To say that theWWEUniverse’s opinion onWrestleMania41 has been mixed would be an understatement. In fact, the reception toNight Twoalone especially has been mostly negative. Fans came out ofWrestleManiaweekend angry, and seeing people like The Rock respond to the backlash hasonly made fans angrier.
What’s made fans even angrier is knowing that WWE’s best match fromWrestleManiaseason did not take place atWrestleMania 41. The match in question is the Triple Threat TLC match fromlast Friday night’sSmackDown, pitting the WWE Tag Team Champions Street Profits against the challengers D.I.Y. and the Motor City Machine Guns.
Knowing how eagerly anticipated this bout was and how even more critically acclaimed it was, it calls into question why WWE excluded it from the biggest show of the year.
WWE Delivers One of SmackDown’s Best Matches of All Time with Tag Team TLC
The Match That Missed Out on WrestleMania
On the go-home addition ofFriday Night SmackDownthe night before Night One ofWrestleMania41, it was announced that the TLC match would be taking place, but General Manager Nick Aldis' declaration came to a flurry of boos. The negative response wasn’t because of the match, but because it was happening on television instead of the Grandest Stage of Them All. It’s understandable why fans were so outraged that these teams wouldn’t be seeing theManiastage when the bulk of this feud seemed to be heading forMania.
For the better part of the past year, all three teams (with newcomers Pretty Deadly in the middle of it all) have been interlocked in a three-way rivalry over the WWE Tag Team Championship. At some point, all three teams have held the gold, and their respective quests for it have only amplified in the last few weeks. A feud with this much history and intensity is usually designated for the Show of Shows, and yet, none of these six men could make it on the card in any capacity.
It’s unclear as to why these teams missedWrestleMania, but it’s a question that has had fans and critics scratching their heads. Even journalists like Cam’Ron and Ma$e ofIt Is What It Isfame had to ask Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins why they were having their title match onSmackDowninstead ofMania. Both nights ofWrestleMania41 boasted seven matches apiece, so perhaps WWE just wanted an equal number of matches on each card. Still, though, some would argue that the hype from audiences for the match could’ve justified adding the TLC match to one of these nights.
WWE Deprived WrestleMania of a Classic
The Las Vegas Crowd Missed Out on the Best Match from Mania Season
WWE’s decision to leave SmackDown’s tag division off the card is all the more perplexing, seeing asRaw’stag team division was represented on Mania’s first night, as The New Day captured the WWE World Tag Team Titles from War Raiders that night. This feud started mere weeks before Mania weekend, whereas D.I.Y. vs. Street Profits vs. Motor City Machine Guns has been brewing ever since MCMG debuted for WWE last fall. With all due respect toRaw’steams, their match could not surpass whatSmackDown’steams did with TLC.
In fact, truthfully,none of the matches fromWrestleMania41 hold a candle to this TLC. A true spectacle for the ages, a match of this caliber should be reserved for the best stage possible, and admittedly, WWE dropped the ball there.WrestleMania41 has been heavily criticized and hated by fans, especially for its ending, but the reaction from SmackDown shows that this TLC match could’ve saved the show as one of the weekend’s few bright spots. Ina disappointing build to the show, these three teams continued to exceed expectations on the road toWrestleMania, and WWE failed to reward them with a spot on the card.
Did Missing Out on WrestleMania 41 Make the Match Better?
The Silver Lining to the Unsung Hero of WWE’s Controversial WrestleMania
To play devil’s advocate, it’s worth saying that missing out on WWE’s biggest show of the year might be what enhanced the match in the first place.This match received nearly a half-hour’s worth of time onSmackDown.On a stacked card with seven lengthy matches each, the trio of teams likely would not have had the same amount of time to shine. Without that much time, the match couldn’t have packed so many incredible spots into its runtime. Angelo Dawkins' spear off a ladder, the Guns' Skull and Bones through a table, and of course, Montez Ford using a fan’s prosthetic leg. Any one of these spots, and more, likely could’ve been cut for time atMania.
In the same regard, there’s a good chance that all six men walked into this match witha legitimate chip on their shoulders, as pointed out by Wade Barrett during the match’s commentary. Bitter to prove a point, they may have been motivated to go even harder during their match. That means that there’s a chance that a match of this magnitude might not have been possible without three tag team specialists eager to prove WWE wrong for overlooking them. They may have missedWWE’sbiggest show, but they stole the show and the rest of the week.
