12 Ways WWE Can Still #FreeWrestleMania From Sucking

12. Take The Stigma Out Of The Pre-Show

If a normal pay-per-view runs to just shy of three hours, and a big one like WrestleMania has special dispensation to go to four hours, you've got a ceiling on the number of matches you can run on the card that people will get to see on pay-per-view television. There have always been dark matches, of course: these days, we call them 'kick-off' or the 'pre-show', and because WWE owns a means of broadcast beyond posting videos to YouTube, they're shown on the WWE Network online before WrestleMania proper begins. If WrestleMania as a four hour show can only give us seven matches of an appropriate length to tell their various stories, then let's utilise the Network and the potential of the pre-show. Let's give the undercard a little more to do: these aren't dark matches anymore, they're Network exclusives, appetisers to the main course! How about giving Ryback and Kalisto a solid dozen or so minutes to give us their take on the old tale of the tiny spitfire técnico versus the huge blunt instrument? The United States Championship has had its profile raised in the last year: it deserves a quality showing here, even if these probably aren't the men we might have chosen to deliver it. How about quarter of an hour to give us the burgeoning grudge match between Dolph Ziggler & The New Day versus The League Of Nations? On the main card, they'd get half that if they were lucky. The New Day have been flirting with a babyface turn for a while (if it hasn't already happened), and have been mocking the League in online skits and on social media for even longer: and two of each faction will be facing each other for the tag team titles at Roadblock on Saturday night. More than that, Monday Night RAW this week saw Ziggler in a handicap match against the League, in which the hot/cold, on/off superstar delivered a storming performance. If WWE are committed to this whole deal where they don't give ever give Ziggler a singles match at WrestleMania, the least they could do is give him a real chance to shine in a multi-man match. Finally, I'm all for the Andre The Giant Battle Royal taking place on the pre-show again: that could easily give them a good twenty minutes, and get all the undercard guys a decent payday. Who should win? Why not put Mark Henry over? He's a big guy, he should be winning meaningless battle royals on big stages like this, and this is likely to be his last WrestleMania. Go on, WWE - give him a nice moment to send him off on.