Why WWE WrestleMania No Longer Has The Best Matches Of The Year

This edition will always stand in its own category, to be judged by another set of rules. As an illustration of this, its two best matches, AJ Styles vs The Undertaker and John Cena vs The Fiend, are as great as they are technically unratable.

WWE deserves props for putting cinematic matches on the map and entertaining fans with good TV despite the horrendous circumstances, but the COVID parenthesis was just that: a parenthesis. They did not take this opportunity to rethink their unhealthy part-timers dependency. Let’s not forget that the main matches going into the show were the ones of Brock Lesnar, Goldberg, The Undertaker, Edge and John Cena.

WrestleMania 36 also introduced the double-night formula, which sounds like a good idea, but if you also double the amount of matches, you’re stuck with the same problem. In fact, you’ve even made it worse, as there’s now two overlong programs to endure instead of one.

In effect, what we’ve had for the last two editions is a couple of appealing and truly significant bouts, and Smackdown-level filler. It would do wonders for ‘Mania’s critical reception if there were fewer matches, but all of those matches were more worthy of our time. And if the goal is to put everybody on the card, just bring back the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal.