Dream WrestleMania 41 Matches WWE Is Denying Fans
For many fans, the build to WrestleMania 41 has been disappointing, with WWE's storytelling under Triple H in recent months leaving many fans yearning for the days of Vince McMahon.
Instead of getting meaningless Triple Threat matches and a midcard strategy that could be deemed passing at best, WWE Creative should have booked dream bouts hardcore wrestling fans would actually enjoy.
Here are the real dream matches Triple H should have booked for WrestleMania 41.
The Rock vs. Roman Reigns
WWE has teased tension between The Rock and his cousin, Roman Reigns, for years, dating back to their awkward reaction following the latter's win at the 2015 Royal Rumble.
The Bloodline storyline has been front and center in WWE in recent years, but the company wrongly decided to move away from it during the most critical time of the year. Instead of booking Reigns in a meaningless three-way battle, he should be taking on The Final Boss.
Reigns is a consistent main event performer who has taken the opportunities WWE presented and run with them. Even if he wins against CM Punk and Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 41, there is no growth for his character.
Reigns should be battling The Rock for the top spot in the family. The two men appeared to be on a collision course in all their previous interactions, and failing to capitalize on that momentum at WrestleMania 41 was criminal.
CM Punk vs. John Cena
When booking dream matches, one major caveat is that it's a first-time meeting. In this case, though, a newly heel John Cena should be taking on fan favorite CM Punk in the main event in Las Vegas this weekend.
Punk and Cena have a storied history, with the Summer of Punk and his win at Money in the Bank 2011 being one of the best moments in company history. This time, though, the meeting would see the roles reversed.
Triple H and Co. should have booked Punk to beat Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble, setting up the eventual bout between Cena and the new titleholder on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium.
What better way for Cena to win his 17th world championship than by beating Punk at WrestleMania and leaving through the crowd, just as Punk did to Cena all those years ago?
Rhea Ripley vs. Stephanie Vaquer
On paper, Iyo Sky defending her Women's World Championship against Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair should be an incredible match, but the storyline leading into it has been lackluster at best.
Belair was heavily involved in a tag team with Naomi and Jade Cargill, while Ripley spent much of the last year tied up in a story featuring The Judgment Day. At the last moment, Triple H gives the title to Sky and shoehorns Belair into the equation.
For wrestling fans who favor better storytelling, this Triple Threat misses the mark.
Ripley should never have lost the championship to Sky and should instead be facing NXT Superstar Stephanie Vaquer.
Not only would the battle better highlight Vaquer and the entire NXT brand, but it would also give fans a matchup they've never seen before.
Ripley and Belair deserve so much better at WrestleMania.
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WWE Hot Take: WrestleMania 41 Match Card Is Shaping Up to Be a Massive Disappointment
WWEās WrestleMania 41 appears to be top-heavy to an extreme degree, to the point of concern.
Things look amazing at the very top thanks to John Cenaās decades-in-the-making heel turn as he (allegedly) wraps up his pro wrestling career.
But the rest of the known and projected āMania match card feels like a minimal-interest disaster.
Feel free to start right at the top with the Triple Threat featuring Roman Reigns, CM Punk and Seth Rollins. It sounds like an amazing match that should have plenty of incredible storytelling moments given the in-ring psychology of all involved, including Paul Heyman.
But as a whole? Itās not escaping the typical WWE allegations when it comes to jamming as many names as possible into multi-man matches at āMania. It feels like the less-than-ideal way to finally get Punk and Rollins an actual āMania main eventāespecially when compared to what any of the three being involved in a solo feud with each other could have been.
As a result, the build has been messy (the āfavorā even sort of underwhelmed). Itās hard not to think about what a Seth-Punk feud could have been on its own, or Seth-Roman finally settling things once and for all.
The Bloodline, by the way, is mostly totally absent and ruined. Solo Sikoa is off in no manās land. It feels like The Rock is a major point of blame here. His on-and-off again status is insufferable. It started at Rawās debut on Netflix, where he awkwardly wrote himself out of storylines, then re-inserted himself for Cenaās heel turn, only to disappear again.
We can rapid-fire much of the rest, right?
That Tiffany Stratton-Charlotte Flair feud that should be a passing-of-the-torch moment has gone off the rails with awkward promos.
Over with the Women's World Championship, the Iyo Sky, Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley Triple Threat match has been equally perplexing, especially with Belair somehow getting booed by live audiences.
