The WWE WrestleMania ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship should feel like a big deal. Instead it feels rushed, forced, and honestly kind of insulting.
We’re days away from WrestleMania 42, and after watching what WWE has put together here, I can’t shake the feeling that they threw this match together at the last second and hoped nobody would question it.
Penta beats Kofi Kingston clean on Raw to retain the Intercontinental Championship. Fine. That part worked. Then suddenly — boom — ladder match at WrestleMania. No buildup. No qualifiers on TV. No story. Just vibes.
Later on, commentary casually tells us the participants are Dragon Lee, Je’Von Evans, Rusev, and JD McDonagh — and apparently these guys qualified on shows nobody watches or weren’t even advertised as qualifiers in the first place. That’s not storytelling. That’s covering your tracks after the fact.
Penta has been one of the few genuine bright spots lately. He’s putting on great matches. He just beat Kofi Kingston in a solid title defense. And this is what we do with him at WrestleMania? A thrown-together ladder match with zero emotional investment? This should be a defining moment for his title run. Instead it feels like filler.
Dragon Lee and Je’Von Evans both belong on this stage. That part is fine. But Rusev hasn’t been relevant to anything in this build. JD McDonagh hasn’t wrestled all year, hasn’t been built up, and is suddenly competing for a title at the biggest show of the year. There’s no heat. No story. No reason to care.
The worst part is that the March 30 Raw had bigger stories happening around this. CM Punk destroying Roman Reigns. Gunther attacking Seth Rollins. New tag champions crowned. Major WrestleMania storylines progressing. Those feel important. This ladder match feels like it was stapled onto the card five minutes before the show ended.
WrestleMania ladder matches are usually awesome. This one has the talent to be good. But good and meaningful are two different things. And right now this match has no meaning behind it.
Penta deserved a real feud. Fans deserved a reason to care.
Instead, we got a match that exists to fill space. And unless something changes before that first ladder gets set up, this is going to be one of those WrestleMania moments people forget before the night is even over.
