Past WM Expectations

By Scott Keith on 31 August 2022

Good afternoon Mr. Keith, hope all is well. I have a question regarding two Wrestlemanias in particular.
In Hindsight, Hogan/Rock & UT/Shawn close out 18 & 25, respectively, and the actual main events of those shows having poor reviews. And I Agree. I also think that the world title should be the most important match on your most important card(yes there are very few exceptions though) .But I cannot recall that much going into those shows to answer the following questions, maybe you and the blog can help.

1. In regards to WM18, I do remember how poorly booked the Trips/Jericho match was leading up, but I had all the confidence in the world those 2 types of talents, egos included, would still want to try and steal the show. With Hogans best (wrestling) days way behind him, what was the majority of fans expectations of what Hogan & Rock could pull off?

2. Now UT/Shawn was different as it was a nice build off all their recent Rumble face-offs, Texas WM, 25th anniversery etc. etc. . And I remember being most hyped for the match and they exceeded my expectations. But what about Trips & Orton? What was their expectation going in? And for a blood feud who thought it was a good idea to basically say this match was not going to have the hate and violence we promised night of?

Regardless of what expectations are for Rock and Hogan, the crowd reaction for Hulk the day before was so insane in Toronto that they should have called an audible and switched the order. It was 100 percent known that he was getting that reaction.

As for 25, they stole the show and managed to kill the main event. It happens.