WWE WrestleMania 28: 4 Reasons 'Team Teddy vs. Team Johnny' Is Pointless

By the end of this past January, three matches had been booked for the top of WrestleMania 28's card, and the WWE spent the majority of their February promo time building up John Cena vs. The Rock, CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho and The Undertaker vs. Triple H.

In their haste to build those matches, the vast majority of the WWE roster hadn't been booked into a WrestleMania match or even a decent feud so the WWE has spent most of March playing catch up and booking a number of matches that defy logic, such as Randy Orton vs Kane and the Divas tag match featuring guest Maria Menounos, simply to get wrestlers on the card.

Perhaps the worst offender of these poor bookings is the 12-man tag match known as 'Team Teddy vs. Team Johnny.' Though it may turn out to be a well-paced, action-packed match, the battle to be the General Manager of both Raw and Smackdown may be the most ill-conceived match in recent WrestleMania history.

Here are four reasons why 'Team Teddy vs. Team Johnny' should have never been booked...

The Match Insults the Participants' Talents and Work in 2011

As of March 23, 10 of the 12 'Team Teddy vs. Team Johnny' participants have been announced and looking at the list, almost all 10 are worthy of either their own solo match or a traditional tag team match.

Throwing a popular wrestler like Dolph Ziggler or Santino Marella into a match where he split times with ELEVEN other wrestlers, not to mention what are certain to be distractions outside of the ring with Laurinaitis, Long, Vickie Guerrero, Aksana and Hornswoggle, is an insult to the great year of work that many of the participants have put in.

Most have carried their own story lines for months but have gotten lost in the WrestleMania shuffle in lieu of promoting the top three matches, all of which include part-timers.

Fans should hope for a lengthy match in order to give each wrestler at least one spot to shine; otherwise this match will have been waste for everyone involved.

In Theory, the Match Will Destroy 'Brand Extension'

By putting one character in charge of both shows, it will effectively kill the separation between the Raw and Smackdown brands on television (the touring company separation will likely still be in effect).

The WWE has spent the last seven months blurring the lines of 'brand extension' with the Raw Supershow, which has been met with a mixed reaction from fans.

On one hand, giving the Raw and Smackdown brands the freedom to pull from each other's rosters gives viewers the chance to see favorites such as Randy Orton or CM Punk twice a week or on each other's shows. It has also allowed story arcs to play out on both shows, thus giving more select viewers an incentive to watch both shows.

It sounds well and good, but if you look at how the Raw Supershow has changed the WWE's television landscape, you'll see that all the time dedicated to top talent has mostly kept mid and low-card talent in squash matches or on Superstars or NXT, while the divas division has gone largely ignored and the tag division is non-existent.

Fans of hard-working wrestlers such Curt Hawkins, Tyson Kidd or Natalya should be wary of 'brand extension' ending as it will be much harder for these talents and many others to get TV time.

In Kayfabe, the Match's Booking Is Illogical

Think about it for a moment...

Laurinaitis is petitioning to be General Manager of both Raw and Smackdown, with Long doing the same.

The Board of Directors, charged with being the ultimate voice of reason in the WWE, had decided that in lieu of actually picking one man over another or giving each a fair trial run in the job, that two teams of six wrestlers each will fight at WrestleMania and that the team that wins will win the job for their team leader.

Yes, wrestling requires a certain suspension of disbelief and this wouldn't be the first time that a big decision has been made as result of a match, but thinking in kayfabe, how does a match with 12 randomly chosen wrestlers actually help to determine who should run both flagship shows?

It's supposedly a huge responsibility to not have either Laurinaitis or Long do anything but help pick who is on their representative team.

Although the stakes have been made and fans of either GM will have a team to root for, should Laurinaitis or Long really have such passive roles in their own fates?

We expect Superstars to rise up and earn their opportunities at Championship titles. Should we not expect the same for characters who are ambitious enough to want to be a General Manager?

Will either Laurinaitis or Long have earned their position as result of this match?

Neither Teddy Long nor John Laurinaitis Are Actually Leaving the WWE

In the end, the stakes in this match are pointless because the WWE will not get rid of either Laurinaitis or Long.

Both GMs are assets to their respective shows and their rivalry has provided a much-needed secondary story over the last month and half.

While either GM's team may lose the match at WrestleMania, I don't think the audience is expecting either GM to simply disappear disgraced, and they will likely return by mid-April to challenge the winner once more.

The match may be provide a much needed twist in the Laurinaitis vs. Long story but it will not be the last chapter in this rivalry as the booking suggests, which only makes this match's true reason for being on the card that much more transparent: that it's simply a way to get a lot of talented wrestlers on the card without giving them a proper build.