Sleeping Monsters Heading Into Wrestlemania

I once had a math professor who said, "Casinos are not in the business of giving money away. They are in the business of making money." Simple, but true. That statement is obviously not as specific as it could be on how casinos make money. But the idea is what was important.

How does that work for the WWE? Let me give my version of that same idea. The WWE is not in the business of featuring wrestling. They are in the business of making money. I'm going to be a little more specific. They make money mainly through creating stars and featuring them. These are the people that the company surrounds with hype. These are the ones they use to draw viewers and crowds to the arenas. These are the ones they use to sell merchandise. These are the ones they want to get over and connect with the fans, to put it simply. From there, everything else falls into place.

A lot of fans might forget that simple idea. The WWE isn't in the business of just pleasing wrestling fans or those fans who like to make Youtube videos to rate every match out of five or ten. How much money does pleasing those critics actually make for them? The WWE's main purpose is developing stars to connect them with the fans and featuring them in ways that work. If that fails, they can just rely on hype from all the years they used to be great. They can bring in former huge stars or celebrities. They can pull little stunts to get them big attention. In the end, it's still the creation of stars that keeps them rolling.

What does all that have to do with Mark Henry and Big Show? Not a thing. Looking at those two former World Champions, they seem somewhat lost in the shuffle heading into Wrestlemania. A lot of guys are in that position, so there is no need to believe Mark Henry and Big Show are in trouble. As far as short-term plans go, what can you really do with them? If one turns face, you might as well book them to face each other. They had a big feud a while ago. Should they get involved in The Shield's match at Wrestlemania, or some other multi-man match? Big Show just held the title a few months ago and Mark Henry had a lot of momentum with his return. It would be a shame to see it all unravel in the coming weeks to mediocrity.

Thinking about long-term issues, is it about time these two retired? These guys have been around since I started watching actively about fifteen years ago. What more can you really do with them? How many more times can Big Show feud with John Cena? How many more times will Mark Henry get injured? It would be hard to replace them, especially Big Show, but the WWE needs some former top names to retire to open up opportunities for other guys. I still think they can feature midcarders a little better than they are, but I know having so many former World Champions on the roster can make things hard. Shouldn't they be a higher priority? I just feel Mark Henry and Big Show should start thinking about retirement or semi-retirement.