WWE: Backstage talk on top Wrestlemania matches; Rock may not appear at all

[M.C.G. 31]

- We noted before via PWInsider that John Cena vs. The Undertaker is one of the planned main events for WWE's WrestleMania 32 next year. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports this week that Cena vs. Roman Reigns for the WWE World Heavyweight Title was planned, at least before Seth Rollins got injured. This goes with the report that Reigns was set to win the title from Rollins at Survivor Series or soon after.

The Observer reports that Rollins was set to face Triple H at WrestleMania 32. The Rock vs. Triple H had been planned but the Rollins match was just recently chosen as WWE creative were told that both Rock and Ronda Rousey wouldn't be available to wrestle next year.

Apparently The Rock has an insurance problem as a movie he will be filming in 2016 had an issue with covering him if he did any pro wrestling before the movie was filmed, due to the obvious risk of injury. Unless something changes, Rock will likely just be making an appearance in Dallas next year, not wrestling.

If the Cena vs. Undertaker reports are true, that could mean Reigns will face Brock Lesnar. We know that Taker vs. Lesnar was planned for WrestleMania 32 at one point but pushed up and the feud was ended at Hell In a Cell.

Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Man... Cena and Reigns. Jesus, that would not have been a good main event. Based off this, I assume the plan was:

Reigns/Cena
HHH/Rollins
Lesnar/Rock

before the Rollins injury.

Click to read more...

 

[Dr Pepper]

Rock isn't gonna wrestle?

Killer.

What I'd like to see:

Preshow: Divas battle royale - Bayley winning.

Reigns/Ambrose - Ambrose wins.

Lesnar/Owens - Lesnar wins.

Taker/Wyatt - Taker finally puts over Wyatt.

New Day/Dudleyz (TLC match) - Dudleyz win.

Cena/Cesaro - Cesaro wins.

Plus filler matches, etc. Can't think of any other good ones right now.

 

[Karma]

I'd have much more interest in Cena vs Taker if it happened years ago with the streak still intact. Although I'd still probably like it better than Cena vs Reigns.

 

[Blitzkrug]

God no. Cena can't carry old man Taker to a good match. Him and Reigns would also be a disaster, especially if it's the main event.

Imagine Vince's dream of one golden boy (Cena), passing the torch to his new golden boy (Roman) as Cena, the man who overcame all odds, fails to overcome Reigns in a WWE title match. Or something equally hokey and not at all entertaining. Here's one; Reigns vs Undertaker. I don't want it, but Vince probably does.

With Rollins and Orton gone, Rock being unable to compete (one a good performer, and the other is always money come Mania) this has the potential to be the ugliest Wrestlemania in a long time. You can't go out an bring in a part timer since most of those options are exhausted.

I wonder how many times Vince has begged Austin to go one more time with all of the injuries. I'd love to see Ambrose somehow end up with the title, become a loose(r) cannon nutcase who somehow steps on Austin's toes, forcing him to come out of retirement for a title match. Obviously this doesn't happen because A; WWE does not give two ****s about Dean Ambrose and B: Stone Cold is 99.9999999% retired.

This begs the question; what the **** do you do? You have no draws hardly, most people probably don't want another Lesnar main event and you have a bunch of geeks in the midcard.

 

[The Gongshow]

Are they planning to have Cena vs Heel Reigns(c) where Cena wins his 16th title at the biggest WM.. oh god...

They might be in trouble, they have no real main eventers on the roster because of their terrible booking and have some big injuries and no goes. They want this to be their biggest WrestleMania but might end up having the worst..... A lot can happen between now and March when they get down the stretch of the RTWM

Brock(c) vs Bryan could be a pretty decent draw .. I think...

 

[ColePens]

Brock/Bryan, Cena/taker, hhh/reigns could be 3 big matches. Ambrose heel turn to give hhh the win. Let Wyatt beat anyone lol.

Cena and taker will sell even tho taker is not anywhere near where he used to be in the ring. It's time for him to retire. It's enough to sell the event.

 

[BonMorrison]

The last two Wrestlemania's have had horrid build and looked pretty bad on paper but both ended up being in the upper-tier of quality Wrestlemania's so I'm hoping WWE can replicate that because as of now, it's not looking pretty with all the injuries.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

Reigns vs Lesnar II and Cena vs Taker are two matches I have no interest in seeing, especially Cena vs Taker.

