WWE RAW after WrestleMania XXX could be the 'New' WrestleMania

During the broadcast of the first Wrestlemania, announcer Jesse Ventura said, “WrestleMania is making history!”

The exclamation that this event will be recorded in the realms of the history of popular culture was implied but it also illustrated that with every edition of this event, something new and momentous will happen which will make that particular Wrestlemania memorable. And as illustrated since the first Wrestlemania, history began including superstars like the virtuous Real American who encouraged his ‘Hulkamaniacs’ to take their vitamins right.

The wizard of technical wrestling from Canada who made wearing pink seem cool in the 90s.The (heartbreak) kid whose boyhood dream came true. The toughest SOB in the history of the WWE. The Brahma Bull who electrified. The Deadman who lives on. The ‘next Big Thing’ who was a beast in the ring. The risqué, reckless, rave rogue called the Rated R Superstar. These superstars among others with their respective performances at the grandest stage of them all have imprinted themselves in that coveted history.

With all that brush up of history, the WWE in the past 2 years seems to going through a sad hangover phase over their former stars. They are so hungover with nostalgia that they have been having the marquee matches feature stars from the past who come for the glitziest night in the WWE and then melt into thin air.

It is quite alarming that even though guys like CM Punk, Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler have garnered widespread acclaim from fans everywhere but there isn’t one remarkable moment that they can call their ultimate Wrestlemania moment. Sure Punk defended his title here and won MITB twice in a row and gave the best match of WM 29 with The Undertaker but he is still not reached that moment quite yet, that moment of sheer ecstasy, the moment where you expect something good to take place but are completely in awe when it actually happens.

Daniel Bryan’s 18 second loss was a relevant moment because that triggered the beginning of the ‘Yes Movement’. But right now, he’s in a whole new pedestal and if the management believes in him finally he can redeem the declining quality of Wrestlemania by getting a proper Wrestlemania moment at Wrestlemania.

Dolph Ziggler seems to be still followed by his bad bad luck and many pushes that ended prematurely.

Over the past 3 WrestleMania’s Cena and Rock have been hogging the limelight in the sheer case of improving business for the WWE which seems to be getting more and more doubtful of the potential of its present stars to be ‘Main Event Material’.

So much effort has been put in building John Cena and Rock into this mammoth lifetime experiences that the WWE truly failed in building WrestleMania into what it truly should have been- memorable.

This year, WrestleMania seems to be following the same trajectory. Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker are rumored to be going one on one. Triple H might add himself into a hyped match. Batista is anyway going to be headlining the show.

With these people sure to take up a chunk of the hype, there can be matches that can really set things up for the future like a triple threat match between the Shield, focused storylines backing the Intercontinental and US title feuds. The Real Americans being booked as a dominant tag team and giving them the gold finally only to lead a break up between Swagger and Cesaro and hence begins Cesaro’s solo run. Bringing Damien Sandow into the title picture or at least making him relevant than he is right now.

Give Bad News Barrett some purpose and back your stranger than fiction characters (Fandango, anyone?). Bring Emma into the divas title picture or have Paige debut at WrestleMania and win the title only to begin a feud between AJ Lee. So many possibilities. Is the WWE even thinking past its part time superstars? Most probably they wouldn’t.

So then comes Monday, the night the WWE tries to redeem itself to the hardcore fan and then the hardcore fan gives a huge piece of their mind to the WWE management. Be it the Yes chants or the plethora of other chants, Fandangoing or going berserk when a heel Ziggler cashes in his contract, the crowd gives its feedback in crisp fashion after WrestleMania.

That’s why the Raw following WrestleMania has become the new WrestleMania.

The Raw following WrestleMania is becoming more watchable. It might just become a trend with the declining rate of investment made on creative storylines. For WrestleMania itself hasn’t been featuring compelling storylines in the main event for quite sometime now.