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WrestleMania 35 is a week from tomorrow and almost the entire show feels underwhelming. While there is a lot of buzz around the main event, it feels more like a marketing campaign than something truly special. The main event has a lot of problems that have rippled outward these past few months. And already, people aren't as excited about it as they could have been.
Though the match will certainly be good at the least, the sizzle has been lost. Here's how the main event has failed to take the opportunity given to it.
#3 It threw away magic almost from day one
Do you remember this segment? It seems like a world away now. There was magic in the air. It brimmed with intangible greatness that makes the crucial ingredient in all-time classic angles and matches. Everyone knew it as soon as it happened. Everyone was excited.
And then starting from the very next night, WWE threw it all away. To shoehorn Charlotte into the angle, WWE gave us weeks of a nonsensical Becky Lynch injury that nobody believed and the latest iteration of the tired authority figure storyline. To get Becky Lynch back into the match, we were subject to a deflating angle at Fastlane.
All of this took weeks. Those weeks blunted the excitement of this match. We were then left with generic segments spread out over both shows every week, segments we'd basically seen between Becky and Charlotte since SummerSlam.
No one asked for or wanted Charlotte to be in this match. The result has been a convoluted, diluted angle which has made a mess of a straightforward clash of the baddest storyline that we were presented with on January 28th.
The match itself will be fine, but it's lost the luster that could have made it remembered as one of the best WrestleMania main events.
#2 It has sucked the air out of almost everything else
While Asuka's title reign was the most infamous casualty of the convoluted WrestleMania main event, it was far from the only one. Most of the other matches on the card just feel like they're happening to happen, with little attention being paid to them.
Even Seth Rollins and Brock Lesnar feel like afterthoughts. The angle between them is so thin that it almost feels like it isn't big enough to see Brock Lesnar's fall, which would be catastrophic for Raw.
Meanwhile, most of the matches on the midcard have barely been promoted at all. It truly feels like all of WWE's resources are being poured into the triple threat main event, and they're adding all these bells and whistles because they don't trust the women to get it over on their own. The result has been the opposite of what they intended.
#1 It isn't even the most exciting match anymore
Make no mistake, THIS is the most exciting angle heading into WrestleMania. It isn't even close. WWE killed the momentum of Becky Lynch's quest for the title and suddenly Kofi Kingston is just about the hottest thing going.
Look at the expression on Kofi Kingston's face. You can feel his emotional state. This isn't the convoluted, scripted and banal story that the main event has become. This is a genuine, raw rise to the top after years upon years of paying his dues. Where the main event feels forced and inauthentic, this is organic and real.
It is a fortunate thing indeed that WWE stumbled into a goldmine with this angle, and, to give them credit, they've run with it without ruining it, probably because there wasn't a "chosen one" immediately on hand to challenge Bryan instead.
Either way, this has felt like the real main event for the past month and a half. The triple threat feels empty in comparison. If Kofi wins, there is a good chance it will be overshadowed.
