8 Ways To Ensure A Successful Women's WrestleMania Main Event
We can all expect a first main event, but it needs to be a smash if we ever want a second one.
Despite a controversial ending, October's Hell in a Cell pay-per-view marked a major milestone for the Women's Revolution. For the first time in WWE, a women’s match headlined a pay-per-view special. It’s no secret that demand has never been louder for such a clash in Vinnie Mac’s attack shack of back cracks, and with a secondary PPV main event out of the way, that only leaves one last step in shattering that stone cold glass ceiling: the main event of WrestleMania.
The Showcase of the Immortals is WWE’s most broadly covered event, with everyone from ESPN to Snapchat peeking in on the wrestling world. Plus, if we’re being honest, for much of the world at large if it doesn’t happen at WrestleMania, it’s as if it never happened. (Sorry, girls.) So one has to believe that for the Women’s Revolution to reach its apex, a Mania main event must be in the cards.
However, as with any great build, there are a number of mistakes that can lead to disaster. It’s all too easy to build interest in a great moment, only to have the final reveal fall flat due to incomplete storytelling, core fan alienation, or just general shortsightedness – I’m looking at you, Suicide Squad. So with that, here are 8 ways to ensure a successful Women’s WrestleMania Main Event:
8. Don’t Book It For WrestleMania 33
Please. For the love of Mankind. Don’t jump the gun on this. We’re begging you.
WWE has an uncanny ability to be oblivious to any act that’s gaining steam until its merch tops out the best-sellers list on WWE Shop. Only then do they overcompensate by cramming said act down our throats, thus dampening the very thing we fell in love with. Just this year, the New Day, James Ellsworth, and babyface Seth Rollins have all proven that the guys in charge sure know how to ruin a good thing. And every person rooting for the Superstars with 2 X-chromosomes has to worry that the same fate could befall their main event aspirations.
Now that they've tested the waters at HIAC, Titan Tower might very well want to jump right into a Women's title main event in Orlando. With sure-fire money-printer Bayley finally on the main roster, anyone with half the mental capacity of Festus can predict her rise as champion at the Showcase of the Immortals, and that’s all well and good, but there’s frankly not enough time between November and April to create a compelling story that draws in the casual viewer to accept any of these competitors as main-eventers.
Sure, Charlotte is one of the best heels in the company right now, and Bayley has plenty of backstory with the other Four Horsewomen to draw from, but no amount of video packages and interview segments can transform any of these women into Cena-level megastars that quickly. Bayley’s never had a match at WrestleMania, and the other Horsewomen have only appeared once. Sure, several performers’ first WrestleMania appearances have been in the main event, but for every Brock Lesnar, there are too many Sid Justices, Yokozunas, and Lawrence Taylors mucking about the place. LT aside, these one-time headliners were all fine performers who were thrust into the lead spot much too quickly, and suffered in their momentum because of it. This is something that can't be afforded to the hardworking athletes of the Women's Division who have made this dream a legitimate possibility. They deserve much more than to have their collective bubble burst by reactionary booking.