Scott,
One thing the WWF/E used to do well is hold off the coronation of the “new guy” until the main event of WrestleMania.
This is a list of guys who won their first WWE/World titles at WrestleMania
4: Savage
6: Warrior
9: Yokozuna (the Orange Goblin stole his thunder)
12: Michaels
14: Austin
20: That One Guy (although he was World champ in WCW)
21: Cena AND Batista
22: Mysterio
31: Rollins (and he wasn't even advertised in the match)
This is something that seems to be lacking nowadays; having guys' career-making moments in the main event of WrestleMania to get that “stamp of approval.”
Maybe we'll add Shinsuke this year in the third match of the night?
I think they're opening the show, to be honest. I also don't think Nakamura is actually getting the title, but we'll see. It's actually really funny that a company so focused on MAKING WRESTLEMANIA MOMENTS has totally dropped the ball on that one aspect of creating a new star, isn't it? But that's what happens when you're 100% focused on only creating one star and you have to keep trying to do it multiple times.