WWE WrestleMania 34 (April 8th, 2018)

[iMoreland]

Kickoff Show

• Cruiserweight Championship: Cedric Alexander vs Mustafa Ali
• André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
• WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal

WrestleMania 34

• Daniel Bryan & Shane McMahon vs Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn
• John Cena vs The Undertaker
• Kurt Angle & Ronda Rousey vs Stephanie McMahon & Triple H
• Intercontinental Championship: The Miz (c) w/ The Miztourage vs Finn Bálor vs Seth Rollins
• United States Championship: Randy Orton (c) vs Bobby Roode vs Jinder Mahal w/ Sunil Singh vs Rusev w/ Aiden English
• Raw Tag Team Championships: The Bar (c) vs Braun Strowman & ???
• SmackDown Tag Team Championships: The Usos (c) vs The Bludgeon Brothers vs The New Day
• Raw Women's Championship: Alexa Bliss (c) vs Nia Jax
• SmackDown Women's Championship: Charlotte Flair (c) vs Asuka
• WWE Championship: AJ Styles (c) vs Shinsuke Nakamura
• Universal Championship: Brock Lesnar (c) w/ Paul Heyman vs Roman Reigns

[Spens1]

WrestleMania Card (unconfirmed):

• Women's Battle Royal

• Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn

• Kurt Angle and Ronda Rousey vs. Stephanie McMahon and Triple H

• Cruiserweight Championship: Cedric Alexander vs. Drew Gulak or Mustafa Ali

• Intercontinental Championship: The Miz (c) w/ The Miztourage vs. Finn Bálor vs. Seth Rollins

• United States Championship: Randy Orton (c) vs. Bobby Roode vs. Jinder Mahal

• Raw Tag Team Championships: The Bar (c) vs. Braun Strowman

• SmackDown Tag Team Championships: The Usos (c) vs. The Bludgeon Brothers vs. The New Day

• Raw Women's Championship: Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Nia Jax

• SmackDown Women's Championship: Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Asuka

• WWE Championship: AJ Styles (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

• Universal Championship: Brock Lesnar (c) w/ Paul Heyman vs. Roman Reigns

• Raw Tag Team Championships: The Bar (c) vs. Braun Strowman

Kevin Owens vs Sami Zayn though, that's just lazy unless Shane McMahon is referee and its a #1 contendership match (they're the only other 2 main eventers on smackdown at this stage also so it better be a #1 contendership match, smackdown can't have Nakamura vs Orton after all).

The Universal title match is what it is but seriously, wwe should have it go second last. have the WWE title match main event and let the people go home happy (then again, they'll probably just leave after the match anyway).

[jakecronus8]

Roman/Brock should open the show. Fans will be fun and will set a tone for the night. AJ/Shinsuke could be an all timer.

[iMoreland]

For everyone saying AJ/Shinsuke should main event and not Brock/Roman,

AJ and Shinsuke's YouTube video of their first in ring confrontation has 670K views in over a week of being uploaded. Meanwhile Brock and Roman's segment has almost 8 million views in 3 days. And all of Roman's promo segments the weeks before the brawl with Brock have over 2 million views each. Not one of AJ/Shinsuke's have hit 1 million views.

Not saying that YouTube views should be the deciding factor, but it's pretty clear which match the majority of people are more interested in.

[Butch718]

AJ and Shinsuke are going to steal the show anyway.

[improper]

For everyone saying AJ/Shinsuke should main event and not Brock/Roman,

AJ and Shinsuke's YouTube video of their first in ring confrontation has 670K views in over a week of being uploaded. Meanwhile Brock and Roman's segment has almost 8 million views in 3 days. And all of Roman's promo segments the weeks before the brawl with Brock have over 2 million views each. Not one of AJ/Shinsuke's have hit 1 million views.

Not saying that YouTube views should be the deciding factor, but it's pretty clear which match the majority of people are more interested in.

Given how badly people seem to love watching Reigns get his ass kicked, they really need to turn him heel already.

[spykelee]

HHH, Kurt, Steph, Brock, Undertaker and Cena are all over 40. I can't believe we are looking at 3 main and possibly main event matches with 7 competitors in it and only 2 under 30, one of which has zero experience. You'd think this company has no pipeline for younger talent or something... I'm excited for the lower tier matches on this card but couldn't care any less about the above ones.