 

[Le Tricolore]

None of these matches interest me.. great. I'm sure it'll be fun as hell to be there live, but, on paper, this looks pretty bland.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

Brock-Bryan, Taker-Sting, HHH-Reigns, Cena-Ambrose (the latter two could be flipped between Reigns and Ambrose depending on who turns at Survivor Series). If Rock and Austin aren't going to play a major role in the event, I have a hard time believing they will sell the place out even with Brock-Bryan being the best match they could possibly put together given the circumstances.

 

[Paris in Flames]

The last two Wrestlemania's have had horrid build and looked pretty bad on paper but both ended up being in the upper-tier of quality Wrestlemania's so I'm hoping WWE can replicate that because as of now, it's not looking pretty with all the injuries.

I'm not 100% sure that's totally true. Last Mania wasn't bad but I think Rollins cashing in and winning the title left a more positive image in everybody's mind than if he hadn't.

Looking back on the card I know the Ladder Match for the IC Title & Orton vs Rollins were good matches and you can probably add Brock vs Reigns (and later Rollins) but I'm not sure what else beyond that was above good. HHH vs Sting was fun but stupidly booked..Taker vs Bray was hindered by Bray only having one ankle..etc.

And Cena vs Rusev was so disheartening I can't even remember if there was a decent match in there.

 

[BonMorrison]

I'm not 100% sure that's totally true. Last Mania wasn't bad but I think Rollins cashing in and winning the title left a more positive image in everybody's mind than if he hadn't.

Looking back on the card I know the Ladder Match for the IC Title & Orton vs Rollins were good matches and you can probably add Brock vs Reigns (and later Rollins) but I'm not sure what else beyond that was above good. HHH vs Sting was fun but stupidly booked..Taker vs Bray was hindered by Bray only having one ankle..etc.

And Cena vs Rusev was so disheartening I can't even remember if there was a decent match in there.

The reason why this one was held in higher regard is that whilst there was only really two-or-three big moments, there was little on the card that could be considered bad while other Mania's are hindered when we look back on them as having several pretty craptacular things on them. WM30 and WM31 are also huge rebounds after the dreaded three-head dog of absolute **** we got from Wrestlemania 27 to 29.

Too bad HF doesn't keep our old threads because everyone was praising WM as one of the best in recent years after it was over. Even looking around online I found this (yes it's Wiki but it's sourced):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleMania_31#Reception

In his live report from the event, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter described the event as "one of the best shows I've ever seen. Several great matches, a killer angle and very little that wasn't good". He also praised the involvement of Ronda Rousey.

Overall, he stated that WrestleMania 31 was "one of the more balanced WrestleManias in history because there was not a bad match. But it also didn't have anything close to a match of the year or a candidate for best Mania match".

 

[KaseMeOutside]

cena vs reigns in front of a WM crowd
oh my god

super cena vs samoan cena in front of the smarks

 

[The Gongshow]

Cena vs Taker would be so boring I don't want to see that at all. Without the streak theres not a lot for Taker to do anymore and he should just retire. If the streak was in play I would 100% want to see this match because Cena never looses and well neither did Taker. Now it would just be a random match with no story behind it. Taker should have lost to Bray last year and then retired.

 

[Serac]

Taker and Cena has potential
But only if Cena does the thing we've all wanted for a decade
With him cheating to win and turning heel
As has been suggested before by someone who talked about booking a decent Cena/Taker match at WM

 

[M.C.G. 31]

It's time to turn Wyatt face and have him "take down the machine" for Wrestlemania 32.

Roman vs. Brock
Cena vs. Taker
HHH vs. Wyatt

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

Heel Reigns with the title, Bryan surprise entrant at the royal rumble and wins then goes on to beat the authorities new boy at WM?

 

[GKJ]

I don't have a problem with Cena/Undertaker as long as it's not the main event. Undertaker gets to fluff out his Wrestlemania resume, while Cena doesn't bury someone.

 

[Kimi]

It's time to turn Wyatt face and have him "take down the machine" for Wrestlemania 32.

Roman vs. Brock
Cena vs. Taker
HHH vs. Wyatt

The problem with turning Wyatt face is that he doesn't have a reason to hate the Authority. He's shown no interest in the Championship. In fact he's never held one ever. He's doesn't care if there's a real champ or a corporate one.

