WrestleMania is supposed to feel massive weeks in advance. Right now, with less than a month to go, WWE is still scrambling to figure out what matches even belong on the card.
The confirmed lineup includes CM Punk versus Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes versus Randy Orton, Jade Cargill versus Rhea Ripley, Stephanie Vaquer versus Liv Morgan, Brock Lesnar versus Oba Femi, and AJ Lee versus Becky Lynch. On paper that looks strong. The problem is the near-complete lack of meaningful build behind almost all of them.
Roman Reigns just laid out CM Punk on Raw in a major angle. But it feels like they’re rushing heat instead of building a layered story. That’s the theme across the board — WWE is speed-running WrestleMania season.
Instead of stacking meaningful segments over months, they burned time on filler. Now they’re trying to force urgency in the final stretch. Brock Lesnar versus Oba Femi has heat, but it only recently escalated with face-to-face confrontations and attacks. That’s not how WrestleMania feuds should feel. These matches should already be peaking, not just getting started.
LA Knight is one of the most over stars in WWE, and he’s stuck circling The Usos and teasing something with Logan Paul with nothing official locked in. When a top star is still floating without direction this close to WrestleMania, something is broken.
Then there’s Gunther. Arguably WWE’s top heel. He hasn’t been on television for weeks and still doesn’t have a WrestleMania match. There’s no excuse for that. WrestleMania should be built around your most dominant performers. Instead WWE has left one of its most credible stars completely off the board. That’s not poor planning. That’s a failure of creative.
The SmackDown side isn’t doing better. The Drew McIntyre versus Jacob Fatu build is a perfect example of what’s going wrong. Instead of something intense and grounded, WWE is leaning into over-the-top segments that feel more confusing than compelling. There’s a difference between creative risk and losing the plot. Right now SmackDown feels like it’s trying too hard to be unpredictable instead of telling a story that actually matters.
Triple H was supposed to bring structure, long-term storytelling, and consistency to WWE creative. Instead this WrestleMania build feels like disorganization. Top stars are directionless. Feuds are rushed. Matches are being thrown together late. And this isn’t one bad week — this has been building for months.
There’s still time to fix some of this. But storytelling takes time, and WWE has already wasted too much of it. At this point, even if the matches deliver, the build will be remembered as a failure.
And that falls directly on creative.
