This past Sunday, wrestling fans around the world crowded living rooms, bars, and Allegiant stadium in Las Vegas full of excitement and anticipation to witness the super bowl of pro wrestling, WWE’s WrestleMania 41. I myself was hyped for the event, as last year’s WrestleMania in Phillidelphia proved to be an absolute spectacle. However, the two day event has now come and gone, and while I can say I still enjoyed it, I feel like it just didn’t live up to it’s hype.
WrestleMania was plagued with issues right from the start, as despite it’s flashy innovative set up and display, the event felt to me and many others overran with ads. Ads covered the ring and the turnbuckles, and there were way too many commercial breaks that felt like they interrupted the action. I know WWE, being a multi-billion dollar company, can definitely afford to deem down the amount of advertisements during their show, so it honestly felt so greedy on their part.
“There were way too many ads. And the crowd never even felt like they were that into the event either so that sucked.” said WWE fan Carlos Hernandez
Looking past the ads however, I no doubt find myself aligning with so many other fans in saying that I was pretty disappointed in the action itself. There was no doubt some star-studded matches, including the thrilling triple threat match between Bianca Belair, Iyo Sky, and Rhea Ripley,as well as the a nail-biting masterclass between Roman Reigns, CM Punk, and Seth Rollins, but so many matches felt dull and rushed. The speedy and unexpected endings like Jey Uso’s submission of Gunther for the world heavyweight championship has sparked much criticism online. Other matches just felt like they simply didn’t live up to the grandiose of Mania.
My younger sister who is also a WWE fan commented on the event, saying “I think it was lackluster because the matches were kind of dull and the main event was just okay entertaining wise, especially compared to last year.”
Many wrestling fans including myself would definitely agree that this year’s highly anticipated night two main event fight between John Cena and world champ Cody Rhodes evidently felt weak, stale, and empty. This was a major disappointment of a climax for a fued that had been steady building for the past few months.
I have been a wrestling fans for years, and I have seen some of WWE’s best work and some of their worst, and although I wouldn’t say this WrestleMania was terrible, the company clearly dropped the ball on their biggest show of the year. I know WWE can and will do better, but that Mania was sadly nothing more than mid.
