10 Things I Hate About WrestleMania
10. It's Dependent On The Nostalgia Buck
Okay, so WrestleMania has always been about courting celebrity involvement and mainstream indulgence. In recent years, however, Vince McMahons relied on an entirely different kind of special guest star to enhance the pedigree of the card.
Thats right, Im about to crack that hoary old chestnut again: the infamous part-timers.
For a change, lets not dive into the specifics of each case where a middle-aged, part-time wrestling legend has been given a key spot on the card which could - and should - have been saved for a contemporary wrestler who works for the company year-round.
Lets not even get into the mire of quibbling over Brock Lesnars status as a special attraction performer, and whether hes worth the money he takes off the company and the shine he takes off the rest of the roster.
No, lets find some easy common ground here. This is a company thats sunk millions into securing its future with its state-of-the-art Performance Centre training facility and the NXT brand. Lets agree that WWE should probably rethink how it presents the performers of that future, and how theyre seen by the fans.
In basic business-speak: if current and future generations of WWE performers are products - carefully selected, invested in, and released to the consumer with a view to maximising their revenue potential - then WWEs marketing of that product is childish, counterproductive and frivolous, not to mention inconsistent and shortsighted.
Nowhere is that more evident than at WrestleMania, when previous highly successful products that are clearly past their best are trotted out and promoted as still being far superior to the current batch on sale.
What does that tell the consumer about the companys future?