There's too much emphasis on Wrestlemania

[DrA]

It has a lot of history and prestige (as far as wrestling events can possibly have), and should be hyped as the most important pay per view. However, I don't think that an entire year of wrestling should revolve around what should happen at Wrestlemania. I hear a lot of people saying "Oh yeah that would be an awesome feud! I would love for that match to be at Wrestlemania." If it would be an awesome feud, then there is no need to save it for Wrestlemania. Let Unforgiven have some of those great feuds.

It seems today that the WWE tries to save its least most over-done feuds to be held during Wrestlemania season, which means putting some guy in a match with either The Undertaker or Shawn Michaels. Part of what made wrestling good ten years ago is that it felt constantly exciting throughout the entire year. It didn't feel like they were saving all of the good matches for Wrestlemania (other than Austin against The Rock I guess).

[TechSmartLiving]

I don't entirely agree. I mean, sure, they shouldn't be holding back on great feuds until WrestleMania, that's just dumb, but it happens. However, if you think about the SuperBowl or the World Series, it's the BEST of the BEST. You don't get a team that's 0-16 in the SuperBowl for obvious reasons. These are meant to be the BEST of the BEST and the biggest event of the year, why not feed off that and ensure it is always the best event of the year? But I totally agree with holding back great matches or feuds, it shouldn't be like that. Personally, if I had it my way, I'd just make it the way it used to be, with just the Big 4 (ehh, maybe 5 with the King of the Ring) and leave it that. It would be able to draw more because you can promote it better with better feuds and matches. The build up would be amazing. But ehh, that is another story, and for another day.

[Kane Knight]

It's the only thing that's a consistent winner in WWE. Of course they're going to bank on the road to Wrestlemania. The only way they'll change is if they lose that crutch.

[#1-norm-fan]

The lack of excitement throughout the year has nothing to do with an over-emphasis on WrestleMania. If the writers could put out an entertaining product with the guys they have throughout the year, they could then easily save up some matches for the big one and no one would really care because they would be happy with what they have.

Anyway, they phoned it in big time at this years WrestleMania. I got the feeling that they just stopped caring, sadly.

[Fox]

I disagree completely. We've seen tons of great matches and feuds that have culminated at the smaller PPV's, Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels from last year being a prime example. It never went to Mania, but it was still awesomeness. Same goes for the first match between Batista and Cena and also Orton and Cena, both of which took place at Summerslam. I could think of a lot more, but my point is that they do give away some awesome matches on the regular PPVs.

And you can't put too much emphasis on WrestleMania because it's their showcase, it's their big money maker. People I know who don't even watch wrestling anymore will still order Mania.

[Pardeep 619]

I disagree completely. We've seen tons of great matches and feuds that have culminated at the smaller PPV's, Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels from last year being a prime example. It never went to Mania, but it was still awesomeness. Same goes for the first match between Batista and Cena and also Orton and Cena, both of which took place at Summerslam. I could think of a lot more, but my point is that they do give away some awesome matches on the regular PPVs.

And you can't put too much emphasis on WrestleMania because it's their showcase, it's their big money maker. People I know who don't even watch wrestling anymore will still order Mania.

To be fair Fox, there's always been a lot of emphasis on putting on a decent lineup of matches for Summerslam, hence why those matches you mentioned occured on that PPV (they would never have happened for the first time on say Unforgiven or Cyber Sunday). Excluding Summerslam, most of the PPV's have more or less the same lineup of matches again and again.

[BDR]

Honestly I believe that Wrestlemania (along with royal rumble, summerslam, and survivor series) should get even more emphasis. I think there are too many PPV's and that takes away from the fact that PPV's are supposed to be special events. I mean when wrester X/wrestler Y headline WM you know they are going to turn right back around and do it again the next week and then again in 3 weeks at Backlash.

I think if you took away No Way out and Backlash It would make Wrestlemania an even bigger event.

[Fox]

To be fair Fox, there's always been a lot of emphasis on putting on a decent lineup of matches for Summerslam, hence why those matches you mentioned occured on that PPV (they would never have happened for the first time on say Unforgiven or Cyber Sunday). Excluding Summerslam, most of the PPV's have more or less the same lineup of matches again and again.

Unforgiven 2003: Goldberg vs. Triple H - World Title
Unforgiven 2004: Randy Orton vs. Triple H - World Title
Unforgiven 2005: John Cena vs. Kurt Angle - WWE Title
Unforgiven 2006: Edge vs. John Cena - TLC Match for WWE Title
Unforgiven 2007: John Cena vs. Randy Orton - WWE Title
Unforgiven 2008: Chris Jericho wins the World Title in the Scramble Match

Cyber Sunday 2004: Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H - WWE Title
Cyber Sunday 2005: John Cena vs. Kurt Angle vs. Triple H - WWE Title
Cyber Sunday 2006: King Booker vs. John Cena vs. Big Show - World Title
Cyber Sunday 2007: Batista vs. Undertaker - Stone Cold Guest Ref - World Title
Cyber Sunday 2008: Chris Jericho vs. Batista - Stone Cold Guest Ref - World Title


Those are all pretty big matches IMO. The only one you wouldn't see at WrestleMania would be the Scramble match and Booker/Cena/Big Show.

