10 Worst WWE WrestleMania Endings
Limping to the finish line.
Works of fiction of all kinds are very often judged on their endings.
In some ways, this is slightly unfair. After all, it's possible for the first 300 pages of a book to be brilliant, and the final 50 disappointing. Are we to then conclude that the author is a hack because they've written something that is only 85% a masterpiece?
The answer to this is of course yes, and - putting this laboured metaphor into WWE terms - the same can perhaps be said of WrestleMania, the company's biggest show of the year. If the ending is bad, it tends to sour our view of the entire event, however brilliant the rest may have been.
Fortunately, the majority of the time (66% is still a majority) they get things bang on. The broadcast either goes off the air with a universally popular figure standing tall with the belt, or having just given the world a five-star wrestling masterclass.
This doesn't happen all the time, though. In fact, there have been several WrestleManias that have sent the fans home on an unhappy - or at the very least, underwhelming - note.
10. WrestleMania 29
You can forgive Rock-Cena I. It wasn't a five-star classic, but the allure of seeing the Attitude Era's leading man (or, at least, one of them) come up against his PG Era counterpart was undeniable, even for the most entrenched members of the internet wrestling community.
But the sequel didn't make for a vintage WrestleMania ending.
The novelty of seeing these two lock horns had worn off, and since it was obvious that Rock wasn't keeping the WWE Title beyond April, their bout this time around lacked any sense of unpredictability.
Of course, it's true that, having secured The Great One's signature for the biggest show of the year, it would be crazy not to bill him as the night's biggest attraction. Putting on the same main event two years on the spin, however, just felt wrong.
And, while we don't wish to further inflate CM Punk's sense of injustice, it did seem like a bit of a slap in the face to the the rest of the roster to sideline them in favour of a Hollywood part-timer contesting what could turn out to be the final match (of more than five seconds) of his career.