10 Times WWE Sacrificed WrestleMania For The Greater Good
Sometimes even 'The Grandest Stage' gets put on the chopping block.
Whether you call it ‘The Showcase of the Immortals,’ ‘The Grandest Stage of Them All,’ ‘The Show of Shows,’ or something else entirely, WrestleMania is the centrepiece of the annual Sports Entertainment calendar.
It is the monolith around which everything else revolves. WWE’s entire storytelling mechanism is calibrated to build towards it, with the moments and memories made that night critical to their narrative universe. It hosts the biggest matches, blows off the biggest storylines, and creates the biggest highlights. In this, the content era, it is as important as it ever has been, and the show bringing in tens of millions of dollars every single year, it’s a key component of the company’s bottom line as well.
This doesn’t mean WrestleMania isn’t fair game for sacrifice, though. History has shown WWE is more than willing to hurt the biggest show of the year if greater gains are to be made later down the line - and the examples within prove it. Each was met with scorn, fury, and in some cases, a cute little protest hashtag.
Note that the titular “greater good” comes from WWE’s perspective and that this isn’t an attempt at justifying every decision within. While a handful of these examples did work on some level, others failed. Completely.
Let’s get into it…
10. Postponing WrestleMania 36
To begin with the most obvious example, 16 March saw WWE confirm that WrestleMania 36 would be held not from the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida as originally intended, but an empty WWE Performance Center in Orlando, as the promotion mirrors their Raw/SmackDown strategy with an even that would have played out to upwards of 70,000 fans if not for current events.
The writing was on the wall when, on 12 March, the city of Tampa essentially told WWE that the promotion had a week to postpone or alter the event before they stepped in and forced their hand. Vince McMahon and co. have gotten ahead of that, making a decision that will surely result in the most surreal ‘Show of Shows’ of all time.
What will ‘Mania look stripped of its bombast? Without its pyro, ballyhoo, and hordes of fired-up fans, will it even look or feel like ‘The Showcase of the Immortals’? Will it go 7-8 hours again? Will the novelty last the full broadcast? Will WWE scale back on the card? The list of questions continues.
WWE is in a tough, tough spot here. They’ve made a big decision under the most trying circumstances. For that, they deserve leeway, so let’s see how ‘Mania 36 pans out.