We’re coming to a close on the road to WrestleMania 35 and has it been exciting or what!? This year, we return to the New York/New Jersey region, where the MetLife Stadium will host over 80,000 people in what’s expected to be a historic WrestleMania. For one, we might very well see the first-ever Women’s main event at WrestleMania.
And that’s a bigger deal in more ways than just one. It’s not just about “history” or pushing them to the main event because it sounds good. It’s because the feud between Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair is the hottest heading into the PPV, and is thus deserving of the spot.
It’s also incredible because many believed that while women would someday main event WrestleMania, it would be in the next generation and not the current one. Perhaps that’s the Ronda Rousey effect, and like it or not, she’s helped elevate the women to another level over the course of a year.
That was her objective and whether she stays or leaves, she’s achieved it. But the biggest story in the match isn’t about Ronda Rousey or even Charlotte Flair. It’s about Becky Lynch. Just a year ago, she was nowhere near the SmackDown Women’s title picture. She was in creative limbo, but she slowly started raking up wins, staying as popular as she always had.
The year would be full of crazy twists and turns for The Man, who formed a whole new persona of her own. She became the clear, shining example of what happens when you take the ball and run with it, and she clearly has the trust of management, who’s pushing her as the top babyface of the company.
With Lynch set to make the headlines, there’s one more key observation we made this year that seems to have changed from last year – the part-timer dominance. For the first time in 8 years, we might see the first WrestleMania main event to not include a part-timer (this is, of course, if you consider Batista’s 2014 run a part-time one, which we will for argument’s sake here).
This is one of the best things that happened to WWE in recent memory, as they have now begun to fully invest in the full-time superstars without having to rely on old legends past their prime. Perhaps the fiasco of Super Show-Down’s main event between The Undertaker and Triple H made the main people backstage realize that it probably wasn’t all that good an idea to continue to push part-timers in the main event.
The “part-timer” match this time, however, will be an exciting one. We’re set to witness Triple H and Batista going at it one last time. Batista has been very vocal over the past few years that if he does return to WWE, it’ll mostly just be for a program with Triple H. For the last few years, Triple H has been occupied, putting over younger superstars on the grandest stage of them all.
However, Batista was very adamant about the fact that his return run would have to be done right, and we don’t blame him given how his 2014 run had gone sour. Either way, it’s an exciting prospect.
Even the SmackDown Live side of things will be nothing short of interesting, with Daniel Bryan potentially walking into WrestleMania as a heel WWE Champion. We’re expected to see a dream match between AJ Styles and Randy Orton, while the women of SmackDown look to step up too.
While we’re not sure of some of the title plans as yet, it’s going to be interesting to see how WWE shapes the card of WrestleMania 35 up. We could be seeing one of the most exciting cards in recent memory, and we’ll also see how WWE manages the show going five to six hours long.
Each year, it feels like the length of WrestleMania increases, and that also has a lot to do with the WWE Network. Now that they’re not really relying on PPV sales, they have more leeway and can go as long as they’d like to. Hopefully, that doesn’t translate to burning fans out. What usually happens in such cases is that due to the length of the show and getting everyone on the card, there will be atleast a couple of matches that will suffer as a result.
There need to be “bathroom break” matches or “breathers”, and the sad reality is that there will be a match or two that’s put in the death spot. Hopefully, WWE puts the right match in that place. We keep saying that WWE has the most exciting roster in its history, and we mean that because with each superstar that debuts, the roster continues to get stacked.
The build to WrestleMania 35 since Royal Rumble has been nothing short of fantastic. While not every RAW or SmackDown Live episode has delivered, there has been a sense of consistency, something that’s been severely lacking in the build to WrestleMania the last few years. Either way, the atmosphere and the very fact that it’s WrestleMania will bring out the inner child in all of us.
Happy WrestleMania season!
