It has become the norm nowadays to trash WWE for their slapdash approach to booking.
A superstar could be WWE Champion one month, and then be on Main Event the next (looking at you Jinder Mahal). As a result, when WWE occasionally do get their booking right, people tend not to notice.
Of course, that isn’t always the case. The Kofi Kingston/Daniel Bryan storyline has been very warmly received by everyone. For a long time, we didn’t know who Daniel Bryan would be facing at Wrestlemania. A lot of good names were bandied about – John Cena, Bray Wyatt, Mustafa Ali, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn; the list felt endless. Then, due to a cruel stroke of luck, Mustafa Ali was ruled out of the Elimination Chamber due to injury. He looked most likely at this point to be getting the Mania title shot, but fate intervened and ruled him out. Consequently, WWE needed a replacement. They chose Kofi, a guy who was popular with the fans but who never looked like escaping the
Say what you will about Vince McMahon, but he played everyone magnificently here. He kept teasing it, and then put huge obstacles in Kofi’s path. He knew what he was doing, and the fans ate it all up. When Big E and Xavier Wood won a Gauntlet match to finally confirm the match, it was the loudest pop heard on WWE Television for years. In fact, it was the loudest since the Occupy Raw movement led by… Daniel Bryan.
The parallels between the two are huge. Both were hugely popular with the WWE Universe. Both toiled away in the midcard for years before getting a chance. Both had vocal fan support demanding that they get an opportunity. These two are testament to the fact that if you keep plugging away, and get the fans behind you, then you will get an opportunity at the big time. Daniel Bryan seized it, and on Sunday, we’ll find out if Kofi Kingston will also seize the opportunity.
However, this is not the best part of Wrestlemania. The main story is that after over 30 years of Bra and Panties matches, or not even being on the card at all, the Women of WWE will finally main event WrestleMania, when Smackdown Women’s Champion Charlotte, Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey
Now, I’ll admit that it’s not exactly been the smoothest Road to Wrestlemania. They’ve put too many stupid sub-plots in when it should have been very simple. However, I am of the (somewhat controversial) opinion that at this point, the story doesn’t matter as much now.
As long as you have a grasp of the basics, you’ll be fine. The main story here is that the women are finally main eventing WrestleMania. They’ve had to work so hard to get this opportunity, and fully deserve it. They’ve had the match of the night on most PPVs recently, and Becky Lynch has been the hottest star in WWE for well over 6 months now.
Let’s not forget that she was never meant to be included in the match at all. Ronda was always gonna be in the main event of Mania, and Charlotte is WWE’s MVP, but Becky has had to scratch and claw to get here. Last year she was in the pre-show Battle Royal and didn’t even make it to the end, being eliminated halfway through by Mickie James. Everything that’s happened to her in the past nine months is down to her hard work and dedication, as well as having a massive fanbase willing to do whatever it takes to get her to the top.
Take nothing away from Ronda or Charlotte though. Ronda especially has improved so much in the past 12 months. She had the match of the night at Wrestlemania 34 and has come on leaps and bounds since then. If she does leave after Wrestlemania 35, she’ll do so having had the best 12 months a rookie has ever had in WWE.
Charlotte is… well, she’s Charlotte. WWE’s greatest ever female performer, she has worked her backside off to try and establish her own legacy away from her father, Ric Flair. Always entertaining whether she’s a face or a heel, she’ll long be remembered as not just an all-time female great, but as one of the greatest in the modern era.
Away from those two matches, there’s been some great work elsewhere. Batista and Triple H have reignited their classic feud from 2005 in order to prove who was truly Evolutions best. Randy Orton and AJ Styles have traded some vicious barbs towards each other in a battle of two of Smackdown’s very best. Also, Shane McMahon and The Miz have been going back and forth in a great war of words in a deeply personal
All these feuds have proven that WWE can build storylines up properly when given the chance. What these Superstars now need to do is prove to the world that they can deliver a stellar performance on The Grandest Stage of them all: WrestleMania.