Divas and US titles noticeably absent from Wrestlemania

Antonio Cesaro’s omission from Wrestlemania is a surprising one

Wrestlemania 29 is a week away from today, and the card is set. As I said in my predictions, it’s going to be a pretty lacklustre show. The matches are far too predictable, and there are several extremely undeserving talents being featured in matches (Fandango, the Bella Twins, Big E. Langston), despite doing absolutely nothing to deserve high-profile spots. At the same time, there are numerous talents that have been left off the card, which means they’ll be featured in a meaningless backstage segment or left off the show completely. Two very noticeable athletes left off the card thus far are the WWE Divas Champion Kaitlyn and the WWE United States Champion Antonio Cesaro. Despite nearly every championship in the company being defended at Wrestlemania this year, both of these two champions have been ignored and there’s no real reason why.

While I am not Kaitlyn’s biggest fan, the fact that she’s worked extremely hard to be taken seriously as a wrestler and has improved by leaps and bounds since her debut cannot be understated, and she definitely stands out from the rest of the Divas. She’s very muscular, beautiful and highly charismatic and has been connecting a lot more with fans in recent weeks. Plus, she actually has a feud going with former best friend AJ Lee that would only give WWE an easy reason to put them in a Divas title match on the PPV (which was even hinted at this past week on Smackdown). In all honesty, given that AJ is also very underrated as a Divas competitor, this match could have actually been very, very good. As it stands right now, however, it’s not happening, and there’s absolutely no reason why.

As for Antonio Cesaro, his absence from the biggest card of the year is criminal. Cesaro is not only one of the most powerful competitors on the roster, but is also one of the best technical wrestlers in the world, and has also been a dominant US Champion. Vince McMahon and Triple H both reportedly rate him very highly (with rumours of a World title reign before the end of the year), which makes the situation all the more baffling. Cesaro is the complete package of what a WWE wrestler should be: charismatic, a good talker, has a very marketable look, built like a tank and a hell of a good worker inside the ring. There were plenty of wrestlers on the roster they could have built up a feud with for the title, but WWE didn’t do it. Kofi Kingston immediately comes to mind (who is also noticeably off the card this year). For WWE supposedly wanting Cesaro to be a major player in the company, it really shows a lack of faith to leave him off the card, and that worries/angers me as a fan.