FanPost

Marvelmania: How Endgame Can Avoid A Wrestlemania-Style Letdown

Note: This post will contain spoilers for the Marvel Cinematic Universe up to what has presently been released, as well as the results of Wrestlemania 35.

A fantasy world, not always based in reality. Brightly dressed heroes perform incredible feats of strength and athleticism, and inspire millions. Diabolical, wicked villains prey on the weak and plot dastardly schemes to get one over on the good guys. Amazing fights play out, captivating the attention of people across the globe. Hearts are broken, drama and comedy abound, and almost always, the good guys win out in the end, against all odds.

Quick question: what is being described here? The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), or the WWE?

Once you start to notice the similarities between the comic book movie behemoth and the world’s largest wrestling federation, it’s almost impossible to stop noticing them. And the similarities are particularly prescient now, because the month of April 2019 will be bookended by two nearly identical events: Wrestlemania 35, and the premiere of Avengers: Endgame.

It would be easy to cast any of the Avengers films as a parallel to a wrestling pay-per-view event (PPV), chiefly because of how they’re built up. Several solo films for the core Avengers characters air over the course of a few years, and then it all builds up to a big group showing in an Avengers film, often building off the stories and character development that comes from the solo films. You could watch an Avengers film without seeing the solo films and probably still grasp the basic story being put forth in that movie, but it won’t have the same depth and understanding as it would if you saw all the films leading up to it.

Likewise, in wrestling, the WWE builds their stories and characters through episodes of Monday Night Raw and Smackdown Live. Characters feud, grow, go rogue, fight, and it all comes to a head at a PPV, which could be watched without seeing every episode of Raw and Smackdown and still be understood, but has another layer of interest and investment for fans who watch everything leading up to it. It’s the same basic formula, just told in a different medium and over a different timeline.

But one look at the build-up for Endgame makes it abundantly clear that this won’t just be any Avengers movie. Much in the same way that Wrestlemania isn’t just any WWE PPV. For one thing, it looks like the entire roster of the MCU will be on-hand to take on Thanos in Endgame, in one form or another. This is similar to how WWE tries to get as many Superstars on the Wrestlemania card as possible. It’s the biggest event of all, so it’s all hands on deck. And in both of those cases, one of the hands on deck happens to be big Dave Bautista.

Endgame has been built to over the last eleven years. The MCU kicked off with Iron Man back in 2008, a film that ended with a post-credits scene where Nick Fury himself offered Tony Stark a spot in the Avengers Initiative.The MCU went cosmic in 2011 with the first Thor movie. Infinity Stones had begun appearing as early as 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger. The first Avengers movie featured Thanos as the mastermind behind the movie’s villain, and officially kicked off his role as the Big Bad of the whole MCU. Endgame will be where he will finally be defeated, and the focus of the MCU as a whole will shift.

Wrestlemania, in a lot of ways, is the same way. All of the year’s PPVs (eleven months worth, funny enough, to mirror the eleven years worth of MCU) culminate at Wrestlemania, where stories are finished, loose ends are tied up, and the WWE refocuses. Wrestlemania is the end of the WWE’s "season", much like Endgame will be the end of MCU’s Thanos arc. The parallels get even more significant when you think about the fact that in both cases, even though Endgame/Wrestlemania serves as a definitive ending, it’s an ending for something that never really ends. WWE continues on the next night, just as the MCU will continue with this summer’s Spider-Man: Far From Home. Hell, both Wrestlemania and Endgame even featured complaints and debates about the length of the event/film in the lead-up, and in Wrestlemania’s case, very much in the aftermath.

So, the connections are clear. But why does all of this even matter?

Because Marvel needs to make sure they give their fans #Kofimania, not the Wrestlemania 35 main event.

The Russo Brothers, directors of Endgame, have a very unenviable task. There has probably never been a movie with bigger expectations than Endgame. Eleven years of build-up, an absolutely rabid fanbase, and a pretty excellent lead-in with Avengers: Infinity War. The stakes, for the Russos, are almost as high as the stakes are for the Avengers themselves, in the film!

