10 Most Overrated WWE WrestleMania Moments
Matt Striker didn't even mark out.
The fabled WrestleMania Moment jumped the shark last year in Dallas.
As Shane McMahon leapt from the top of the Cell at the finishing sequence of his titular tedium festival with the Undertaker, Michael Cole was seen reading from a script. "For the love of Mankind, Shane McMahon just exploded through our table!" he screamed. Of all the lines to memorise, that was it. And yet, he was seen stood there, paper in hand - as if the allusion to King Of The Ring 1998 wasn't contrived enough. The scene was meant to serve as the point of Shane's heroism. It worked - the crowd went nuts, Shane was received as a returning hero - but that was more an acknowledgement of his real-life bravery than the fabricated storyline.
Shane even appeared the next night on RAW, barely selling the effects of his lunatic fall. The preceding thirty minutes of (nominal) action, and the single spot it built towards, were rendered meaningless. The "moment" had already been captured for highlight reel posterity. Realism was thrown from the window. It was ironic. WWE often attempts to present these moments as organic - but increasingly, they are manufactured in the extreme.
The trend was in vogue long before Shane McMahon fell on a bouncy castle...
10. Zack Ryder Wins The Intercontinental Title - WrestleMania 32
Zack Ryder wasn't even meant to take part in WrestleMania 32's multi-man Intercontinental Title ladder match.
He was an eleventh hour replacement for the injured Neville, but an enterprising WWE staffer must have caught wind of a certain picture - for Ryder, against all storyline congruity, unhooked the gold from the carabiner.
It emerged soon afterwards that Ryder had been pictured with Scott Hall after he captured the Intercontinental Title at WrestleMania X. Since Hall, like essentially everybody connected with the industry, was around for WrestleMania weekend, that picture was subverted and re-taken with roles reversed. Ryder's win wasn't a moment of redemption - it was an opportunity to temporarily spike social media traffic. The agony incurred by Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn et al. was in vain. The match was even retconned in record time. That much was confirmed when The Miz won his 39th Intercontinental Title on the next episode of RAW in an absolutely nothing affair.
Ryder's moment was fleeting - not the belated apex of his run but the hollow shell of marketing spin.