[LLJ]

For everyone saying AJ/Shinsuke should main event and not Brock/Roman,

AJ and Shinsuke's YouTube video of their first in ring confrontation has 670K views in over a week of being uploaded. Meanwhile Brock and Roman's segment has almost 8 million views in 3 days. And all of Roman's promo segments the weeks before the brawl with Brock have over 2 million views each. Not one of AJ/Shinsuke's have hit 1 million views.

Not saying that YouTube views should be the deciding factor, but it's pretty clear which match the majority of people are more interested in.

Given how badly people seem to love watching Reigns get his ass kicked, they really need to turn him heel already.

Kids and merchandising. Plus many women seem to love Roman. These are all factors for why they seem so reluctant to turn him heel. This is true for a lot of other wrestlers too, who would benefit more creatively from going heel, but aren't turned because they make more money as faces. The WWE doesn't care that he gets booed.

(I know I've been saying that the WWE doesn't care about a lot of things these days. Well it's true. I think they're much more concerned with the bottom line than reactions, good writing, promo quality, etc,.)

[Stanford]

HHH, Kurt, Steph, Brock, Undertaker and Cena are all over 40. I can't believe we are looking at 3 main and possibly main event matches with 7 competitors in it and only 2 under 30, one of which has zero experience.

30 is a weird spot to place the line. Most wrestlers don't materialize as big match workers until then. I bet if you looked at wrestlemania main events throughout history, the majority would be over 30.

[jakecronus8]

For everyone saying AJ/Shinsuke should main event and not Brock/Roman,

AJ and Shinsuke's YouTube video of their first in ring confrontation has 670K views in over a week of being uploaded. Meanwhile Brock and Roman's segment has almost 8 million views in 3 days. And all of Roman's promo segments the weeks before the brawl with Brock have over 2 million views each. Not one of AJ/Shinsuke's have hit 1 million views.

Not saying that YouTube views should be the deciding factor, but it's pretty clear which match the majority of people are more interested in.

Given how badly people seem to love watching Reigns get his ass kicked, they really need to turn him heel already.

Kids and merchandising. Plus many women seem to love Roman. These are all factors for why they seem so reluctant to turn him heel. This is true for a lot of other wrestlers too, who would benefit more creatively from going heel, but aren't turned because they make more money as faces. The WWE doesn't care that he gets booed.

(I know I've been saying that the WWE doesn't care about a lot of things these days. Well it's true. I think they're much more concerned with the bottom line than reactions, good writing, promo quality, etc,.)

Totally valid point. And it plays into the idea that vince is short sighted. If they had gotten Roman over as a heel initially, as that was the reactions he was getting, he'd eventually have been a bigger money maker when they turned him babyface. Almost all the big time stars in history had lengthy heel runs before they made big money as babyfaces. Like, literally all of them. (Hogan, HBK, Taker, Cena, Rock, Austin, Punk, etc.)

[spykelee]

HHH, Kurt, Steph, Brock, Undertaker and Cena are all over 40. I can't believe we are looking at 3 main and possibly main event matches with 7 competitors in it and only 2 under 30, one of which has zero experience.

30 is a weird spot to place the line. Most wrestlers don't materialize as big match workers until then. I bet if you looked at wrestlemania main events throughout history, the majority would be over 30.

Well 30 is debatable for sure. Roman is 32 I Beleive and is the only regular rostered wrestler out of those 7. That kinda disrespects wrestling too put that much nostalgia out there I feel like. At least as main events anyways

I already felt like this is this point I'd start to lose respect for taker if he comes back and that's mostly because of how he ended it last year... I don't really have interest in seeing Kurt and trips and Steph. Rhonda I am interested in seeing.. Just seems like alot of prime spots to folks who don't need it

How do you not have Braun in the main event?? Thats just mind boggling. He should already be champion... That said. Theyve done an okay job with this tag team thing so far but it's sad that's the best they could come up with for him... It's a weird Wrestlemania. The rest of the card should be pretty sick

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[improper]

Kids and merchandising. Plus many women seem to love Roman. These are all factors for why they seem so reluctant to turn him heel. This is true for a lot of other wrestlers too, who would benefit more creatively from going heel, but aren't turned because they make more money as faces. The WWE doesn't care that he gets booed.