[Pardeep 619]

Unforgiven 2003: Goldberg vs. Triple H - World Title
Unforgiven 2004: Randy Orton vs. Triple H - World Title
Unforgiven 2005: John Cena vs. Kurt Angle - WWE Title
Unforgiven 2006: Edge vs. John Cena - TLC Match for WWE Title
Unforgiven 2007: John Cena vs. Randy Orton - WWE Title
Unforgiven 2008: Chris Jericho wins the World Title in the Scramble Match

Cyber Sunday 2004: Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H - WWE Title
Cyber Sunday 2005: John Cena vs. Kurt Angle vs. Triple H - WWE Title
Cyber Sunday 2006: King Booker vs. John Cena vs. Big Show - World Title
Cyber Sunday 2007: Batista vs. Undertaker - Stone Cold Guest Ref - World Title
Cyber Sunday 2008: Chris Jericho vs. Batista - Stone Cold Guest Ref - World Title


Those are all pretty big matches IMO. The only one you wouldn't see at WrestleMania would be the Scramble match and Booker/Cena/Big Show.

Summerslam is a big PPV and (I think) consistently does the second highest buyrate of the year so it is more likely to have matches happen on there for the first time ever. But even Summerslam doesn't get the huge hype Wrestlemania gets. Heck Wrestlemania has at least 2 PPV's (Royal Rumble and No Way Out) to build up the hype to Wrestlemania whereas Summerslam tends to do well based on the quality of the card.

Goldberg vs Triple H and Randy Orton vs Triple H are probably the only two good examples, in that list of matches mentioned, that were completely fresh at that time. But most of those Unforgiven and Cyber Sunday PPV's are filler shows that offer very little value and not that many big feuds have culminated in matches on those PPV's.

[Kane Knight]

Summerslam is a big PPV and (I think) consistently does the second highest buyrate of the year so it is more likely to have matches happen on there for the first time ever. But even Summerslam doesn't get the huge hype Wrestlemania gets. Heck Wrestlemania has at least 2 PPV's (Royal Rumble and No Way Out) to build up the hype to Wrestlemania whereas Summerslam tends to do well based on the quality of the card.

Goldberg vs Triple H and Randy Orton vs Triple H are probably the only two good examples, in that list of matches mentioned, that were completely fresh at that time. But most of those Unforgiven and Cyber Sunday PPV's are filler shows that offer very little value and not that many big feuds have culminated in matches on those PPV's.

Summerslam outbuys the Rumble?

[Johnny Vegas]

Yea, i disagree is DrA on this one.

[Pardeep 619]

Summerslam outbuys the Rumble?

As far as I'm aware it does. Summerslam always seems to do around 500,000 buyrate whereas the Rumble is maybe around 300-400,000?

[Mr. Nerfect]

I sort of agree. While I wouldn't say that WrestleMania is the only show worth ordering a year (you often get some that are better than Mania), I do wish that the company had their shit together all year round.

Something should never be held off until WrestleMania, unless it is a match that really warrants it. I would consider holding off Jericho vs. The Undertaker, for example, just because the streak would add a lot of drama to their first one-on-one encounter like...ever. Building to WrestleMania is good, but holding off can just lead to missed opportunites.

I've brought this up before, and people disagree with me, but I'm not sure I like the idea of TNA just creating a landmark event and calling it their biggest show of the year. They've done that with Bound For Glory, and I just have to ask "What makes that special?" I mean, when WrestleMania started, PPVs were a new thing. In this era, PPVs are the norm. Why does TNA not try to make every PPV a "must watch?"

[James Steele]

TNA is WWE Lite.

[NeanderCarl]

Something should never be held off until WrestleMania, unless it is a match that really warrants it. I would consider holding off Jericho vs. The Undertaker, for example, just because the streak would add a lot of drama to their first one-on-one encounter like...ever.

I would not want to see this match at a WrestleMania. I know that an Undertaker victory is all but guaranteed no matter who he faces, but some are less of a guarantee than others. There would be little intrigue in a Jericho match because nobody in their right mind could believe that Jericho would end the streak. Some people (admittedly even lesser wrestlers than Y2J) you could buy as at least having a chance, but not Jericho. Not when you take politics, context and booking trends into account.