Expectations for WrestleMania 32 may have been at an all-time low.
Fueled by weeks of lackluster build to the WWE’s biggest pay-per-view of the year and an absolutely stellar NXT Takeover event in Dallas just two days before, fans had come to believe there was no way that they could be impressed by WrestleMania. And while the action in most of the matches would’ve been enough for the event to hold its own, the results helped prove those fans right, in a way.
What’s worse is that this is becoming something of a trend for the WWE. Too many times at pay-per-view events, the performers themselves put on entertaining and compelling matches that are ruined with finishes presumably coming from the creative team or above.
Unfortunately, this has perhaps never been more prevalent than it was at WrestleMania 32.
Top stars take the fall
There are no talents in the WWE that were as “over” going into WrestleMania weekend than Dean Ambrose, AJ Styles, Sasha Banks and the New Day. As such, it would stand to reason that at least a couple of those performers would win on the company’s grandest stage.
Just how many of them won at WrestleMania? None.
Styles has been perhaps the hottest ticket in all of pro wrestling for several years now, and fans were thrilled to see him make his WWE at the Royal Rumble. And while there wasn’t a ton of excitement over a fourth match against Chris Jericho in the last couple months, it at least looked like a way to get him a somewhat impressive win in his WrestleMania debut without costing a current member of the full-time roster. Except that isn’t what happened at all. Inexplicably, Jericho beat Styles by pinfall after a Codebreaker.
Now, the WWE somewhat redeemed this decision the next night on RAW, when Styles won a Fatal Fourway against Jericho, Kevin Owens and Cesaro to become the No. 1 contender for the World Heavyweight Championship. But that almost makes his loss at WrestleMania more frustrating. If he was going to be the believable No. 1 contender to the world champion, shouldn’t he be able to beat a part-timer who hasn’t held a title in several years?
Banks coming up short in the Triple Threat match for the new Women’s Championship wasn’t quite as frustrating because Charlotte is on equal footing on the roster and has been a solid heel champion. It’s certainly fair to allow her to hold the new belt first, even if Banks would’ve been the more popular choice. The same is true for New Day, as perhaps having them lose a non-title six-man match will help strengthen the tag division.
The Ambrose loss might have been the worst result of all, though. The “street fight” stipulation, coupled with the fact that Brock Lesnar was set for some time off anyway, made the match a perfect opportunity to get Ambrose a huge win without really hurting Lesnar that much. Yet instead, the match wasn’t even that good, and Lesnar made relatively quick work of the former United States and Intercontinental champion without even really using weapons.
Results do matter
Brian James, current member of the WWE creative team and former wrestler known as Road Dogg, caused a stir when he expressed a common sentiment within WWE circles on Twitter.
While Road Dogg certainly knows the business, this just flat isn’t true. Wins and losses do matter to fans, who are supposedly the most important people in the pro wrestling business. With a win over Lesnar, Ambrose is a man to be feared, a man who is clearly destined for big things. With a deflating loss, he’s just a guy who has lost to Roman Reigns, Triple H and Brock Lesnar in consecutive events after losing his Intercontinental Championship on RAW.
He’ll still get cheered, but the win would’ve made him a much bigger deal for a lot of fans.
Further, all those disappointing finishes, which included Shane McMahon losing after a truly awesome performance against the Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match, hurt the show’s ending, in all likelihood. You’d have to ignore a lot of evidence to not realize that fans weren’t going to be thrilled about Roman Reigns winning the world title in the main event, but the creative team could have stemmed that chorus of boos a bit by giving the crowd anything to be excited about at all finish-wise during the rest of the show.
Big moments missing
More importantly than that, all these lackluster finishes deny fans one of the most important things that wrestling or any entertainment can provide: an escape.
When great, positive finishes happen, fans are allowed a vicarious moment of joy alongside a character they’ve become attached to. If Dean Ambrose beats “The Beast Incarnate” because he spent years honing his craft in wrestling’s hardcore underbell, that’s a reminder that we can overcome unbeatable obstacles. If AJ Styles wins at WrestleMania, it’s a chance for fans to see something that many of them thought would never happen.
Yet, the WWE hasn’t really given fans that true fan-friendly “mark out” finish to a match in two full years, it would seem. The last feel-good result of any major match came at WrestleMania 30, when Daniel Bryan beat Triple H, Batista and Randy Orton in the same night to win the world title. Since then, the only true faces to hold the company’s top title were John Cena and Roman Reigns, both of whom receive a mixed fan reaction, at best.
Ambrose and Bryan both won the Intercontinental title, as have other faces, but that belt hasn’t been treated well enough to really allow for big moments right now.
If the WWE wants to build its fanbase again, it has to give people a reason to cheer. And that starts with listening to whom the fans are already cheering for, and giving those people wins on the biggest stages.
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