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Archive for February 21st, 2007

This year’s WrestleMania is quickly gearing up to be one of the most lackluster outings the WWE has seen since the days when Sid Viscious, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were headlining main events for Vince McMahon’s promotion. Unlike those days, it’s not that the WWE lacks star power these days; it’s a matter of uninspiring booking that would make even Donald Trump prefer a boat charter cruise to watching the annual four-hour pay per view event.

As things stand now, the top two titles are being booked like so: The Smackdown world title holder, Batista, will be facing off against the Undertaker, while the Raw title holder, John Cena, will be facing off against Shawn Michaels. It’s an example of WWE favoritism booking at its worst.

Batista has had an uninspiring second title run as champ and while he’s a younger, fresher face in the title mix, his opponent has been around for over 15 years and lacks any hint of freshness; the Undertaker’s schtick was old at least five years ago, and his vaunted “undefeated at WrestleMania” run isn’t a compelling enough storyline to really put butts in the seats anymore. I couldn’t care less than I do right now about the outcome.

Making matters worse is that Batista is over with the Smackdown crowd as a “face,” while ‘Taker will simply never be booed at this point in his career, no matter what he does. Far more interesting for the WWE title would be to add Smackdown’s two top heels into the mix for a Fatal Four-Way match for Smackdown’s world title. I’m speaking, of course, about Montel Vontavius Porter (MVP) and Mr. Kennedy. A four-way clash between Batista, Undertaker, MVP and Mr. Kennedy would be far more compelling.

Over on RAW, the same “face vs. face” dynamic holds solid. Shawn Michaels, like Taker, is a long-term vet who lacks freshness and is so established with the crowd he really won’t ever be meaningfully booed or hated, which means another match in which a face champion, John Cena, could be booed in favor of a veteran challenger who can’t get over as a heel anymore. A heel turn for Cena is a possibility, but would only hurt his star power at this point in his title reign.

Far better would have been to book Cena against a true monster heel, the physically impressive and imposing Great Khali, in a sort of Wrestlemania III flashback match to the classic Hogan-Andre match. This would allow for a lot of David vs. Goliath excitement, and if McMahon felt he owed Shawn Michaels a main event nod, he could serve as a “where do his loyalties lie” special referee to the match.

I could list the handful of other matches that, so far, seem ill-conceived, but what’s the point? If the two main event matches are already a bust, this year’s WrestleMania is destined to be, as well.