Over 100,000 people flocked to Dallas this weekend for WrestleMania 32, the most fun event in sports entertainment that’s actually not that fun.
That’s not a slight at the WrestleMania event itself, just sports entertainment. You have to buy into wrestling to make it fun, and if you decide you do not want to enjoy wrestling, you never will. Decide to look over the flaws of a scripted event and realize that someone getting thrown through a table is fun.
The theatrics of wrestling make it worthwhile. Give me someone who captures audience with his or her walk; someone the crowd goes berserk for without any encouragement from the announcers.
Instead, we ended up with Roman Reigns as the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Reigns is not fun, charismatic or really that entertaining, but that’s a common complaint for the intended audience of WrestleMania. In an effort to finally draw a classic match with the members of the old-guard — The Attitude Era that everyone loves the most – Reigns was booked with Triple H for a main event. Reigns proceeded to not be captivating at all.
Instead, the lovable Dean Ambrose suffered 13 — THIRTEEN — suplexes from Brock Lesnar. Ambrose, fan favorite, lost again after very recently getting pulverized by Triple H on Raw. Getting a match on the sport’s biggest stage is a great place to be within the organization, but that just highlights one of the flaws that came to the surface during the weekend.
You’re not allowed to be a legend until you beat a legend, who never loses.
The idea of passing-the-torch is so blurred: we want the next person to prove they deserve to be the alpha, but by the time they finally sway the crowd to love them, the original torchbearer is washed-up. The WWE made a good move by putting a new wrestler on top, unfortunately they made a mistake by making Reigns that wrestler.
Letting Reigns win was the correct strategy, even if the end result was mediocre.
More examples of the main problem existed this weekend: The Undertaker should never lose at WrestleMania, despite the fact that it was the right call to let Lesner beat him two years ago. John Cena made an appearance. The Rock came out and set the audience aflame with his presence alone.
Letting the legends and memories of a more fondly remembered time take the stage is fine if all you’re trying to do is keep the same fans you had in 2001.
What if you treated those same guys the way you treat the upcoming wrestlers of today? What if the Rock was booted around the ring by Hulk Hogan for the first stint of career instead of delivering The People’s Elbow? Would he and his flamethrower have been the most electrifying part of this year’s show?
We will never know, but if the legends of today were treated the way the new kids on the block are treated now, the legends would not have been the biggest draw of WrestleMania 32.
WWE, it’s time to let the entertainers of today win. Start growing a new fandom before you current fan-base dies of old age.
Lucas Hunter is a sophomore in journalism & electronic media and can be reached at [email protected].
