7 Ups & 9 Downs From WWE Raw (Nov 8)

Downs…

9. WWE Builds Stars

WrestleMania 38
WWE.com

Tickets go on sale soon for WrestleMania 38 in Dallas, so WWE decided to plug it by showing highlights from the last time Mania was in the Lone Star State, way back in 2016.

Despite being just a scant five years ago, here are the stars WWE chose to highlight in the video package: Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Steve Austin, Shane McMahon, The Rock, Undertaker, Triple H, Charlotte Flair, Shawn Michaels, New Day, Roman Reigns and Becky Lynch.

Notice a pattern there? Just five short years after WM 32, the overwhelming majority of superstars they deemed highlight-worthy are part-timers, many of whom aren’t competing any longer. This is a combination of releasing superstars (the Wyatt Family, Zack Ryder, Chris Jericho, Rusev and Dean Ambrose all featured at that Mania), and just the company not actually building stars.

The one from that bunch that has actually turned into a star after WM 32 was Becky, who was good, but an afterthought in the triple threat with Flair and Sasha Banks.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.