Huge WrestleMania Matches Shoved To The Pre-Show

The WWE currently has one of the deepest rosters in company history. Unfortunately, the blessing of having so much talent on both brands becomes a bit of a curse during WrestleMania season for many of the WWE Superstars looking to have their big ‘Mania moment.

Monday night on RAW we learned that the Cruiserweight Championship Match between Neville and Austin Aries would take place on the WrestleMania pre-show. Social media of course, did not handle the news all that well, but a Cruiser bout seems fairly expected for the pre-show.

Today, however, WWE announced that one of this year’s biggest matches, at least in terms of participants, would be joining the 205 Live stars on the pre-show. The Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal will take place before WrestleMania’s main card ever gets under way.

That means Braun Strowman, who has been one of RAW’s biggest stars over the past 6 months, will not be on the main WrestleMania card. Big Show, who originally thought he was having a match with Shaquille O’Neal, will not be on the main card.

WWE also announced that the Smackdown Women’s Championship Match between Alexa Bliss and the entire Smackdown Live women’s roster will be relegated to pre-show duties.

In all fairness to these stars, sources have reported that Vince McMahon sees no difference in performing on the pre show and performing on the main card. But to those of us who have been conditioned to think the pre show is simply to kill time before the main event, it feels like a slight.

There’s a simple solution for this problem. Don’t call the pre-show the pre-show. Just say that WrestleMania starts at 3 in the afternoon and let it be the 7 hour event that it ends up being for everyone in attendance.

As for the entire WrestleMania 33 card, here is how it stacks up:

Hosts: The New Day

WWE Universal Title Match
Brock Lesnar vs. Bill Goldberg

WWE Title Match
Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt

Fatal 4 Way Elimination Match for the RAW Women’s Title
Nia Jax vs. Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Bayley

WWE United States Title Match
Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho

WWE Intercontinental Title Match
Baron Corbin vs. Dean Ambrose

Triple Threat Ladder Match for the RAW Tag Team Titles
Enzo Amore & Big Cass vs. Sheamus & Cesaro vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson

Non-Sanctioned Match
Triple H vs. Seth Rollins

Roman Reigns vs. The Undertaker

John Cena and Nikki Bella vs. The Miz and Maryse
Special Guest Ring Announcer: Al Roker

Shane McMahon vs. AJ Styles

Kickoff Pre-show: WWE Cruiserweight Title Match
Austin Aries vs. Neville

Kickoff Pre-show: SmackDown Women’s Title Match
Mickie James vs. Carmella vs. Natalya vs. Becky Lynch vs. Alexa Bliss (other participants possible)

Kickoff Pre-show: Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
Sami Zayn, Mojo Rawley, Apollo Crews, Big Show, Curt Hawkins, Goldust, R-Truth, Primo, Epico, Curtis Axel, Jinder Mahal, Bo Dallas, Braun Strowman and others TBA

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