(I know I've been saying that the WWE doesn't care about a lot of things these days. Well it's true. I think they're much more concerned with the bottom line than reactions, good writing, promo quality, etc,.)

Thing is, if WWE straps a rocket to basically anyone and creates a ridiculous amount of merchandise for them, they're going to sell it. Roman doesn't sell more merch than other guys because he's better or more popular. He sells more because he has a lot more merchandise than most other guys and he's pushed to the moon and constantly treated like he's more important than everyone. You treat anyone else like that and they'd have the same sales numbers. Hell, probably better because most other guys wouldn't be hated by half or more of the crowd at every event.

[LLJ]

Kids and merchandising. Plus many women seem to love Roman. These are all factors for why they seem so reluctant to turn him heel. This is true for a lot of other wrestlers too, who would benefit more creatively from going heel, but aren't turned because they make more money as faces. The WWE doesn't care that he gets booed.

(I know I've been saying that the WWE doesn't care about a lot of things these days. Well it's true. I think they're much more concerned with the bottom line than reactions, good writing, promo quality, etc,.)

Thing is, if WWE straps a rocket to basically anyone and creates a ridiculous amount of merchandise for them, they're going to sell it. Roman doesn't sell more merch than other guys because he's better or more popular. He sells more because he has a lot more merchandise than most other guys and he's pushed to the moon and constantly treated like he's more important than everyone. You treat anyone else like that and they'd have the same sales numbers. Hell, probably better because most other guys wouldn't be hated by half or more of the crowd at every event.

That's the theory, I agree. But there are probably other numbers showing he draws eyeballs too. I mean, if he was a failed draw they wouldn't still be pushing him so hard 4 years later.

They're doing the exact same thing with Asuka right now. They're strapping the rocket on her and throwing her all the way to the top of WWE history. Fans haven't turned on her yet because most people can see she is very good in the ring, but online there are like 40% complaints every day about her streak already getting long in the tooth, even people who think she is good. The WWE doesn't seem to care, they probably think that people talking about her means the megapush is working. And then there are the rumours that they want to extend it to NEXT Wrestlemania. Which is crazy. So you know, WWE isn't about subtlety.

Curious what people here think were better alternatives to push in 2015 than Roman.

[jakecronus8]

Kids and merchandising. Plus many women seem to love Roman. These are all factors for why they seem so reluctant to turn him heel. This is true for a lot of other wrestlers too, who would benefit more creatively from going heel, but aren't turned because they make more money as faces. The WWE doesn't care that he gets booed.

(I know I've been saying that the WWE doesn't care about a lot of things these days. Well it's true. I think they're much more concerned with the bottom line than reactions, good writing, promo quality, etc,.)

Thing is, if WWE straps a rocket to basically anyone and creates a ridiculous amount of merchandise for them, they're going to sell it. Roman doesn't sell more merch than other guys because he's better or more popular. He sells more because he has a lot more merchandise than most other guys and he's pushed to the moon and constantly treated like he's more important than everyone. You treat anyone else like that and they'd have the same sales numbers. Hell, probably better because most other guys wouldn't be hated by half or more of the crowd at every event.

That's the theory, I agree. But there are probably other numbers showing he draws eyeballs too. I mean, if he was a failed draw they wouldn't still be pushing him so hard 4 years later.

They're doing the exact same thing with Asuka right now. They're strapping the rocket on her and throwing her all the way to the top of WWE history. Fans haven't turned on her yet because most people can see she is very good in the ring, but online there are like 40% complaints every day about her streak already getting long in the tooth, even people who think she is good. The WWE doesn't seem to care, they probably think that people talking about her means the megapush is working. And then there are the rumours that they want to extend it to NEXT Wrestlemania. Which is crazy. So you know, WWE isn't about subtlety.

Curious what people here think were better alternatives to push in 2015 than Roman.

I've always thought the streak would go down at the hands of Rousey either at Summerslam or next year's Mania. Only viable believeable option at this point. Nia too but they clearly aren't giving her that push.

[improper]

That's the theory, I agree. But there are probably other numbers showing he draws eyeballs too. I mean, if he was a failed draw they wouldn't still be pushing him so hard 4 years later.

