What exactly happened with the Mania build this year?

[Deleted]

The show's taking place later than it usually does and yet somehow nearly every match on the card just feels rushed together and random. The only real things with any notable build behind them are Orton / Fiend, Miz / Bad Bunny, and to an extent the triple threat, and even that's mostly due to Roman and Edge both having established issues with Bryan while not really having anything notable beyond slight friction between the two of them.

I get the Lacey pregnancy, Asuka concussion, and Charlotte COVID really kneecapped the Raw Women's title but I'm just wondering how WWE let time get away from them so much on, say, Lashley / McIntyre for instance. One of the most built-up matches on the show is Shane / Braun and that storyline's just, "One day Shane decided it was a good idea to call Braun stupid, has kept doing it for a few weeks now."

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

They also had to fill out Fastlane because it happened so close to Mania, so a lot of matches couldn't be finalized until three weeks before Mania.

[Magic knows Black Lives Matter]

So, this is what a modern mania build that primarily relies on full timers looks and feels like. Yikes. Kinda makes you remember how much booking rehab needs to be done for these matches to carry real weight.

[Chiral]

It feels like they lost interest in the build around February, then remembered they had to actually build to it once tickets were on sale.

[schizo]

The build to these recent past Wrestlemanias has always been ass, but the actual show has (IMO) always delivered. I feel this year is going to be the same

[Mochi Lone Wolf]

Vince's worst instincts have taken over completely. Usually, Mania season would be the one with some foresight but now, it's as much a victim of his changing moods as any other program.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Mar 28, 2021 19:30:56 GMT -5 Magic knows Black Lives Matter said:

So, this is what a modern mania build that primarily relies on full timers looks and feels like. Yikes. Kinda makes you remember how much booking rehab needs to be done for these matches to carry real weight.

WWE booking Mania as a Nostalgia Show over the past decade especially has done them extreme harm that I don't know they can truly recover from. Especially when in doing so they have made so many of their top talent and future prospects feel like such afterthoughts in the process to the point the show seems to be ending on an Emergency Break Glass Daniel Bryan world title win. 

The Pandemic's forced WWE outside of a lot of their comfort zones, and for having the amount of talent and money that they do, they have proven to be very bad at navigating the waters.

[fw91]

It does feel like they lost interest. Unlike this time last year, it does feel like the end of the pandemic is in sight, so maybe there's a feeling of let's just get through this last abnormal mania and get back on it next year?

[Ash Kingston]

Fastlane happened.

[adamclark52]

Thanks to the pandemic not a hell of a lot of anything matters to anyone these days but some things people just feel like they need to happen.

No one cares about wrestling. No one cared about awards season. No one cared about sports championships. Nothing matters because time has been frozen for almost 14 months.

["Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik]

3/4 world title matches changed in the past month or so and the one that didn't change (Sasha/Bianca) has had a super underwhelming build. When that happens, Mania doesn't feel like Mania.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Mar 28, 2021 20:01:04 GMT -5 "Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik said:

3/4 world title matches changed in the past month or so and the one that didn't change (Sasha/Bianca) has had a super underwhelming build. When that happens, Mania doesn't feel like Mania.

Did McIntyre/Lashley really change? I've gotten the impression this was always the match, considering Lashley hasn't eaten a pin since the last time he fought Drew in the early Summer and Drew has beaten every other threat on the Raw roster in recent memory.

[eJm]

Some stuff has been outside of their control (Lacey, Becky, Asuka, everyone who got COVID or is still recovering) and some of it is chickens coming home to roost.

Like, to be frank, Rhea should have been called up way sooner to Raw because they needed more bodies in the women’s division since the pandemic started, Bianca being drafted didn’t help things (the fact she was called up to be drafted is weird but sure whatever), Santana Garrett was apparently called up and is presently doing nothing, they keep signing women who haven’t shown up on TV yet and the whole thing just feels like they built people and the moment there were problems with them, it all fell apart.

