WrestleMania, Lesnar deal and more

Wrestling fans are still recovering from a long WrestleMania week and there is plenty of news, so let’s get right to it.
In Tuesday’s column, we looked at the actual results from WrestleMania and now it’s time to take a look at other aspects of not only the show, but also of Mania week.
California Athletic Director Chris Minerd attended most of the events over the week.
“I enjoyed New Orleans as a host city and all of the events were close in proximity,” he said. “We didn’t have to wait in long lines and, overall, Mania was awesome.
“Raw was easily the best show of the year and I won’t go to Mania without going to Raw the next night as the crowds at both events were great.”
The biggest knock that fans have reached out about was how long the events were.
The Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday was over four hours, NXT went more than three hours, Mania, including the preshow, was over seven hours, Raw was over three and Smackdown was two.
That is 19 hours of WWE events for fans live or on TV, and that does not include the Axxess events where matches took place.
Seven hours for one event is too long, and several people reached out saying they fell asleep.
“Mania and the Hall are too long,” said Minerd, “way too long.”
Larry Kauffman is a childhood friend of John Slagus, of Belle Vernon, and Kauffman’s story is unique. They grew up in the shadows of New York City in Bloomfield, N.J., and saw the first Mania together.
“We saw it at the Capital Theatre on closed circuit which was the precursor to PPVs,” Slagus said. “We had balcony seats and watching it with a thousand or so people was a great time.”
Kauffman traveled to New Orleans for Mania last week, as well.
“The show was really well done (last week) as the stage and Superdome were set up really well” he said. “The place was packed and seeing 78,000 people chant ‘Yes’ with Daniel Bryan was unreal.
“Having The Undertaker win in a short time was good because he looked incredible, but clearly cannot take many more bumps.”
Lesnar’s new deal
The wrestling world was shocked when Lesnar pinned Reigns to retain the Universal title, but it now makes more sense. Lesnar signed a contract extension with WWE the prior week and it was kept quiet.
The new deal, however, is a mystery to everyone as WWE has not announced the length of the deal. It very well could be a short-term deal and Lesnar may only be with WWE through the Greatest Royal Rumble show later this month.
He will defend the Universal title against Reigns in a rematch with this bout being a cage match.
Reigns is all but guaranteed to win the title, but then again, that is what everyone thought about their Mania match last Sunday.
Lesnar is definitely on his way to UFC, and it will be good for WWE. When Lesnar returned to WWE the night after Mania XXVIII in 2012, he was fresh and a draw based off of what he accomplished in UFC.
But his act has grown stale in WWE and it would be best for the company if Lesnar went back to UFC before potentially returning to WWE in a year or two with the fans recharged to see him.
Then again, Lesnar’s deal could be long-term but would allow him to fight for UFC as well.
Time will tell.
Superstar Shakeup
The annual WWE Superstar Shakeup takes place Monday on Raw and Tuesday on Smackdown. There will be plenty of moving around with wrestlers moving between brands and all wrestlers from both shows will be at both events.
On this date:
In 1996, WCW wrestler Brian Pillman fell asleep behind the wheel and wrecked into a tree trunk. In a coma for a week, Pillman suffered a shattered ankle, which forced doctors to fuse it together into a fixed position.
A rising star, Pillman convinced WCW to release him from his contract as part of a real-life storyline and Pillman ended up signing with WWE.
Pillman had been a rising star in WCW and dare I say that his “Loose Canon” character could have ended up being bigger than Steve Austin’s “Stone Cold” character.
Unfortunately, the fused ankle limited Pillman in the ring and he was never able to get back to his peak before his untimely death on Oct. 5, 1997.
This week’s question:
Is Rusev leaving WWE? Joe, Uniontown.
There have been rumblings about Rusev being unhappy and possibly asking for his release, and he even tweaked his social media sites to remove WWE from them.
However, he is still employed by WWE and we will keep a close eye on this situation.