone knew the result. The guys in the back shut off the crowd microphones after the match so the tv crowd wouldn’t hear how loud the boos got Roman were. League of Nations ended, Roman stayed the same boring guy he is today, Brock went to train to fight mark hunt, Shane became general manager, triple h vanished until the fall, and taker vanished until the royal rumble. Of the 3 biggest matches on the card, four of the guys involved were part timers and Ambrose was the only full time guy getting the desired reaction. This event won the
www.wrestlecrap.com gooker award for worst match/show/angle of the year.
Basically this shows that Wrestlemania sucks because they use it to prop up either Roman or Cena and then just ask 45 year old part time guys to round out the rest of the card, sometimes sweeping guys like Owens and AJ to the first hour of the show when they’d headlined all year long beforehand as the top guy. They also seem to use it as a means to bury up and coming guys like Rusev or Wyatt. I didn’t ask for work off in 2015 to see the show, was scheduled to work the night of the show in 2016 and wouldn’t have minded working if I didn’t get sick, and just flat out didn’t watch this year. Long term I’m worried for the future of the company looking at what the card at their biggest show every year looks like with all the part time guys.
was still playing for the eagles and Stan Van Gundy was coaching the heat. There’s part time Brock. There’s disastrous failure as a top face Roman who gets go away heat. Then there’s terrible flop as a top guy Jinder. AJ isn’t even on the poster and neither is KO. Yet another show headlined by old part timers and guys who aren’t over as their current alignment 
