10 Worst WWE Roads To WWE WrestleMania

The fabled Road To WrestleMania is paved with a mathematically precise formula for perfection.

The Royal Rumble event is the most fun (or at least it was) and epic method of determining the next championship contender. The month of February is sometimes an inconvenience, or a contrivance - but the 2008 introduction of the Elimination Chamber, while slightly overdoing things, at least guaranteed something of consequence. Ten years earlier, Savio Vega was inexplicably thrusted into the main event of No Way Out Of Texas to the amazement of everyone. Amazement meaning a contravention of sense; we use it in the pejorative sense.

But still, this is WWE. A company defined by paradox, it somehow contrives to lessen excitement for the most exciting night of the year by basically existing as the best and most infuriating wrestling organisation on the planet. It helps that WWE largely saves the most enticing matches (on paper) for the Show Of Shows - but the shows leading up to the Show Of Shows are sometimes compromised by appalling writing and the almost antagonistic will of the men who built it.

Even many of the best WrestleMania events were successful in spite of themselves...

The WWE landscape in early 2011, pre-reconfiguration of developmental/NXT, was absolutely dire.

John Laurinaitis still held a tyrannical grip over the developmental system, refusing to acknowledge the Independent scene which gave rise to the company's eventual rebirth. Certain in-house stars flourished, like The Miz, but he was demoted to extra in his own star vehicle opposite John Cena. The Road was so steered towards the discord between Cena and The Rock that the Miz, once the brightest main event prospect, was overshadowed. It is no coincidence that he only just recovered his relevance over the last year.

Yes, The Rock's comeback promo was the most spectacular heard in years - his "even Stevie Wonder in his basement can see your monkey a**!" line inspired so much fervour that it might as well have been a sermon - but the marginalisation of full-time talent was not limited to the main event.

Triple H challenged the Undertaker's streak because, in his ridiculously counterproductive words, "nobody in the back" was worthy of the privilege. He wasn't wrong - but he was wrong to say it. He made everybody else on the show look redundant.

Maybe if he hadn't demanded twice as much time as anybody else on the show, those unworthy nobodies might have had half a chance to prove him wrong. One of them was Ezekiel Jackson, so probably not, but the moral dilemma still exists.