Terrible WrestleMania 34 Rumors We Hope Aren’t True

WrestleMania 34 is approaching very quickly, and with it, 2018’s biggest weekend for wrestling. At press time, the road to WrestleMania is still wide open, with the Royal Rumble yet to crown a number one contender, and plenty of time for dramatic shifts in the WWE landscape. Remember that, last year at this time, neither Bray Wyatt nor Goldberg held world titles, and Randy Orton wasn’t exactly a favorite to win the Rumble.

We are getting close enough to ‘Mania season, though, for the rumors to fly fast and furious. We’re close enough, too, that some of those rumors are getting more credible. WWE is making deals with part timers and outside talent, and booking directions start to crystalize.

There are some rumors that warrant excitement, like the potential debut of Ronda Rousey on the WWE roster, or that Chris Jericho may join the select ranks of stars who have worked the Wrestle Kingdom stadium show for New Japan and WrestleMania in the same year. There are, however, other rumors of what to expect in New Orleans that are underwhelming, disappointing, or down right infuriating for the missed opportunities and misuse of talent at WWE’s disposal.

This article takes a look at rumors surrounding WrestleMania 34 at this point that we hope are off base, or even purposeful misdirection on the part of WWE. No one knows for sure what to expect, and injuries or crowd reactions could always change the course of booking. These are fifteen realistic directions for the big show that would be big mistakes.

Since John Cena transitioned into essentially part time status in recent years, the stakes have gone up for his WrestleMania programs. With limited dates on his schedule, ever ty program he works is a big one, and at WrestleMania we have the chance to see him put on a classic with a star talent, or perhaps even put over an up and comer who deserves the rub.

Rumors abound that WWE has very big plans for Cena at this year’s WrestleMania. That could mean a record 17th world championship. It could mean a rematch from No Mercy against his spiritual successor as face of the company, Roman Reigns. Or, it could mean a match with The Undertaker.

Cena has publicly stated that he wanted a WrestleMania match with The Deadman, and while fans can certainly respect Cena’s personal bucket list, it seems like an awful idea to book this encounter. After putting on a series of good to all time great performances for the latter half of his WresteMania winning streak, The Undertaker hasn’t put on a good match in his last four ‘Mania outings. It looked as though he was retiring after losing to Roman Reigns, and it seemed like a fine enough time to go, when it was clear he’d never be the performer he once was. No one’s really clamoring for Undertaker-Cena, the match is unlikely to be that good, and it would squander Cena’s abilities at the biggest show of the year.

At WrestleMania 31, Roman Reigns looked to be traveling one of the most traditional roads to glory WWE has. He won the Royal Rumble and moved on to challenge for his first world title in the main event of ‘Mania, against a dominant heel, Brock Lesnar. WWE seemingly called an audible because fans were rejecting Reigns a little too aggressively, and he didn’t really have the chops to overcome the poor reactions. Three years, later, two more WreslteMania main events and three WWE Championships to his name.

Reigns finally seeing through his destined win over Lesnar is logical enough, but it’s also a painfully obvious choice. Moreover, given Lesnar’s dominance over all contenders this past year, if Reigns does beat him clean, it raises real questions as to whom could possibly challenge The Big Dog for the Universal Championship in the months to follow.

There’s a ton of intrigue about Ronda Rousey, and perhaps her Four Horsewomen of MMA compatriots mixing it up at WrestleMania 34. Rousey is a big enough star with enough real fighting credibility to be an instant draw. Fans are already speculating about dream matches between her and Charlotte Flair, Asuka, or maybe someone like Sasha Banks or Alexa Bliss.

But what of Rousey vs. Stephanie McMahon?

WWE planted some of the seeds for this match in their altercation at WrestleMania 31, and Stephanie does have at least as much name recognition as any active female wrestler. Moreover, she did perform quite respectably in her last in-ring outing with Brie Bella. McMahon is not, however, in the same class of performer as Flair, let alone Asuka. If Rousey is going to wrestle, we can’t take it for granted and WWE should put forth the best possible match it can for this special occasion. Keep Stephanie out of the ring, at least until Rousey has gotten her start against better performers.

WWE Raw Wasted Yet Another John Cena Return

John Cena returned to WWE on this week's episode of Monday Night Raw without any obvious rhyme or reason.

Just over a month ago, Cena made a forgettable appearance at Survivor Series as a member of Team SmackDown (what was the point of him being pinned by Kurt Angle?), and his return on this week's Raw came with very little hype and absolutely no build whatsoever. Yet, the timing of his return wasn't at all a coincidence.

Cena's return to SmackDown in late December 2016 after a lengthy layoff catapulted the blue brand to its first and only viewership victory over Raw since the brand split in July 2016, so the obvious hope was that Cena's addition to the Christmas day edition of Raw would result in strong TV ratings and viewership. WWE has, after all, struggled with declining viewership around the holidays, and episodes of Raw or SmackDown that fall on Christmas Eve or other holidays (which have traditionally been taped episodes) have typically bombed.

Still, the decision to randomly bring back Cena on a special live Christmas Day edition of Raw reeked of desperation. It came with little thought or effort, and his predictable win over Elias marked yet another waste of Cena after the pitiful use of "The Champ" at Survivor Series.

This week's episode of Raw took place at the Allstate Arena in Chicago, which has historically been a strong market for WWE but not as of late. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t WrestlingInc), WWE failed to sell out both the Backlash and NXT TakeOver events that were held at the Allstate Arena back in May while attendance at events held there has dropped considerably over the last several years:

While there was a majority of the upper deck tarped off for Takeover, Backlash had very few empty seats but was not sold out...WWE reportedly had around 9,500 Backlash tickets sold before they started announcing matches and ended up with around 9,800 - 10,000 tickets sold. It was believed by some that a sell out for Backlash was a given but that was not the case.

The Allstate Arena can usually hold more than 18,000 fans for a pro wrestling event. A September 2016 RAW live event drew 9,500 fans while a March 2016 RAW episode drew 10,800 fans. The 2014 Payback pay-per-view had an announced attendance of 13,311 fans while the 2015 Extreme Rules pay-per-view had an announced attendance of 14,197 and the 2016 Payback pay-per-view had an announced attendance of 13,250.

Cena is a known live event draw who almost single-handedly helped SmackDown generate better average live event attendance than Raw earlier this year, so it appears that WWE's desire to use Cena's drawing power on this week's Raw came at the expense of having a worthwhile storyline for him. Sure, we got a match between Cena and Elias that may (and let's stress that may part) help Elias get more over, but WWE didn't announce it beforehand and it will ultimately have little to no effect on future storylines.

That can only be described as questionable booking when you consider that there will likely be limited opportunities to use Cena going forward.