They're doing the exact same thing with Asuka right now. They're strapping the rocket on her and throwing her all the way to the top of WWE history. Fans haven't turned on her yet because most people can see she is very good in the ring, but online there are like 40% complaints every day about her streak already getting long in the tooth, even people who think she is good. The WWE doesn't seem to care, they probably think that people talking about her means the megapush is working. And then there are the rumours that they want to extend it to NEXT Wrestlemania. Which is crazy. So you know, WWE isn't about subtlety.

Curious what people here think were better alternatives to push in 2015 than Roman.

What they should have done when Shield broke up was have Roman be the corporate stooge heel and Rollins as the fiery babyface. Rollins was much better suited to be the guy they put the rocket on because he was much more ready to deliver in the ring at that time.

Once Styles debuted and was immediately over, he should have been pushed as a face. Instead, they pushed him as a heel and it backfired because everyone just flat out refused to boo him over Roman.

As for Asuka, I think the main difference between her and Roman is that, with Asuka, the push seems earned. Asuka is probably one of the five to ten best female workers in the entire world, and clearly the best in WWE right now. She can work face or heel equally well. Roman, meanwhile, probably isn't even one of the ten best workers in the WWE right now. If he was insanely over and/or great on the mic, that would be one thing. But he's booed out of arenas and he's not great on the mic either.

[LLJ]

Roman isn't the most accomplished wrestler, but he is reliable and safe and is generally considered a good company guy backstage and gets along with most people. Not a troublemaker, and keeps the locker room in check. I mean, I don't want to make it out that I'm a fan of his, because I'm generally apathetic about him, but I do see why, at the time, they might have chose him to push. He's bland but inoffensive and they needed to push someone at the time. Rollins is great but didn't he have a rep for being unsafe?

I have heard that some fans wanted Ambrose as THE guy but Ambrose as the face of a company presents many marketing challenges given his social issues and his nonexistent social media presence. The WWE wants their top people to be accessible to fans on some level and his reluctance to engage with people in general may be one factor why they didn't choose him. That and he looks a bit like an everyman, which isn't typically what the WWE picks.

I think the WWE risks losing Asuka as a babyface if they extend the streak past the summer. It also undercuts her own ability to put on an exciting match if even the casuals begin to see that she won't lose until Ronda is ready. Now if they use her streak to turn her heel, then great. But I'm increasingly convinced they keep some people as faces for the kids and merchandising purposes. And Asuka is getting really over with the kids as of late.

[improper]

Ambrose should have been pushed as world champ while he was hot. He was absolutely molten there for a while and they just kept refusing to pull the trigger on him. Over time, he got noticeably lazier in the ring and his matches went to sh*t, and then the fans started to cool on him.

WWE does this all the time. They'll have guys at peak popularity and just refuse to listen to the crowd, and it has a tendency to derail a guy's career when you don't pull the trigger at the right time, because ultimately apathy sets in from the fans.

Now, do I think Ambrose should have been the face of the company? No. There shouldn't be one face of the company anyway. There should be multiple stars that are all presented as equals like in the Attitude Era and Ruthless Aggression. When you push one guy as vastly superior to all the rest, it tends to make everyone else look like crap rather than making that one guy look special, and that's probably why WWE has been losing viewers consistently in the decade-plus since they made Cena the one top guy. It has less to do with Cena himself and more the way they've used Cena to make everyone else look inferior.

[jakecronus8]

Forgot about Ambrose. Could see him turning heel upon his return. He'll always be an all time "what if?" scenario to me. As previously stated, his feud with Rollins was as hot as anything they've done since the attitude era. They missed out on making him a big time star by waiting so long to put the strap on him. And like many, his career trajectory was destroyed with a feud with Bray Wyatt.

I still popped pretty hard when he immediately cashed in on Rollins. Though that feud had long since cooled, it was a rare instance in wwe where there was long term storytelling with a definitive ending.

ETA: would love to see Ambrose cost Reigns the universal title. Would be an awesome swerve moment as everyone and their grandmother knows Reigns beats Lesnar this year.

[NO-KG-AI]

I’ve never been to a wrestling event, but thought about going, because **** it.


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[jakecronus8]

I’ve never been to a wrestling event, but thought about going, because **** it.


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

Do it. If you're nearby it'd be worth it for the spectacle. I'm a huge wrestling fan and still haven't been. Pains me.