What is Wrestlemania missing?

[Greer]

This is how you build a match in general, but it's definiely the way you build a Wrestlemania main event. The promo was so simple and to the point. You didn't need flashy graphics or super slow motion replays of a chair shot over and over again. This guy wants the belt really bad....the other guy wants to keep it really bad. They are two of the best in the sport and are going to prove who the better man is. Simple yet effective. Nobody is breaking into anyone's house or chasing someone down the street with a large hammer.

And after watching numerous past Wrestlemanias...something is missing. A lot is missing actually.

Wrestlemania featured high profile matches with wrestlers that you almost never saw compete against eachother. How many times had Bret and HBK wrestled at that point on television? Twice maybe. Nowadays we have big time main events every week on Raw and Smackdown. Why should I order WM to see (for example) Cena vs Edge when I have seen it 50 times in the last year. Big time matches are becoming too common to the point where WM isn't a big deal.

Where is the WM theme song? You heard that theme and instantly thought Wrestlemania. Now they get all these bands to cover the show. The them was special because you could associate it with the event. It had it's own theme unlike every other event. If I think back to WM 19 or 20 I don't remember what theme went with it...nor do I care.

You also need real heel announcers. Heel announcers help build the main events and under card because there is another opinion on the match and it creates a debate between the announcers, which adds to the story of the match.

I know I am missing more but this is all I have off the top of my head after watching this video. Any other things Wrestlemania needs to go back to...or just needs to add in general to make it feel special and not feel like Judgement Day with a fancy entrance and a music performance?

[Tea & Crumpets]

I remember WMXX's theme cause it was kickass, but I totally get your point. Theme songs that are indefinably associated to an event can immensely help it.

I associate Summerslam with the Summerslam 02 theme (Fight, I believe it was called. Used in all the HHH/HBK hype promos for the PPV), Armageddon with that The End Is Here song, etc., but I think Mania would benefit from a truely memorable theme for each year's event.

[Paul E. Funk]

I love that promo vid, then again any package that featured Dreamchild has me won over.



Awesome music.

[noleafclover1980]

Well, doesn't help with having PPVs every month, sometimes twice a month. Angles used to build for an entire year and blow off at WM. Now feuds last 2 months or so.

[BRV]

The closest that they've come to equaling what you've discussed was the build for Cena vs. Michaels at WrestleMania 23.

Nobody was sneak attacking anyone, nobody was busting down doors or running people over with cars or pushing people off of roofs. It was as plain and simple as it got: Cena had the belt, Michaels wanted the belt. That was it. Yes, there was the added touch of the two being Tag Team champions, but that wasn't what the story was built around.

[Young Game]

Even though this only happened twice to my knowledge, I always liked when the WWE would bring a wrestler/tag team in from outside the company for Wrestlemania.

Examples:
Demolition vs. Tenryu & Kitao (WM VII)
Taka Michinokou vs. Aguila (WM XIV)

I wish they would do this again.

[Lair of the Shadow MaDaBa]

[MichaelMartini]

Totally agree. They need to start focusing on the sports aspect and dial down the entertainment aspect, if you catch my drift. They used to make it seem like a legitimate sport. Wrestlemania 1 looked like a boxing event. You didn't need some convoluted story to build heat, you just had to stress the importance of the match and the event.

Fresh match ups need to happen too. That's the thing that's hurting the WWE the most. Like this year, we`ll probably get a HHH vs HBK or Cena vs Batista AGAIN.

[segaz]

The Bret/Shawn thing was good because in the 2 years before WM12, or the month before WM12 they basically had ZERO contact with each other. But the feud seemed to me built up from time.

First time I noticed anything between Bret/Shawn was in one of their ladder matches for the IC title. Good solid match. Early 92 I believe.

Then during the Model Rick Martel vs Bret match, the Model has Bret in the boston crab. Shawn comes down and attacks Bret causing a DQ. I believe this sets off the Shawn/Martel feud for WM8.

Survivor Series 1992, Bret vs Shawn, WWF title match. Everyone forgets this one. Shawn taps to the Sharpshooter. I was so sure it'd be another DQ finish.

Survivor Series 93: Shawn and the Knights take on the Hart Family. I know Shawn replaced Lawler, but still.....

Rumble 94. Last four men in include Bret and Shawn. Bret eliminates Shawn.

KOTR 94. Diesel vs Bret for the WWF title. Shawn intereferes, but 'accidently' superkicks Diesel. Bret retains.

Rumble 1995. Shawn wins the Rumble of course, but he also gets pretty involved in the Bret/Diesel WWF title match. He and about 5 others constantly interefere causing a DQ finish. Shawn nails both Bret and Diesel.

Then.....ZERO contact until....after IYH...uh Feb 96 where Bret retains the WWF title to face Shawn at WM 12. By this time Shawn has won Rumble 96 and become as big a star as Bret. He's credible main event material. (You can argue he was this in 95, but kayfabe wise, he couldn't even beat Kama at KOTR 95, so) They have a few segments together....I think including a 'match signing' and a Shawn/Diesel vs Bret/Undertaker tag match. Diesel goes nuts and knocks everyone out with a chair.