Then we have the total derailment of Drew McIntyre, who went from Brock Lesnar-defeating and company-headling juggernaut to yet another showdown with Damian Priest, whose stock has predictably cratered.
Though itās easy to do so, try not to forget about Gunther vs. Jey Uso for the formerās world heavyweight title. Guntherās reign has underwhelmed and Jey got the Royal Rumble win for winning over live audiences, but itās a retread of a match and feud where thereās really no good result.
Other apparently planned matches include the US title showdown between LA Knight and Jacob Fatu, though The Street Profits apparently wonāt get to defend their tag titles.
Matches aimed at letting audiences rest between bigger matches (ie, tempo matches) include Rey Mysterio vs. El Grande Americano and Jade Cargill vs. Naomi, to name just two. And the big sort of part-time spectacle isā¦Logan Paul taking on AJ Styles.
WWE canāt take direct blame for the injury that will keep Kevin Owens off the card, of course. But somebody like Randy Orton took far too long to get into a must-see feud for the event. And of the many notable names without anything going on this āMania season, Becky Lynch reigns above all.
This all really begs the question: What does this āMania have going for it without the Cena heel turn?
Because even with it, the current build and card flirt with feeling like a mostly standard episode of Raw, or perhaps the card one might find on a much lesser PLE. The fault rests in many places, but itās written all over the path traveled, with highlights being Rockās status, booking decisions like Jey, veering away from Reigns/Bloodline and so much more.
This isnāt to say āMania wonāt be a success. In a funny twist, the lukewarm expectations created by the outlook help in this regard, as jumping over the low bar should be pretty simple.
But it is uncanny that the strong suit of the Triple H era had been long-term booking and sensible storytelling steadily building hype to the biggest events, only for it to fall off a cliff this year.
Of course, wrestling fans will watch āMania regardless and the name recognition will lure in plenty of non-hardcore fans no matter whatābut thatās not really the point, nor an excuse for how we got here, is it?
WWE Making It Obvious Who Wins Men's Title Matches at WrestleMania 41
Predictability doesnāt have to be a bad thing in pro wrestling. In fact, even the most predictable of results can be all-time momentsāit all hinges on the characters and story long before the execution of the predictable moment in the ring.
Whether the super-obvious outcomes to the top menās title matches at WrestleMania 41 will be good, however, is very much up for debate.
Look at the two matches. The historic bout between Cody Rhodes and John Cena, due to the path traveled to the encounter by the characters, has a painfully obvious outcome.
And the conclusion to the stuck-in-quicksand feud between Gunther and Jey Uso is even more obvious.
The why to both isnāt hard to figure out, either. Cena finally turned heel, a landmark moment in WWE history. Heās not about to lose in his first marquee match like that and lose all credibility. Looking back on it a decade or more from now, weāre not going to be saying that Cena finally turned heel and lost right away.
Itās a necessity for Rhodes, too. Heās the guy who took down the legendary Roman Reigns title reign and derailed the Bloodline, effectively. WWE will want to keep the prestige of that victory a bit and only somebody like Cena is really on that level of ending his title run right now.
On paper, Cena getting the title off Rhodes opens the door for him to do what all the great legends doāgo out on his back while helping to build up another top star. This can happen in six months or at āMania a year from nowābut the idea dies if Rhodes somehow wins at āMania this year.
And to get a little meta and real-world-like on this topic, Cena has already been announced as appearing at the Backlash PLE in May, which feels like a spoiler that heās winning.
While the possible outcomes of that match are fun, the Uso-Gunther situation is just plain ugly.
By now, itās pretty clear the whole feud isnāt really working. Thatās at least one part of the reason itās unquestioned that it wonāt be in a show-ending spot on either night.
WWE crammed through Uso as the Royal Rumble winner while attempting to keep building up its latest solo star success story. Problem is, his singles work and promo work underwhelmed and now heās stuck in a feud that could headline a Raw episode, not WrestleMania itself.
In fact, Uso-Gunther has been a feud and weekly television match already in the past. Attempts to layer compelling storytelling atop the retread havenāt worked.
All that said, Jey winning the title is the obvious end result here. It will please the live crowd that enjoyed the entrance and bought his merchandise. Thereās nothing overtly wrong with thatāheās in that Super Cena territory as far as being strictly an attraction for younger audiences at this point.
Gunther doensāt help. His title reign has been underwhelming to a major degree, too. The character is good and fitting, but the booking hasnāt done him any favors. Fighting the likes of Axiom and Otis, among others, hasnāt exactly raised the prestige of the title or feud so far.
