WWE is still about five months away from WrestleMania 35, but the match card for the company's flagship pay-per-view is already beginning to take shape.
You may notice a running theme here, too. A slew of news reports and rumors have seemingly penciled in a number of top matches for "The Show of Shows" in 2019, and the vast majority of them involve at least one part-time star.
- Batista vs. Randy Orton: WWE set the stage for a bout between Triple H and Batista at SmackDown 1000, one that Batista himself has said would be what brings him back to WWE for one last run. But Triple H's injury could force him to miss WrestleMania 35, which would likely pit Batista against Randy Orton if he comes back for one more match.
- Shawn Michaels is reportedly "likely" to wrestle again and has been linked to potential WrestleMania 35 matches with AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan and The Undertaker.
- Shane McMahon is now in the midst of a long-term storyline that will result in him turning heel and having a huge WrestleMania 35 match, though it isn't clear who his opponent would be.
- With a planned match against Roman Reigns likely off the table, The Rock has been linked to potential 'Mania matches against both Bobby Lashley and Elias. The new betting favorite for the WrestleMania 35 is now The Rock vs. Brock Lesnar.
- Trish Stratus and Lita are expected to team up for some sort of tag team match at WrestleMania 35, though it isn't clear who they'd face.
- Ronda Rousey vs. Becky Lynch has also been considered as a potential main event for the show.
- Brock Lesnar, once again the Universal Champion, has signed a new deal that runs through WrestleMania 35 and will likely see him defend the title there for the second straight year. A bout against Braun Strowman could reportedly be in the cards for the pay-per-view, especially after what transpired between them at Crown Jewel, but he could be involved in a bout with Seth Rollins and/or Drew McIntyre.
This year's WrestleMania 34 followed a similar format, with Lesnar vs. Reigns, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon vs. Rousey and Kurt Angle as well as The Undertaker vs. Cena as arguably the show's top three matches, essentially reserving seven of the eight top spots for stars who don't work as many dates as the typical WWE star. The successful pay-per-view, the most watched event in WWE history, helped propel WWE to record revenue and a record WWE Network subscriber count in Q2 2018, one of many factors that has contributed to a further influx of part-timers this year.
The combination of record revenue, due at least in part to WWE's lucrative but controversial deal with Saudi Arabia, as well as the expectation that revenue will continue to skyrocket due to blockbuster upcoming TV deals for Raw and SmackDown, has opened the floodgates for a wave of part-time stars to work their way into many of the biggest storylines in the company. WWE was able to lure Shawn Michaels out of retirement with a big money contract and bring back Lesnar on a "seven figure" deal (before signing him to another one), is already paying names like Triple H and Undertaker handsomely and appears destined to do the same with soon-to-be-returning stars like Batista and The Rock.
The initial excitement and return pops generated by the surprise appearances or storyline developments for popular legends like Michaels, Lesnar and Taker typically wears off quite quickly, however. Michaels' improbable return resulted in a mixed reaction, both from fans and those within WWE alike (especially given how badly his tag team match at Crown Jewel went), and that reaction is really a microcosm of fan response to the returns of stars who find themselves in similar positions. The buzz is certainly there when Batista calls out Triple H or when reports emerge that we could finally get a battle between two of the greatest in-ring performers in Michaels and Styles, but that elation and enthusiasm soon descends into disappointment and frustration, particularly among WWE's most diehard fans.
The issue isn't so much WWE's reliance on these part-time stars, which, judging by Raw's recent viewership woes, isn't really bringing back fans for the long haul. Rather, it's the long-term effect that WWE's reliance on established veterans has on the rest of the roster, which comes across as inferior in comparison and has struggled to break through that proverbial glass ceiling because stars who were in their primes 10 or 20 years ago keep holding them back, even if inadvertently.
Eventually, WWE will reach a point where major shows like Crown Jewel, Super Show-Down and even WrestleMania cannot realistically be headlined by stars like The Undertaker, Triple H, Cena or Lesnar. However, everything we're seeing on WWE's current programming leads you to believe that the majority of the biggest WrestleMania 35 feuds (aside from the greatness that is Lynch vs. Rousey, which should be the 'Mania main event) will involve at least one part-timer and probably more, a direct result of WWE's stick-to-itiveness and its persistent insistence that its road to WrestleMania be paved with part-timers.
On one hand, it's "cool" to see the likes of Michaels, Taker, Triple H and Angle getting the chance to compete in pay-per-view main events, but the idea of a dream match or feud is often much better than the actual match itself, as fans quickly realize that thinking about Mchaels vs. Styles or Bryan in their primes isn't exactly the same as seeing it eight years after HBK initially hung up his boots. That's the catch-22 wrestling fans often find themselves in: Wanting to see those dream matches, only to instantly be reminded of the problems those dream matches create.
Some fans will eat up those dream matches like candy on Halloween night, but WWE's most fervent and avid supporters know that the initial nostalgia pop created by a returning star's improbable comeback quickly fades away the same way that a wrestler in a submission hold does.
And with WrestleMania 35 already shaping up to be a showcase of part-timers, diehard fans are destined to be disappointed.
Blake Oestriecher is an elementary school teacher by day and a sports writer by night. He’s a contributor to @ForbesSports, where he primarily covers WWE. You can follow him on Twitter @BOestriecher.
