WWE WrestleMania 29: Why It Matters And What It Means For The Future
While making all reservations on judgments of quality, I think you would be hard pressed to find a loyal fan of professional wrestling that wouldnt readily admit that the WWE has changed. Which has always been true, in the business of pro wrestling you either change with the growing demands of your audience or you die. It appears clear to me, though, that a line was drawn in the sand the moment Vince was able to claim victory over the evil forces of Ted Turners WCW. A line that marked an end to the type of fierce competition and cutthroat backroom politics that consistently generated the types of angles and matches that had America on the edge of their seat and screaming for more. Sure it must have been an, at times, miserable ride for the McMahon family; always living on the verge of a full-on company-wide collapse. But it forced Vince and everyone working for him to strive for absolute superiority in their craft and product, resulting in over a decade of some of the best wrestling history that likely has ever been told. Since the end of the Monday night wars, Vince is now the biggest dog in the yard. Independent promotions (even the big ones) cant come close to competing, which only leaves the Jarretts promotion TNA; which by all accounts of comparison to the WWEs previous rivals amounts to little more than a joke in every way possible. Yet even though the TNA model of wrestling ignores all conventional wisdom from professional wrestlings past, resulting in a soulless product that only vaguely resembles the sport weve all come to love, Vinces WWE becomes more and more like TNA every year since the WCW merger. This year this is true more so than ever, resulting in a steady decline in WWEs ratings over the whole of 2012. Which should come as a surprise to no one. When you decide to make your product look and feel more like a worse product, the ratings more closely resemble that of the latter. There is hope, however, a small potential for light at the end of the long tunnel that was 2012s failed gimmicks and poorly booked angles. That light is Wrestlemania 29. It has been true for decades at this point; Wrestlemania consistently marks the opportunity for the WWE to reboot its franchise for the coming year. Maybe its because their ratings at Wrestlemania tend to jump, giving Vince a chance to capture viewer interest for the coming year. Maybe its because the grandest stage of them all offers enough opportunities for title changes, feud resolutions, and star-making moments that the company cant help but change after the event. Regardless of the reason, Wrestlemania represents a genuine chance for the company to make amends for the past year of some of the worst wrestling since Vince Russo put the WCW gold on David Arquette. Lets take a look at the Wrestlemania lineup, the potential happenings and outcomes of each announced match, and what it means for the company going forward in 2013.