Planet Kayfabe: The Good, The Bad, The Boom

Planet Kayfabe: The Good, The Bad, The Boom
By: Paul Matthews  @PlanetKayfabe
4/15/2025

RIP,  Kevin Castle.

It’s 2025 and John Cena turned… and a part of me feels like Wile E. Cayote catching the Roadrunner.  Yeah, unlike Charlotte waltzing into the title picture after her plastic surgeon took an orbital sander and a putty knife to her face again, no one saw this coming. Hello, and thank you for reading Planet Kayfabe. In this edition, I am going to talk about the build to Wrestlemania 41, which seems to be a much more divisive topic than it has been in recent years.

The Build, Hot or Not?:

WWE is still in the middle of a boom period, but in the spring of 2025, it does feel like the pot has cooled off a bit, hasn’t it? Don’t get me wrong, they’re still doing great and 2024 creatively was not bad at all despite WWE looking for their next hot angle post-Bloodline. I see some fans, probably younger ones who started watching post-pandemic, saying that this is the worst build ever.

Look, if you want to sound like a smart fan who is over the age of 16, don’t state that opinion publicly because any fan who watched during the 2010s, especially when the WWE Network started and the check was already in the mail and left them with no drive to put on a great go-home show will just laugh in your face and not take any future opinions you have on the product seriously. I know you kids think the world started when you were born and that nothing in WWE matters before the time you became a fan, but just trust me, if you think this is the worst build to a Wrestlemania ever, then the only thing you’re proving to everyone is that you clearly haven’t been watching that long.

However, is it as hot as last year? No. I feel like it is clearly not. Why is that? A few reasons. One, WWE always loves round numbers for some reason, so they were extra horny when it came to push Wrestlemania 40 as the biggest deal ever. Shit, they clould have EASILY (and probably should have) had Roman Reigns lose at Wrestlemania 39 the year prior, but they didn’t. Why? It was WM39, and who do a big thing at 39 when you can just put the world title on ice for a year and do the change at 40? That’s their logic. Round numbers are a big deal. I feel like the only Wrestlemania they took seriously that ended with the number “9” in it was Wrestlemania 19 which is one of the best Wrestlemanias ever. Even still, they gave 19 to Seatlle, Washington and where was 20? Madison Square Garden, of course, and had more than double the buys that 19 did and its not because WWE was just that much hotter in 2004 than they were in 2003. Its because the marketing train is in fulls team when its a round number.

Future fans, don’t even waste your money on Wrestlemania 49, just save up for 50. You know that’s gonna be the real show. If its even in the US. It will probably be in Saudi Arabia.

I’m not sure if they’re mislead or just trolling, but I see some fans blaming Cody Rhodes for the build not being as big as last year. Cody’s story of becoming a world champion is a big reason why it was so hot last year. This year, he is their main driver of ratings and merch. Rating and tickets have followed Cody Rhodes wherever they put him, so he has been a fine and worthy champion. Its just last year they were wrapping up the story that got this whole hot period started in the first place so now they need something new.

That something new is John Cena turning heel. At first, I thought this turn was great and well done, but the more it goes on the more I just don’t get it. I won’t name names but some podcasts I listen to and respect mocked fans who said it was too late to turn Cena and… wasn’t it? It kinda feels like it was done way too late. Cena is cutting promos to hot crowds that barely ever get to see live WWE shows and that’s fine but in America where fans actually listen to the promos and watch the matches instead of just paying to go to a party where they all get to get their chants in and sing everyone’s entrance music, there is no way Cena would get that same reaction.

You can mock fans for complaining but are they wrong? Yeah, the turn is a big deal, but its also 20-fucking-25. If this turn happened in 2011 or 2012, at the peak of fans being sick and tired of Cena’s stale routine week in and week out then it would have been way bigger and the fans would have responded even more to it. Doing it now almost feels to me like the end of The Undertaker’s streak. Everyone talked about ending it. Everyone wondered who should be the one to do it. Then there came a time where we just accepted he’d retire with it.

