How WrestleMania Almost Killed WWE
Vince McMahon crowned Bret Hart WWE Champion for a second time at WrestleMania X, but it was the first time Vince McMahon categorically went with 'The Hitman' as his post-Hulkamania guy after a debacle that saw Hogan politick his way to a fifth title reign at the 'Show Of Shows' the prior year. It was the same night Shawn Michaels leapt forward as a next top guy thanks to the instantly iconic Intercontinental Championship ladder match with Razor Ramon, and the two were key maintaining core audiences in the lean years ahead.
WrestleMania XI in 1995 showed the company’s creative and financial struggles in full view, headlined as it was by a celebrity match between NFL star Lawrence Taylor and Bam Bam Bigelow that lacked the true crossover magic of the original celebrity-heavy era and felt more like a desperate attempt to regain mainstream attention rather than own a spotlight already shone upon it. Hart and Michaels took centre stage for an hour the following year, but in respectively making and launching Stone Cold Steve Austin in 1998, the two were able to be as integral to the company's commercial salvation as they were all the critical acclaim. There have been more words donated to the Attitude Era than any other, but the explosion of 'The Rattlesnake' proved to be the rising tide raising all ships. The WWE sky was full of stars once again, and after two more WrestleManias in arenas, the company arrived back in the stadium for 2001's X-Seven - a still-critically lauded show that nonetheless was rapidly revised as the boom's beginning of the end.
After mixing the vibes in the intervening years, WWE made the permanent decision to hold every WrestleMania in a stadium, beginning with WrestleMania 23 at Ford Field in Detroit. This call was a declaration that the event was no longer just the company'’s biggest event - it was a global spectacle, bigger not just than the world it inhabited, but indeed the one we all did. It was PR swing on par with the decision to go with the original WrestleMania, and yet another one that initially paid insane dividends. Larger crowds meant more ticket sales, and the grandeur of guaranteed stadiums and "host cities" made the event feel evem more special. Production values skyrocketed, with elaborate stage designs, massive LED screens, and pyrotechnics budgets that topped anything else in the company calendar. However, this shift also came with an unintended downside - by increasing the scale of WrestleMania’s presentation, WWE was also magnifying its creative missteps on the biggest stage possible. As 'The Grandest Stage continued to grow in scale, the quality of storytelling direction under the worst of Vince McMahon autocracy continued to decline. Raw and SmackDown as television entities had become inconsistent, plagued by repetitive feuds, endless questionable booking decisions, and a reliance on part-time wrestlers at the expense of full-time talent.
This issue became glaringly apparent in events like WrestleMania 32 in 2016, which, despite being held in front of a then-record (heavily worked) 101,763 fans at AT&T Stadium in Texas, was widely criticised for its marathon runtime and unsatisfying booking. Roman Reigns’ coronation as the new top babyface fell flat with the crowd, who rejected him as the company’s latest Hulk Hogan-like figure. The card exposed the market leader's struggles with pacing and match placement, making the spectacle feel exhausting rather than exhilarating. By WrestleMania 34 in 2018, WWE’s booking problems were impossible to ignore. The show featured a match between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns that was meant to cement 'The Big Dog' as the face of the present and future, but the crowd vocally rejected it, hijacking the match with chants of "This is awful" and "CM Punk." Meanwhile, WrestleMania 35 in 2019 suffered from a bloated runtime of over seven hours, making it the longest WrestleMania ever and causing damaging fatigue by the time the historic first ever women's main event hit the ring.
Reality bit in 2020, but oddly enough, left a mark that once again took the 'Show Of Shows' from death's door back to the promised land.
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