10 Times Outside Factors Totally Changed WWE WrestleMania
War don't draw.
At time of writing, one internal factor is in the midst of changing WrestleMania 35 - and plans are changing by the minute amid pure, fascinating chaos.
That factor is Vince McMahon.
Even in this modern era of rash, impulse booking, one constant abides: WWE intricately books WrestleMania months in advance. Midcard attractions are sometimes left to the last minute - hence the grand tradition of "a multi-man ladder match, f*ck it" - but the key matches usually leak and or are foreshadowed by the end of the prior year.
This year is different. This year, Vince McMahon, in the desperate pursuit of short-term ratings gains, appears to have lost his mind once and for all.
There is as yet no final, concrete plan for the WWE Heavyweight Championship bout, and it is astonishing. With so many normalised bodies strewn across the main roster, WWE will resurrect an as-yet-undetermined corpse (Kevin Owens, Bray Wyatt et al.) to face Daniel Bryan, chiefly in the hope that we forget the extent to which they were murdered in 2018.
Hordes of those bodies - Finn Bálor, Drew McIntyre, Braun Strowman, Samoa Joe, Jeff Hardy, Andrade - are ostensibly on the Road To WrestleMania, only, they've no earthly idea of the direction.
It is an inexcusable indictment of the process - but Vince used to have excuses, once upon a time.
Sometimes.
10. A SHAMBOLIC Approach To Customer Service (WrestleMania XXX)
If he could get away with it - if the match drew just enough money and merely silenced the crowd, as opposed to pissing them sufficiently to risk a mass exodus - Vince McMahon would have The Great Khali Vs. Baron Corbin headline WrestleMania.
All of these things that we hold so affectionately in our hearts - superb technical wrestling, babyface performers we enjoy an organic bond with - don't mean a bloody thing to the COO.
This is how we almost arrived at a main event attraction in Randy Orton Vs. Batista at WrestleMania XXX. That Daniel Bryan guy you love so much? You can still love him, in a 10 minute midcard match, as he squares off against Sheamus - and this time, unlike WrestleManias XXVII and XXVIII, it is actually happening and won't last just 18 seconds!
Rounded off by CM Punk Vs. Triple H - a match Trips wanted in order to funnel that sweet, sweet hardcore fan heat - WrestleMania XXX was almost a grotesquely wasteful drizzles of a show. We were spared it through, let's see here: CM Punk's shocking walkout, Batista's status as persona non grata, and the absolute, deafening refusal of WWE fans to receive an abrasively stubborn narrative.
It's precisely this sort of of bullsh*t that lands WWE in a mire of brand distrust right now - and worryingly for them, the fans may no longer have the heart to fight back.