WWE WrestleMania: What every main event should have been
By Luke Norris
WrestleMania 23
Actual main event: John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels
What the main event should have been: John Cena vs. The Undertaker
Speaking of matches that should have happened at WrestleMania a long time ago, there’s the matter of John Cena vs. The Undertaker, which should have replaced Shawn Michaels vs. John Cena at WrestleMania 23 in Detroit. Don’t get me wrong, I was very happy to see Shawn Michaels back in the main event at a WrestleMania, but he was actually a fill-in for Triple H, who was supposed to have his rematch against Cena that night but suffered another quad injury earlier that year that put him on the shelf. Cena and Michaels then became tag champs and put on a good match at Ford Field, but it all seemed a bit forced. Their better match came a few weeks later on RAW.
As for the other world title match that night, The Undertaker, who had finally won a Royal Rumble, took on Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship, and they actually put on a much better match than I would have thought they could. However, I still believe that this was the time to put Cena and ‘Taker in there for the main event. Cena had become the biggest star in the company, and The Deadman hadn’t been in the final match of the night at WrestleMania since that monstrosity with Sid a decade earlier. And I’m not saying that with a brand split that the Royal Rumble winner should always be in the final match of the night, but it just made sense here.
The promos here could have been fantastic. ‘Taker could say that his career had been rejuvenated and that he was ready to face the challenge that was the new face of the company. As someone who’d pretty much beaten every major star the company had seen, including Hogan, Flair, Rock, Austin, Triple H, etc., he was now ready to take down the new face that runs the place and all of that. Yes, I know Cena wasn’t using that yet, so don’t get ahead of yourselves and yell at me for that. But the story was there and it was a waste not to take advantage of it here.