WM12. Bret vs Shawn WWF title match. Quite good actually. Bret wrestles Shawn to a draw. Kayfabe speaking, this means Shawn wasn't able to defeat Bret for the title, so....technically....Bret is the winner. Even Jerry Lawler gives him credit.
But then Monsoon restarts the match, Shawn hits Sweet Chin Music, and FINALLY, finally defeats his rival Bret the Hitman Hart.




So you see, all this made the WWF title match between Bret and Shawn all that special. It told a story. A really great one tbh. This made Shawns win all that special. Sure, it took over 4 years, but that only added to it.

After WM12, well things take a different turn. I'm sure you all know the rest. They get kinda complicated.


Sid becomes the first man to beat Bret and Shawn (in one year?), peoples smiles get lost, people get superkicked out of wheelchairs, the Texas Rattlesnake strikes and Degenerates are born.


Perhaps Bret gains the upper hand for about a month by forcing Shawn to count the pin on Undertaker after he spits in Shawns face, thereby becoming WWF Champ again, but DX humiliate Owen, Bulldog(Bulldog shoulda won imo), Neidhart, Bret and even Canada itself that the scales zoom right up in Shawns favour.

After both getting double chokeslammed by Taker, they face each other at S/Series and the scales break forever.


Kayfabe/shoot wise, Shawn (and a few others) destroy the feud. with the Montreal Screwjob. (Strictly kayfabe speaking here, based on the match alone, Bret would have won. He basically beats Shawn all around the arena.)


Shawn then takes a hammer to the scales with the midget Bret segment a few weeks later, I suppose cementing his win of the feud in stone. Basically Shawn gets the midget in the sharphooter, in a parody of SS 96 while HHH asks the midget questions like "Who's the icon Bret, who's the icon?" Of course the midget replies "SHAWN MICHEALS!" Did I mention the midget was dressed like Bret? Shawn slaps a WCW sticker on the midgets ass.

Then DX starts with the Owen-nugget thing, but that's another story.


If I've missed anything out feel free to add. I'm not even sure just HOW Shawn got the title match against Bret in 92, and I know the Rockers/Hart Foundation faced each other.....

IMO, up till WM12, the feud was great. Everything a feud should be. It should end at WM12 tbh.

[Soultastic]

I agree they should bring the WM theme song back, but if they use other music as well I wouldn't mind.

Also, what would you guys think if each WM had a different version of the WM theme? (like the victory music from the Final Fantasy games)

[Magician under the moonlight]

Sept 28, 2009 19:07:38 GMT -5 Lair of the Shadow MaDaBa said:

I approve.

[Krimzon]

Matches that are actually important and that we haven't seen 100 times already.

[Paul E. Funk]

Sept 28, 2009 20:32:46 GMT -5 Soultastic said:

I agree they should bring the WM theme song back, but if they use other music as well I wouldn't mind.

Also, what would you guys think if each WM had a different version of the WM theme? (like the victory music from the Final Fantasy games)

I'd love to hear that done on a banjo. But I'd prefer this:

[willywonka666]

They seem too desperate to try and convince fans that they're watching something great. I don't buy into it now. hopefully one day they'll surprise me again.

[MolotovMocktail]

Used to be, WWF would hit the ground running the night after the Royal Rumble. We already had the title match going from whoever won that, and feuds would have 2-3 months to be built up. Instead, the build is to No Way Out instead, and from there to Wrestlemania. While I do like the idea of using the Elimination Chamber to decide the title matches for the other two brands, feuds are shoved into a deep fryer instead of being slow-cooked to perfection.

Also, there are far fewer matches. Only between 7-9 today, while in the old days, we would get between 12-14. There were fillers that today would just be given away on TV, but for that exact reason, they were fresh back then, and even if there was no angle supporting it, it was a novel feud that if anything provided filler for the fans to digest between the big matches of the night. The lack of jobber squashes made the weekly TV shows more interesting, but, with the brand split in particular, has gone through nearly every possible combination and leaves nothing for ppv's.

If anyone didn't feel like reading two big paragraphs, my answers are: more matches and more time to hype them.

[dh03grad]

Even with WWE has 3 PPV blocks of running the same matches, they still have run through pretty much every Mania suitable fresh matchups.

[Deleted]

What is WrestleMania missing?

Yokozuna. Statistics show that 100% of WrestleManias with Yokozuna have Yokozuna, so the conclusion is clear - dig up his corpse every year around Mania, and set it at ringside. You'll be guaranteed to have Yokozuna.

[Deleted]

Sept 28, 2009 22:43:37 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

What is WrestleMania missing?

Yokozuna. Statistics show that 100% of WrestleManias with Yokozuna have Yokozuna, so the conclusion is clear - dig up his corpse every year around Mania, and set it at ringside. You'll be guaranteed to have Yokozuna.

This man has the right idea

[Krimzon]

Sept 28, 2009 20:41:09 GMT -5 willywonka666 said:

They seem too desperate to try and convince fans that they're watching something great. I don't buy into it now. hopefully one day they'll surprise me again.

Yeah. Back in the day, they just let the magic happen. Now, they shove it down our throats.

A lot of the matches really lack that personal element. Flair/Savage is still my favorite WM match ever and that was all due to the story behind it.

[nm]

WWE.com Poll: March 2010

What do you think Wrestlemania should be re-named?
WWE Money In The Bank
WWE I'm Gonna Kick Your Butt
WWE Street Fight
WWE No Holds Barred