7 Matches That Should Have Headlined WrestleMania

The existing paradigm of bygone eras must be considered when approaching this subject, in order to tackle it from a realistic standpoint.

We must be careful to not fall into the various traps, else we risk veering into subjective, fanciful and ultimately shallow territory. X was a better match than Y, therefore it should have headlined is a particularly egregious example. WWE should have predicted the future is another. They constantly rewrite the past, and last year expected limited 80's foreign menace heel Jinder Mahal to get over as WWE Champion in the era of the ******1/4 match workrate era. Prescience isn't Vince McMahon's strong suit.

Roman Reigns Vs. Triple H should have headlined WrestleMania 32, irrespective of how predictable and marginal in quality it was (and was expected to be). The Women's Championship Triple Threat match was far better, and while it was framed as a milestone moment, we hadn't yet reached a point at which the Revolution had Evolved to render this a legitimate possibility.

There were times, however, when Vince McMahon - and his HHHeir apparent - should have known better...

It was a coin toss, really.

Nobody would have thought John Cena capable of completely tossing aside Shawn Michaels' protracted limb work, but a match that lengthy was something of a risk. Fewer still anticipated the ineffable chemistry shared between the Undertaker and Batista. But the stakes behind Batista Vs. The Undertaker were of more considerable importance, and their feud actually resembled a feud, and not a retread of the dire opponents-as-tag-team-champions trope. The Streak, in its embryonic phase, did not suffer in the wake of the bout's midcard placement - and it could be argued that the match, wrestled with an intense defiance, was better as a result of it.

The coin should landed on the edge.

Fire up the WWE Network and re-watch the ending of WrestleMania 23. Cena stands in the ring like a b*llocked school pupil, knowing full well that he had dropped a b*llock. This was an ending both underwhelming and unforeseen - but WWE missed an opportunity to craft an ending of iconic visual poetry.

Had 'Mania ended with Vince McMahon's grand humiliation, the premise on which the show was sold to a record number of buyers, we may have seen his bald bonce shining under the lights of a WrestleMania sign erected several feet above his head, in a nice acknowledgement that his creation, with the help of countless performers, had literally outgrown him.