For as great of a wrestler as Triple H has been throughout his career, he’s had a shaky record when it comes to WrestleMania main events. While his match at WrestleMania 20 against Shawn Michaels and Chris Benoit is one of the best ever, he’s also had some memorably horrible main event matches. His match against Randy Orton at ‘Mania 25 is an all-time stinker. His match against Jericho at 18 wasn’t bad, but the crowd was dead for it after seeing Hogan and The Rock a few minutes earlier.
Sunday night’s match against Roman Reigns, though, stands up as one of the worst ever — up there with Sid vs. Undertaker, the aforementioned Hunter vs. Orton and Hogan vs. Sid.
Why was the match so bad? Some of it was the wrestlers’ faults. Some of it was beyond their control. One thing we can all agree on: the match sucked.
Things were bad off the bat with the match coming after the crowd had been in their seats (or trying to get to their seats) for more than five hours.
This show is so long, does anyone really have the energy to even care that much what happens at this point in the main event?
— Wade Keller (@thewadekeller) April 4, 2016
The crowd has been there for over 6 hours. You would think you would try not to put them to sleep with this main event.
— TheParaSixer (@TheParaFlyer54) April 4, 2016
It was just hard to keep fans’ attention for that long. Especially with the psychology of the match being mat-based focus on Roman’s arm. Even a solid match would have had a hard time keeping the crowd captivated.
It was clear going into ‘Mania that the crowd would be booing Roman Reigns. WWE’s brilliant counter to the reaction was to pipe down the audio so the boos wouldn’t be as audible. This backfired because the crowd mostly sounded dead during the whole match. An energetic crowd is better than an apathetic crowd, which WWE should know by now. They gave us boredom instead. People who were at the event made it clear that there was something happening with the audio.
https://twitter.com/Shadyhere/status/716829659812507648
https://twitter.com/TheEdFerrara/status/716826588520820736
Overall, the match was lackluster. It didn’t have any surprises. It gave us the most predictable ending. It stunk. And the Internet noticed.
https://twitter.com/SethMates/status/716967010203222016
Problem with the main event is that HHH is just too slow paced in his matches and Roman Reigns just sucks #Wrestlemania
— Wrestling LAD (@WrestlingLAD) April 4, 2016
https://twitter.com/MexFound/status/716829264570503169
Nothing like 100k people chanting your number one face sucks to main event #WrestleMania
— David Collard (@CollardLTGreens) April 4, 2016
WWE looks painfully in denial ignoring the deafening boos for Roman and cheers for HHH.
In the main event. Of Wrestlemania.
— forever botchamania (@Maffewgregg) April 4, 2016
#WrestleMania Main Event…. pic.twitter.com/w15sPAmlNz
— Rich Keefe (@Keefe21) April 4, 2016
https://twitter.com/SeanRadican/status/716836211596218368
https://twitter.com/jctorch/status/716830300903383040
https://twitter.com/paezpumarL/status/716815830873481216
The main event was so boring I dozed off at one point. #wrestlemania
— Matt Singer / mattsinger.bsky.social (@mattsinger) April 4, 2016
https://twitter.com/Ginge/status/716835713711362048
https://twitter.com/modernistwitch/status/716835092337967104
Someone please save this match. Worst and most boring main event of #WrestleMania in a long time.
— Christopher Massad (@cgmassad) April 4, 2016
My opinion on WM32 was a 7/10 few great matches, terrible endings to most. And Main Event was completely horrible and a waste of time.
— SwatDx (@SwatDx) April 4, 2016
not the best wrestlemania by far, but not the worst. Brought down by terrible finishes and a main event that no-one wanted to see.
— A duel Angel's Thesis (@duel3000) April 4, 2016
Hey, it could have been worse. Roman Reigns could have gone to spear someone and the show would have cut off before you know who he speared. But who would be dumb enough to do that?
