5 things that were missing from Wrestlemania 34
Considered "the grandest stage of them all," or in non-industry terms "the Super Bowl of professional wrestling," WWE's Wrestlemania is a big deal to millions of people. Wrestlemania has been an annual tradition for more than 30 years. Requiring a proper bid from its host city, one week of Wrestlemania-related activities is estimated to bring hundreds of millions of dollars into a local economy. In turn, Wrestlemania has a crossover appeal that goes way beyond wrestling fans and who is actually wrestling on behalf of the WWE.
Wrestlemania 34 -- which took place in New Orleans on April 8, 2018 -- reportedly drew over 78,000 people to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, home of the New Orleans Saints. In addition, millions of people watched this year's Wrestlemania via the WWE Network and local television providers.
While the spectacle of the seven-hour event was undeniable, after watching the entire event, there were a number of things that could have been done to turn it from a good Wrestlemania into a great Wrestlemania. Below are five suggestions that this writer believes would have benefitted the WWE for Wrestlemania 34, which will hopefully be applied towards next year's event, which is set to take place in New Jersey.
#1 Conciseness
As the saying goes, "less is more." This year's Wrestlemania started at 5:00pm local time in New York with the Wrestlemania Kickoff Show, as shown on the WWE Network and simulcast on our local USA Network.
The Kickoff Show featured three matches, including two battle royals and a one-on-one battle to determine the new Cruiserweight Champion. The two-hour program also included commentary from a round-table of talking heads -- including Booker T and Renee Young -- and assorted previews and trailers related to the WWE Network.
Other sports programming is known to have pre-show programming, helping to get viewers invested in what they are about to watch. But very few sports-related programs are five hours in length. Literally, Wrestlemania 34 kicked off around 7:00pm local time and went past midnight. Even though the show went that long, there was still so much missing from the overall event.
Not every non-injured WWE Superstar was included on the card. Some storylines were arguably left even the most loyal viewer with more questions than answers. In turn, a proper suggestion would be for the WWE to think of ways to knock a few hours off of next year's Wrestlemania, even if it means having fewer matches on the card.