The Undertaker Vs. Shane McMahon: Overkill?

Shane McMahon coming back to the WWE was huge. Having him face The Undertaker at Wrestlemania was huge. Making this a Hell in a Cell match was huge. The stipulation that Shane would get control of Raw if he won was huge. It just seemed like you had enough huge things right there.

Vince McMahon raised the stakes this week. If The Undertaker loses to Shane, he is barred from competing at Wrestlemania. Is this just a little too much? Is this overkill? If Taker was refusing to wrestle Shane, then you can understand this stipulation to force him to fight. If this feud had been developed to make it seem like the odds were in Shane's favor, then you can understand Vince doing this to add some motivation for The Undertaker to win. You don't have any of this going on. Was it really necessary?

As an analyst, I can see some good reasons for the WWE to do something like this. Ratings are terrible. Wrestlemania has not sold out with a little over a week to go. The WWE always has to put in work to keep subscribers to their network coming. If the WWE can cause some buzz to draw for them, why not? Some people might believe this could be The Undertaker's last Wrestlemania. That might get them to tune in. That might get them to subscribe to watch Wrestlemania. That might put a few more butts in seats in the arena. Moreover, this can lead to a big storyline involving The Undertaker following this year's Wrestlemania. He won't be fired. Even if he was fired in kayfabe, that still wouldn't be the end of his career. The WWE wouldn't let it end like that. In any case, the WWE's can create an odyssey for Taker to make it to another Wrestlemania, if he loses this one coming up. What the WWE is doing has potential to draw and to lead to an epic storyline.

As a critic, I do not like what the WWE is doing. I do feel it is too much. The WWE already has a big storyline here and what they are adding to it this week does not feel justified or necessary. It damages the focus of the big story that this feud is about. This is supposed to be about Shane vs. Vince, with the fate of the WWE hanging in the balance. The Undertaker is the instrument of destruction. He is remorseless and just out to destroy. There is no need to make this feud more complex. With just two weeks left until Wrestlemania, they could just ride what was already there.

As a writer, what would I have done? Just have Vince go out there this week and continue to push the destruction of his relationship with Shane. Have Vince bring up that he has feuded with every member of his own family. Show clips of that. Have Vince bring up how ruthless The Undertaker has been inside Hell in a Cell, at Wrestlemania, and even against Vince, himself. Show clips of that. It adds more steam to the feud and hypes the match without adding a new direction to it.

What do I think as a fan? As a fan, I am tired of the WWE and don't really care.

All in all, even though the new twist to things does seem like too much to me, it is probably a smart move by the WWE. Despite everything they have done so far, the fans aren't rushing back to see what all the drama is about. The WWE just has to create more drama. It would be nice if they added it to other feuds with other individuals. It would be nice if they did more to create more stars out of guys in their 30s or younger and not rely on guys over 40. But this is arguably the biggest storyline they have going. And they just added even more to it.

Since I brought up ratings, let me talk about that a little. Raw had 3.4 million viewers this week. That's not great. The WWE has no sports competition right now on Mondays. This is an election year. Call it a coincidence, but you do see a ratings drop during these years at times. 2012 was the last election year. Raw's annual ratings average in 2011 was 3.21. It was 3.0 in 2012. Pretty big drop for the election year. 3.01 for the year after. Pretty much the same level. Dropped to 2.95 for 2014, which is no big deal. Dropped all the way to a 2.64 for last year. You can't blame that on people being more interested in primary results.

What is causing the poor ratings so far this year? Is it the election excuse? Or is it the poor quality of the product? Regardless, this is supposed to be the hottest time of the year for WWE. You can usually expect around a loss of 500,000 viewers between this time of the year and what you'll get during football season. That's a rough estimate. How many times will Raw average less than 3 million viewers this year? They dropped below that benchmark once last year. Expect it to happen more this year.