And then he lost to Brock Lesnar…

Its like, what’s the point? Either do it at the right time or don’t do it at all. To me, they missed the boat on a Cena heel turn and this turn now just feels forced and random. Like its clear that he’s just doing it to do it and say that he did it. It does help Cody Rhodes, but the angle has been a bit weak. I see it with Cody and I see it with Jey Uso. I’m tired of these babyfaces getting beat up and then just coming out for weeks to recite poetry and doing monologues. Yeah, they’re well spoken and evoke real emotion but, fuck, throw a goddamn punch already. Yall wanna mock pull-apart brawls, but they work.

In regards to WWE being hot, if we compare this to the Attitude Era, it feels like we are in the year 2000 around the fall time. Yes its still hot and popular and the shows are good, but I find myself waiting for the “I did it for The Rock” moment that’s going to start to kill it and the final nail being Austin’s heel turn at Wrestlemania 17. I guess that almost happened if you believe the reports of Rock wanting Cody Rhodes to turn and him shooting it down. Good for Cody. However, I also think that the “I did it for The Rock” moment may have already happened in the form of nothing creatively, but business wise. The decision to move Smackdown from Fox to USA for more money but less viewers. More on that later.

How much longer will this boom period last? Who knows. The WWF got hot in 1997, the Attitude Era was in full swing by 1998, and it was effectively over when Austin turned heel in 2001. There is no official way to measure these things but it don’t stay hot forever. The Attitude Era was pretty much 4 years, which sounds short but its a long time for something to be that hot. Especially when you are growing with younger audiences. I remember being in high school and we talked about the Attitude Era, which occured when my friends and I were in the 4th and 5th grade, as if it was another lifetime ago. Seriously, it was 2004 and were talking about the year 1999 the way every dad in Boston at the time talked about how great Larry Bird was in the 80s. It isn’t going to last forever and as a fan who saw multiple periods of highs and lows, I find myself waiting for the clock to strike 12 on this hot era. 2023 was still hot with the Bloodline story still going strong. 2024 remained hot with Cody Rhodes on top. In 2025 after this year’s Wrestlemania, they need something new. What is that? The answer isn’t that hard. Going back to the pandemic up to today, Drew McIntyre has been one of their best talents and his social media game is some of the best in the entire industry. He’s also massively under-utilized despite being featured in angles with stars. Also, I think Drew should eventually win the world title in 2025. I do not miss the Cena era of hot potato title reigns for one minute, but I also don’t think that every title run needs to be at least 500 days long. If Cody lost the belt to Drew at Summer Slam, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. It would probably help all parties: Cody, Drew and WWE.

 

More on Cena’s turn:

It happened, so you can’t undo it now. While I feel this match is better and more interesting than a face vs face matchup, it stems to a problem WWE has had for 15 years now and that’s a reliance on nostalgia. It’s everywhere. Sure, WWE is doing a better job with their younger, full time talent than they were before. Largely because the pandemic forced them to and, what-do-you-know, the younger talent connected better with today’s fans than Sting and Bill Goldberg. They’re even doing this nostalgia shit in the women’s division and all it does is make the current star seem less-than.

Cena is one of WWE’s greatest stars and you could say he’s earned a self-indulgent retirement tour to go out on his own terms and sell a bunch of ugly shirts that are really all the same shirt just in different colors, but that doesn’t mean he needs to face the current WWE Champion for the title in the main event of Wrestlemania. As crazy as it may sound to the older fans, John Cena needs Cody and WWE more than either of them need him. Cody became a big star and WWE had the biggest Wrestlemania ever last year without Cena on the card at all. His time is not “now” anymore. Its ridiculous the he’s in this position. When he’s on a retirement tour, there should be no mention of him being in a title match. Instead, its 2025 and here we are still banking on nostalgia.

Since WWE is going nowhere and business is stronger than ever, I’d like them to experiment a little next year and do an entire Wrestlemania featuring talent under 40 unless they are currently an active full-time wrestler. No Attitude era guys. No WCW, guys. No Ruthless Aggression guys. None of that. Just the same talent you see on Raw in June; I want to see them on the Wrestlemania card the following April. Wrestlemania should be a snapshot of the era we are in. Not a constant celebration of the past. Cody beating Roman last year was a big deal. Beating middle-aged and balding John Cena is not that big of a deal and it will be even worse if he loses to him.

