WWE WrestleMania 31 Results: Worst Booking Decisions from PPV
When World Wrestling Entertainment produces a show that is one of the most consistently entertaining in the long and illustrious history of an event the way Sunday's WrestleMania XXXI was, it is difficult to find many flaws in the booking.
From the in-ring action to the finishes to the overall results, the show was so outstandingly laid out that it is hard to look at something and consider it the worst.
Seeing as how the show was not perfect—few are—there were still things that could have been done to ensure a better event.
Some included the actual booking of a given match, while others had to do with the placement of segments or the production of an entrance.
With another Showcase of the Immortals in the bag, take a break from praising the show for a moment, and check out these five booking decisions that proved troublesome on a night that was otherwise glorious.
The Rock, Ronda Rousey, Triple H and Stephanie BEFORE Undertaker and Wyatt
1 of 5
The segment featuring Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, The Rock and Ronda Rousey was insanely cool.
Having that many stars in the ring at one time, including a legitimate butt-kicker in the form of the UFC women's bantamweight champion, was a great bit of booking that will land WWE on SportsCenter and other mainstream sports programs in the coming days.
The problem with the segment was where it fell on the card.
The confrontation was so incredibly hot that the crowd had to come down from the emotional high they were left on by The Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment and the Baddest Woman on the Planet.
By the time The Undertaker's match with Bray Wyatt started (and even well into it), that bout suffered from a lack of a passionate crowd. It was not until the Superstars started trading finishes that the fans picked up and got into the action.
What should have been a heated match, especially given the connection the crowd has with both Superstars, was hurt by the previous segment, which could have been moved elsewhere on the card and not have done any damage to one of the marquee bouts on the PPV.
There's also the whole matter of actually wanting to see the match that the Rock-Rousey angle set up.
Big Show Wins the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
2 of 5
There were numerous Superstars who would have made better choices to emerge from the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal than the Big Show.
An aging veteran whose last match of any interest was three years ago, The World's Largest Athlete has not been remotely interesting since he was blubbering like a baby while being emotionally manipulated by The Authority.
No one wanted to see him win the Battle Royal, especially with talent the likes of Hideo Itami, Damien Mizdow and Ryback involved. Hell, based on the reaction of the audience, Curtis Axel would have made a more inspired and interesting choice than the 7'0" giant.
Yes, it was nice to see his loyalty rewarded with a win in a Battle Royal, a match type he had not previously succeeded in. But at the same time, there is no benefit to speak of.
Big Show needs to step away and recharge the batteries or call it a career and hang up the boots. Instead, he is defeating guys half his age in a high-profile WrestleMania bout.
The Divas Tag Team Match
3 of 5
The Divas tag team match at WrestleMania should have meant so much more to the state of the division than it did, making it one of the bigger booking flubs of the entire night.
AJ Lee spent the majority of Sunday's tag bout on the floor, allowing The Bella Twins to isolate Paige and work her over in their corner. It was a poor booking decision, and one witnessed just two months ago at the Royal Rumble, when Paige was outside the squared circle while Natalya was pummeled by the heels.
The layout of the match did nothing to entice fans to stay seated and enjoy the action.
That it lasted only six minutes, and ended with another case of a babyface overcoming the odds to pick up the win, did the contest no favors.
Instead of recognizing the opportunity to prove that the company believes in the female talent on the roster, the Divas were again allowed only six minutes to craft anything resembling a quality bout.
A major disappointment given the fact that Nikki Bella and Paige delivered an outstanding television bout this past Monday.
Triple H's Terminator Entrance
4 of 5
As if Triple H had not done enough to overshadow Sting in the weeks leading into their WrestleMania match, including allowing wife Stephanie to emasculate The Icon on the March 23 episode of Raw, The Game took it one step further by partaking in an entrance that completely blew Sting's out of the water.
With voice-over work from Arnold Schwarzenegger, computer graphics straight out of the movies and the actual robots from the next Terminator flick, Triple H looked incredibly imposing as he rose from the stage, a mix of man and machine.
Sting, whose entrance comprised of drummers wearing matching face paint, could only stand in the ring and wonder why he agreed to come back when it was so very clear that the entire ordeal he was about to partake on was a stroke of the ego designed to get his opponent a win and Hunter's friends a big payday.
The New World Order Helps Sting
5 of 5
The New World Order helped Sting during his match with Triple H.
That may not seem like such a big deal, especially given the fact that WWE opted to turn the Stinger's feud with The Game into an advertisement for WWE Network's Monday Night Wars. With the war between Vince McMahon's company and Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling still alive in the minds of at least one guy with power, it was revisited when D-Generation X came to the aid of Triple H and the New World Order rescued Sting.
Take a moment and think about the second half of that last sentence.
Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Hulk Hogan came to the ring and helped Sting. The same Sting who dropped from the rafters and proved to be the greatest nemesis of the New World Order
If their long history, which culminated with Sting challenging Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at Starrcade, was not bad enough, the fact that Nash and Hall were so against the COO of the company that they celebrated with him the night before only hurt the logic of the match.
That does not mean it was not incredibly cool to see the nWo battling D-Generation X at ringside, which was a dream come true for the inner Attitude Era junkie in this writer.
But it would have been nice to see WWE Creative think about things for a moment and send Ricky Steamboat, Ric Flair and Roddy Piper to the ring instead. Given their ties to WCW, it would have made more sense.
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