Right now, Gunther winning doesnāt really do anything for either wrestler in the match. This is a predictable exit point for that era of the title before things move to Jey. Problem there is, where things go after the title changes hands wonāt match the initial live-audience excited reaction of him finally getting his moment.
Thereās also something to be said for the fact that WWE subverting expectations in either direction wonāt really accomplish much or feel good for viewers. Cena losing and going away again would feel anticlimactic. It doesnāt help that The Rock randomly hangs around the proceedings at times, either.
Gunther winning would actually harm his regin in terms of fan reception and cripple Jey, throwing away the meaning of the rumble win, too.
Only super random things figure to swing these results away from predictable outcomes. Things like, interference costing Cena. Or Jimmy turning on Jey (again) to cost him the title or something. But itās hard to imagine WWE wants a dusty finish to one title match right now, let alone two. It made sense with all things involved in the Bloodline last year and everyone teaming up to effectively end Reignsā Thanos-like run. Now, not so much.
The above just leaves the predictable results. Predictable can be good, but itās a little deflating here when eyeballing the choices made along the way in terms of promos and bigger items like rumble victors and opponents encountered for title-holders.
As always in pro wrestling, thereās time to salvage all. And the outcomes and long-reaching consequences donāt need to be disappointing as WWE heads into a new āseasonā post WrestleMania.
But if fans feel or see rumblings that there just isnāt that much hype for this yearās WrestleMania, the predictability of the top two menās title matches feels like a big culprit.
John Cena is the Perfect Modern Day Heel For WWE
In hindsight, maybe it shouldnāt be so shocking that John Cena has found a way to play the perfect heel.
He has, after all, possibly brainstormed the idea for more than a decade and has the Hollywood background to bring it out better than ever now. Todayās blurred-lines reality of even casual fans understanding the finer points of the sport certainly helps, too.
But itās still impressive Cena has managed to write the modern-heel blueprint with a snap of the fingers.
It was fun to fantasy book what Cena could have done while heel. There could have been new theme music. A gear change. As some wished constantly online, he could have even gone back to the Thuganomics persona. It was even fun to think about a Cena who just never explained himself and let all of his violent actions do the talking.
As it turns out, most of those ideas could have backfired in dramatic fashion. New gear wouldāve been bought up anyway. A music change, knowing modern WWE music, probably wouldāve stunk up the joint anyway, too. And rappingā¦Cenaās 47. The jorts and near-grandpa shoes are rough enough without the rapping.
What Cena did was clearly the best possible route. He got on the mic and explained himself, no doubt. A āfans are the reason I did all thisā promo isnāt anything new in pro wrestling.
But two major things set this one apart. One, heās right. The best villains in any medium get humanized when their motivations are explained. Cena was over-hated during his prime by fans while carrying the company and is only now beloved by those very same fans because heās about to retire.
Two, he didnāt give fans what they wanted. He denied them a new entrance, music and gear. Those are fun, exciting things when a character turns one way or the other. Cena said nah. Fans donāt get rewarded with those, nor do they have a reason to cheer. If anything, it makes them hate him even more.
The gear is an especially fine point. Overseas in front of fans who donāt get to see WWE often at all, children bought up all the colorful Cena gear, hit the stands and then were trashed by the man himself for doing so.
Some might call this getting a little too meta. But really, it just feels more personal.
This isnāt really a feud between Cena and Cody Rhodes. Itās a feud between Cena and the fans and his actions so far make that point clear enough. Heās going to rob them of the cheery retirement tour they anticipated the same way they robbed him of the joy of being the top guy, robbed him of the appreciation for carrying the sport on his back.
Cena has, to semi-quote a generally beloved movie line, embraced being around long enough to become the villain.
Not that there arenāt subtle things to appreciate. This is still very much Cena doing right by everyone. Heās still giving fans something they wanted for more than a decade. Heāll still ultimately go out on his back like the best-evers do and has managed to give Rhodes an even bigger boost while passing the proverbial torch for good.
But perhaps more than anything else, Cena has almost abruptly provided a refreshing new blueprint for a modern heel. The problem (and itās a good problem to have, most times) guys like CM Punk have is no matter how evil they get, fans will still cheer. Some guys just transcend.
This Cena blueprint, though? Itās a winner. Feud with fans as much as feud with other Superstars, especially in a line-blurring way.
Maybe heās not SuperCena anymore, but the man has managed to find yet another way to leave a lasting impact on the sport, this time as he winds down his career.