I’ve said it a thousand times in the 10 years I’ve been doing this column but here’s once more… NO. MORE. FUCKING. NOSTALGIA. ON. TOP. OF. THE. CARD. OF. BIG. PLE’s!

Thank you.

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Here comes (there goes?) the boom:

It’s spring of 2025, but we know the WWE calendar really starts after Wrestlemania. It may sound overly simple but WWE can go a few ways. Up, down or crashing down. Without a red-hot angle and AEW nipping at their heels like they were in the early 2020s, WWE in 2024 and now 2025 is not as hot as it was in 2022 or 2023. Are things still good? Sure. But you can’t deny that it has also cooled off.

In my opinion, the root cause is the programming shift of Raw and Smackdown. WWE got hot during a time were Smackdown, for the first time ever, was treated as the “A-show” on network television on FOX. I thought Smackdown on Fox was a great pairing and when the deal was up, they went back to USA because it offered more money.

Now, you could believe that the smart thing to do is just to take the bigger contract, but I don’t feel that was the right choice. Especially since its not like Fox was offering them peanuts. In this age where cable is dying and its more about exposure, keeping Smackdown on network TV would have been a better business decision than simply taking the bigger money offer. As of right now, neither night of Wrestlemania is selling out. Its close, and will still be an insanely profitable show, but they aren’t sold out yet. That is due to a number of factors. One, there is no red hot angle right now and even John Cena’s heel turn I would put at a 7/10 on the heat index. Its been fine but not great. Also, the event taking place on Easter weekend plays a role. Also, the ridiculous ticket prices. Maybe WWE finally found that number that finally makes hardcore fans around the world say ‘too far’. Who knows. It could also be due to the fact that on FOX, Smackdown averaged 2.5 million viewers and on USA, a network no one ever watches or talks about anymore, they average about 1.3 million.

Raw’s move from cable to streaming I am less concerned about. It feels mostly like a success, but it still needs time. It’s probably a bit weird for fans who started watching (or started watching again) coming out of the pandemic, and were regular SmackDown viewers, suddenly be unable to watch that show because its on cable and now have to treat Raw like that is the important show. You can’t just take both of your flagship programs and toss them in the air like that and tell your casual fans, “ok find us”.

Its always a risk changing stations and it was really poor timing for WWE to move Smackdown when they did, oh and on top of that expect fans to watch an extra hour of it as well. As if they didn’t learn from the 3 hour Raw debacle, which showed they didn’t learn from WCW’s mistake in making Nitro 3 hours either. In a divisive world, one thing that is universally agreed upon is that moving Raw to 3 hours was a mistake, so they did it with Smackdown and look: the show is suffering. Quality is down and ratings are also down. Just like what happened to Raw in the 2010s.

The jury is still out on Raw on Netflix. I think its a fine move so far, but I think Smacking moving off Fox was a big mistake and its probably one that WWE will not be able to overcome. Yes there are reports of Smackdown moving back to 2 hours in June but I feel the damage has been done and you can’t repair the damage of moving off network television to cable.

It happened back in the early 2000s, too. WWF was so hot that Sunday Night HeAT was once must-see and when it moved off UPN and on to MTV it eventually died a death. When Raw went from USA to TNT ratings went down. When Smackdown first moved off Network TV and on to SyFi many fans at the time were questioning if the show would get cancelled because it was deemed so irrelevant and barely anyone was watching it.

USA has been a good home for WWE for decades, but times are changing and I think time will be kind to Raw’s move to Netflix, but Smackdown’s move back to USA from FOX feels like selling your home to move back in with your parents. Yeah, you’ll be fine but its a step backwards in the wrong direction.

Thank you again for reading, everyone. Enjoy Wrestlemania and Easter and I’ll see you whenever. Hopefully before Summerslam.

Follow me on X @PlanetKayfabe