10 WWE Matches That Completely Fell Short Of Expectations

Having been scheduled to close out a show that had already staged Shawn Michaels vs. the Undertaker – arguably the greatest ‘Mania match of all time – Triple H and Randy Orton were facing an uphill battle right off the bat.

Also, with a backstory as personal as this one, in which Orton had attacked and then kissed Stephanie McMahon after Triple H had “broken into” Orton’s home, the eventual match felt like it needed a No Disqualification type of stipulation. Unfortunately, it lacked one, while there was also the added condition that Triple H would lose his title in the event that he was disqualified, making this about as far from being a No DQ match as reasonably possible.

As such, you could argue this one was always likely to struggle to live up to the pre-match hype, and that ultimately proved to be the case. Both guys hit their finishers early, in an attempt to start the match off hot when it might have been better to have allowed the fans to come back down to earth following that ‘Taker match before gradually building back to a grand finale.

From there, the action just never really picked up. And to top it all off, Triple H used a sledgehammer anyway, nullifying that stipulation about him losing the title.

All things considered, and for a number of reasons, this just felt like too flat of a finish for the 25th edition of WrestleMania.