And that’s before you get into the tag divisions on both shows, nobody really going upwards from NXT leading to the main roster feeling really stale and not really knowing how to book genuine baby faces, some of these problems being around for over a decade, it feels like this is the first WM that not only fit with other WMs being bad builds but the first time it really exposed some of the problems the company’s avoided fixing for that same amount of time.

[Cyno]

I don't understand why they had to have two PPV-ish shows between the Rumble and Mania. Fastlane seemed completely unnecessary. Doesn't give nearly enough time for the build to Mania to breathe.

Then again I'm not sure that would've mattered with Vince being his Vince-iest lately.

["Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik]

Mar 28, 2021 20:03:22 GMT -5 Oh Cry Me a Screwball said:

Mar 28, 2021 20:01:04 GMT -5 "Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik said:

3/4 world title matches changed in the past month or so and the one that didn't change (Sasha/Bianca) has had a super underwhelming build. When that happens, Mania doesn't feel like Mania.

Did McIntyre/Lashley really change? I've gotten the impression this was always the match, considering Lashley hasn't eaten a pin since the last time he fought Drew in the early Summer and Drew has beaten every other threat on the Raw roster in recent memory.

Maybe it was but it felt like Sheamus/Drew was the direction and then that changed so they had to speed through the former feud to get to the latter. It could've also just been poor storytelling in general but it felt rushed. 

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Mar 28, 2021 20:18:15 GMT -5 "Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik said:

Mar 28, 2021 20:03:22 GMT -5 Oh Cry Me a Screwball said:

Did McIntyre/Lashley really change? I've gotten the impression this was always the match, considering Lashley hasn't eaten a pin since the last time he fought Drew in the early Summer and Drew has beaten every other threat on the Raw roster in recent memory.

Maybe it was but it felt like Sheamus/Drew was the direction and then that changed so they had to speed through the former feud to get to the latter. It could've also just been poor storytelling in general but it felt rushed. 

I never got the impression Sheamus was going to be the Mania match because unlike Lashley, he kept losing so damn much. But they sure did not know how to pace that feud, I will give you that much.

[mattyy]

Mar 28, 2021 19:29:49 GMT -5 Oh Cry Me a Screwball said:

They also had to fill out Fastlane because it happened so close to Mania, so a lot of matches couldn't be finalized until three weeks before Mania.

I still don't know why they had it be Fastlane, and not reuse Saturday Night's Main Event since they're on NBC's app...

[A Platypus Rave]

Mar 28, 2021 20:14:57 GMT -5 eJm said:

Like, to be frank, Rhea should have been called up way sooner to Raw because they needed more bodies in the women’s division since the pandemic started, Bianca being drafted didn’t help things (the fact she was called up to be drafted is weird but sure whatever), Santana Garrett was apparently called up and is presently doing nothing, they keep signing women who haven’t shown up on TV yet and the whole thing just feels like they built people and the moment there were problems with them, it all fell apart.

Hell they brought up Mia Yim and had her stand around while Retribution either did nothing or lose...

[eJm]

Mar 28, 2021 20:34:38 GMT -5 A Platypus Rave said:

Mar 28, 2021 20:14:57 GMT -5 eJm said:

Like, to be frank, Rhea should have been called up way sooner to Raw because they needed more bodies in the women’s division since the pandemic started, Bianca being drafted didn’t help things (the fact she was called up to be drafted is weird but sure whatever), Santana Garrett was apparently called up and is presently doing nothing, they keep signing women who haven’t shown up on TV yet and the whole thing just feels like they built people and the moment there were problems with them, it all fell apart.

Hell they brought up Mia Yim and had her stand around while Retribution either did nothing or lose...

Exactly. Like, before she unfortunately got COVID, the last notable thing she was doing was feuding with Nikki Cross...on Main Event.

[kingoftheindies]

As others have sad some things are out of the WWE's control, and I also think there were a few things they expected to catch on more with the audience than it did which caused some change (see Edge vs Roman).

But... yeah when you make most of your roster irrelevant at best loses at worst when you actually need them for a big show you have to build them up quickly