You could do it if Reigns has turned to the Authority, but then the match would have to be Wyatt vs Reigns. Again. Which we've done far too much.

Wyatt vs the Authority is something I do want to see, but I think it has to come from the other way round. Wyatt wins the Rumble, wins at 'Mania, then goes on a monster run. Authority scramble to get the belt off him but he keeps going until a real face hero finally gets the win.

 

[Paris in Flames]

The problem with turning Wyatt face is that he doesn't have a reason to hate the Authority. He's shown no interest in the Championship. In fact he's never held one ever. He's doesn't care if there's a real champ or a corporate one.

You could do it if Reigns has turned to the Authority, but then the match would have to be Wyatt vs Reigns. Again. Which we've done far too much.

Wyatt vs the Authority is something I do want to see, but I think it has to come from the other way round. Wyatt wins the Rumble, wins at 'Mania, then goes on a monster run. Authority scramble to get the belt off him but he keeps going until a real face hero finally gets the win.

I forget the actual content of his promos but Bray was in the 8 man ladder match for the World Title at Money in the Bank 2014. As I said...I forgot what his promos were about but I think he explained why he wanted to win.

Man....he was in that match...Harper/Rowan were fighting the Usos for the Tag Belts. They really could've made the Wyatt's dominant that night but naaah...Cena wins...and...Samoan Tag Team Cena's win.

 

[Bologna 1]

It's time to turn Wyatt face and have him "take down the machine" for Wrestlemania 32.

Roman vs. Brock
Cena vs. Taker
HHH vs. Wyatt

sign me up for this

 

[S A W F T*]

sign me up for this

HHH putting over Wyatt would be huge.

I like it, too.

 

[M.C.G. 31]

The problem with turning Wyatt face is that he doesn't have a reason to hate the Authority. He's shown no interest in the Championship. In fact he's never held one ever. He's doesn't care if there's a real champ or a corporate one.

You could do it if Reigns has turned to the Authority, but then the match would have to be Wyatt vs Reigns. Again. Which we've done far too much.

Wyatt vs the Authority is something I do want to see, but I think it has to come from the other way round. Wyatt wins the Rumble, wins at 'Mania, then goes on a monster run. Authority scramble to get the belt off him but he keeps going until a real face hero finally gets the win.

They ****ed up so bad by abandoning the angle in 2014 where Wyatt recruited Bryan solely because they were the outcasts and no one would give them what they deserved, so they would have to take it and bring down the machine.

They can easily still go that path, IMO. We're five months away from Wrestlemania. Begin a slow transition from heel to face, or at least tweener. They *have* to go over Kane and Taker at Survivor Series, though, and Wyatt has to take the pin.

Then, at some point, probably the first show of 2016 which they like to stack the first show of each new year, have HHH get his promo interrupted by The Wyatt Family and lay him out. There's your angle. Wyatt is taking down the machine because he's learned that for his mission with The Wyatt Family, they can't have The Authority running around and holding them back like they have. They are no longer the outcasts... they are the outlaws and the king of the jungle.

Wyatt goes over HHH at Wrestlemania and it perfectly lines him up for a World Title shot, which he should win.

 

[M.C.G. 31]

WON reports that The Rock may not appear at Wrestlemania at all.

 

[Emperoreddy]

See this report makes me think that other report that Seth wasn't in one of the 4/5 main event matches at mania was bunk.

HHH/Seth would of been big.

I really don't want Brock/Roman II unless Roman is hell and Brock is face (or if Roman turns and cheats to win). Roman beating Brock clean will be a diaster at this point.

Roman/Cena would be **** on so badly it's not even funny. Literally the only thing is Cena can't bury anyone though it would be the first time people would want Cena to bury someone. Cena turning heel in that match could be interesting.

Taker/Cena could be good depending on the build and again Cena can't bury anyone.

I don't think Taker should lose another WM match at this point. It takes away from Brock's rub IMO. Brock being the 1 in 2X-1 should remain for all time. Same reason why Bray shouldn't of gone over last year (most likely shouldn't of even had that match if you wanted to protect Bray or should of done the angle they did at HIAC to give Bray some heat back and give Taker an excuse to take his time off).

Taker/Cena this year then Taker/Sting next year (if Sting can still work which is a big question mark) next year for both to retire.