10 Ways WWE Is Killing WrestleMania
9. The Failure To Replace The Undertaker & Shawn Michaels
Shawn Michaels owned the nickname Mr. WrestleMania, but The Undertaker did just as much to earn it.
Now that the Undertaker has closed the casket lid on his career, there is no one performer synonymous with the show - no man who is practically guaranteed to unleash a classic performance on the Grandest Stage. This is important. Without that elixir, that promise of unmissable quality (or at least, prestige) 'Mania is in danger of becoming just another show.
Triple H entered a bravura heel performance on Sunday, and at WrestleMania XXX with Daniel Bryan, but his recent record elsewhere is patchy at best. His match with Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 32 was almost a parody of the WWE Style. With Triple H, there is no such guarantee.
Seth Rollins is quietly presenting a case for the indy darling generation, but it'll take more than one minor classic to make the connection. Bray Wyatt has been sacrificed at the Show of Shows. Roman Reigns is Roman Reigns. As good as his matches often are - his 2016 series with AJ Styles was better than anything John Cena, Chris Jericho or Dean Ambrose managed - he is going to be received as Roman Reigns, not a marquee performer.
What WWE should have done, when Michaels retired, was build one or two new stars as his successor - a man who always excels on the biggest stage. They should have set another Streak in motion, too - but such a carefully-plotted character arc was never going to happen, given the short-term objectives WWE has set itself in recent years.