10 Things WWE Must Do To Ensure WrestleMania 33 Doesn't Suck
Anticipation is low - but 'Mania is far from dead in the water.
Things aren't looking too hot for WrestleMania 33 at the moment. Only Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar has been booked thus far, and aside from a couple of potentially great matches in Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton and Chris Jericho vs. Kevin Owens, the rumoured card leaves much to be desired.
WWE reportedly plans on having AJ Styles fight Shane McMahon, of all people, and there's an extremely high chance that we'll see Shaquille O'Neal wrestle in Orlando. Add Dean Ambrose vs. Baron Corbin, Triple H vs. Seth Rollins, and the John Cena/Nikki Bella vs. The Miz/Maryse tag match to the equation, and you have a card that looks only marginally better than last year's shambles.
Raw and SmackDown have been strong in recent weeks, but WWE have done little to build anticipation for their flagship show thus far. The current card has "dud" written all over it - but there's still five weeks of programming to go. WWE can still save this sinking ship.
It'll take some sharp booking, a strong build, and possibly a couple of card adjustments, but there's still time. The last thing the company want is a repeat of last year's critical panning, with with a few sharp adjustments, they can make the Showcase of the Immortals truly worthy of its tag.
10. Get Fastlane Right
Next weekend’s Fastlane pay-per-view is the last major stop on the Road to WrestleMania, and the bulk of the show’s major matches are already in place. Kevin Owens will defend his Universal Championship against Goldberg in the main event, and they’ll be supported by a stacked undercard that includes Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns, and Bayley vs. Charlotte Flair.
The card looks promising, but Raw have developed an unfortunate habit of turning strong cards into poor pay-per-views since the 2016 draft. Clash Of Champions and Hell In A Cell stand as perfect examples, and with each of Fastlane’s main matches having a huge impact on the WrestleMania card, they can’t afford to screw things up.
Taking the Cruiserweight and Tag Team Titles away from Neville and Anderson & Gallows would be completely needless, as would breaking Charlotte’s pay-per-view streak. Goldberg taking KO’s title feels like an inevitability at the moment, but Reigns vs. Strowman is the big one. There’s a strong chance that Braun was only ever built up to be fed to Reigns, but doing so here would be a needless burial of one of Raw’s most improved wrestlers.
Enthusiasm for WrestleMania 33 is already pretty low, but a strong Fastlane could help salvage some of the event’s lost intrigue - provided WWE don’t shoot themselves in the foot.