WWE WrestleMania 30: 5 Reasons John Cena vs. The Undertaker Must Main-Event

2. Undertaker vs. John Cena Is The Biggest Possible Match

Taker Cena Let's assume that The Rock is not going to come back for a fourth straight year and that Steve Austin is going to remain retired recording podcasts from his ranch in Texas. Assuming those things, the biggest match that the WWE could possibly produce for WrestleMania XXX is John Cena vs. Undertaker. "What about Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar," you ask? Lesnar has lost his mystique since his 2012 comeback. The returns on the WWE's investment appear to be dwindling, if you look at the buyrates. The WWE is all about the buyrates. WrestleMania's standard is 1 million PPV buys. If we were to use Wrestlemania 26 as typical for when there is not a huge, fresh match on the Mania card nor a mainstream celebrity (and such things are difficult to predict this far in advance), then 880,000 buys is about what we could expect for a card featuring mostly current roster members and the usual returning suspects. Brock's matches have drawn an average of 60,000 more buyers for his events that did not also feature The Rock, but that average is falling. If built up supremely well for a match with Taker, you could push that number to 80,000 plus buyers, conservatively. That puts the WWE short of a million. Will the types of fans that add to the WrestleMania buyrate be more likely to accept Brock Lesnar, who they saw take a loss to Triple H a year prior, as a threat to the Streak or the guy that they saw defeat The Rock for the WWE Championship in the main-event of the same show? Partly due to the fact that Brock's MMA aura has worn away, as reflected by his decreasing impact on the financial bottom line since Summerslam 2012, one could make a strong argument that more people would pay to see Cena vs. Taker than Brock vs. Taker.
Contributor
Contributor

"The Doc" Chad Matthews has written wrestling columns for over a decade. A physician by trade, Matthews began writing about wrestling as a hobby, but it became a passion. After 30 years as a wrestling fan, "The Doc" gives an unmatched analytical perspective on pro wrestling in the modern era. He is a long-time columnist for Lordsofpain.net and hosts a weekly podcast on the LOP Radio Network called "The Doc Says." His first book - The WrestleMania Era: The Book of Sports Entertainment - ranks the Top 90 wrestlers from 1983 to present day, was originally published in December 2013, and is now in its third edition. Matthews lives in North Carolina with his wife, two kids, and two dogs.