Okay, maybe not that high. But the pressure to make Endgame a great, satisfying, conclusion to a truly epic film saga is surely on for the Russos. It’s the same kind of pressure faced by Becky Lynch, Charlotte, and Ronda Rousey in the main event of Wrestlemania 35.

Both events were big firsts, with a ton of hype. Endgame is the first big conclusion of the first arc of the first connected comic book movie universe, and if The Russos pull it off to critical/fan expectations, will serve as the blueprint for all future arc-ending movies to come. The women’s match marked the first time in the history of Wrestlemania that women main evented the show.

The MCU has been built for eleven years, the showdown with Thanos became the clear direction seven years ago, and fans have been chomping at the bit to get Endgame ever since 2018’s Infinity War, which may as well have been Endgame: Part 1. WWE fans began speculating about Rousey’s star power giving WWE reason to let the women main event Wrestlemania ever since her arrival in the company in 2018, and that discussion was ramped up even further when she won the Raw Women’s Championship last August. Charlotte was always a natural choice for her opponent, as the WWE often positioned her prominently in history-making women’s matches and events, and Becky Lynch became heavily involved in the speculation just a few months later in November.

The end result of all that build, however, was lackluster. The feud between the three women had jumped the shark long before they got to Wrestlemania, and a majority of fans’ interest was shifting over to the burgeoning Kofi Kingston story instead. When it came time for the match itself, they had to perform in front of an exhausted crowd that didn’t have the kind of energy that they should have for such a monumental match, the match itself felt a bit awkward, erratic, and disjointed (and may have been hampered by an injury to Rousey), and the end was a mess. Whether the referee botched by counting when he wasn’t supposed to, Rousey botched by accidentally getting her shoulders off the mat during the count, or the creative team botched by booking an abrupt, awkward ending to a landmark event in wrestling history, no fan should’ve finished watching that match, that show, and felt underwhelmed. And yet, a vast majority of them did.

On the other hand, Kofi Kingston's victory was about as satisfying as can be. They didn't have as long to stretch the story out, which definitely helped. But ultimately, the Kofi story worked because it set up expectations, and then delivered on them. Kofi was set up to be the underdog that grinded for eleven years to get his shot. He earned the shot against the odds, he overcame the bastard bad guy, they put on a great match, and had the great feel-good moment at the end. There didn't need to be a twist because that story was perfect on its own.

Realistically, the Russos can’t learn anything from the main event of Wrestlemania. There’s no evidence of them being professional wrestling fans, and even if they were WWE superfans, and even if they were, it’s way too late in the game for them to really make any significant changes to the film based on what they saw at Wrestlemania. So, what should Marvel fans hope that the Russos did differently for Endgame than WWE did with the women’s triple threat match?

The time shouldn’t be an issue. If the whole issue hadn’t been brought up, most filmgoers probably wouldn’t have even noticed the length. Infinity War clocked in at two hours and forty minutes, just twenty minutes less than the runtime of Endgame, and no one was really complaining about how long that one was. Most people wouldn’t have actually picked up on the extra twenty minutes, especially in a film of this magnitude, if it hadn’t had a big to-do about it.

The big thing here is pretty simple; an epic story deserves an epic conclusion. No one wants to see Thanos realize the error of his ways and undo the snap, or someone defeat him by a fluke. They want to see Captain America leading the super team, Tony Stark using his brains and tech. They want to see Captain Marvel go binary and kick all sorts of ass. Some people want to see Ant Man go up Thanos’ butt, but the less said about that the better. They want to see Thor go for the head, and they want to see Hulk smash. Kofi Kingston’s Wrestlemania victory proved that something predictable can be supremely satisfying, and that a great story doesn’t need a twist just for the sake of having one.

At the end of the day, what Marvel needs to do for their fans is exactly what one of their actors himself said, in the most gif-able moment of his return to the squared circle:

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The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Cageside Seats readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats editors or staff.