Why WWE WrestleMania 38 Reeks Of Desperation
Company is relying on smoke and mirrors to hide institutional shortcomings.
From the outset, let’s establish the obvious: WrestleMania has always been a spectacle. WWE’s biggest show of the year has long been an extravaganza that has combined wrestling, pop culture, celebrity, showmanship and glitz since its inception way back in 1985.
The inaugural event featured Cyndi Lauper managing, Mr. T wrestling, and celebrities such as Liberace, Billy Martin and Muhammad Ali involved in the main event. Through the years, wrestlers have made stunning returns to action, sports figures have crossed over, and celebrities have stepped inside the ring to tangle with WWF/E superstars. To list all the truly special moments would fill this entire intro.
But that also is a list that spans 37 WrestleManias. We literally are talking about decades of involvement, whether it’s Alice Cooper at WM 3, Lawrence Taylor at WM 11, The Rock at WMs 28 and 29, or Ronda Rousey at WM 34.
But WrestleMania 38 is something truly special. WWE is pulling out all the stops to build this year’s event as “The most stupendous two-night WrestleMania in history…” which is comical considering this is only the third two-night Mania ever, and the first was the empty-arena edition at the Performance Center. But we digress.
The buildup is for one simple reason: to sell tickets. A company that brags about filling the same stadium with 101,000 screaming fans six years ago surely wants to boast about having 200,000 attendees over two nights, right?
But ticket sales are lagging (despite various deals), and WWE is notoriously bad at writing compelling television, forcing them to employ a series of desperate tactics to artificially inflate the event. Individually, they wouldn’t seem egregious. But crammed together in the same year?
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