Luke Harper’s first WrestleMania match (WrestleMania 31) was a match to remember with Harper competing
in a seven-man ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship. Although he didn’t win the
match, he did have one of those OMG show-stealing moments where he powerbombed Dean Ambrose
two of the biggest names in the wrestling industry, The Rock and John Cena as the two
fought of The Wyatt Family on the grandest stage of them all. Just two weeks before WrestleMania
32, Luke Harper suffered a knee injury during a post-Raw dark match that side-lined him
out for 6 months.
Christian’s injury is a bit of a weird one because as well as missing WrestleMania 30,
his injury actually caused him to silently retire from wrestling. In fact, his sudden
retirement has become a minor running joke on the Edge and Christian Show That Totally
Reeks Of Awesomeness. What a name by the way! Two weeks before WrestleMania 30, Christian
decided to retire, never actually formally announcing it. Although Christian didn’t
have a solo main card spot on WrestleMania 30, he was one of 30 competitors set to compete
in the inaugural Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. But due to him silently retiring,
he was silently removed from the Battle Royal by the WWE.
Back in 2012 when Wade Barrett was somewhat of a main card wrestler, he was on a winning
streak beating the likes of Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton, John Morrison, Trent Barreta
and Sheamus before his streak was broken by Randy Orton who he became involved in a big
feud with fighting at Survivor Series, TLC (in a tables match) and many Smackdown and
Raw matches such as a Falls Count Anywhere match and a No Disqualification match. With
his character being built up as a solo wrestler, he was looking to participate in WrestleMania
28. Rumours had it that WWE was going to bring back the Money in the Bank ladder match for
WrestleMania 28 with Barrett taking home the briefcase for a championship opportunity,
however, I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news. Just over a month before WrestleMania
28, Barrett suffered a partially dislocated elbow after Big Show threw Dolph Ziggler at
him during a battle royal that took place on Raw.
Neville made his main roster debut the day after WrestleMania 31. With a lot of hype
and promise following his impressive achievements in NXT, Neville sprung into action defeating
Curtis Axel on his debut on Raw. The high flyer Neville had a fairly successful year
participating in feuds with the likes of Bad News Barrett and more notably Stardust, who
he fought in a comic book inspired rivalry, with Neville being pinned as the “superhero.”
Maybe not quite Superman vs Lex Luthor but it was still quite an entertaining feud in
my opinion! With Neville’s build up as a talented main roster wrestler, he was looking
to compete in his very first WrestleMania, however, it was sadly not to be. Just three
weeks before WrestleMania 32, Neville fractured his ankle during a match he had against Chris
Jericho on Raw putting him out of action for 4 months and therefore causing him to miss
WrestleMania 32.
With WrestleMania 24 just a month away, Rey Mysterio had a huge WrestleMania tag team
match planned for him where he was scheduled to team up with retired American boxer, Oscar
De La Hoya against also retired American boxer, Floyd Mayweather and Big Show, however, after
Oscar De La Hoya turned down the WWE, it was changed to putting Rey Mysterio and Floyd
Mayweather in a tag team match featuring Shane McMahon and a wrestler of his choosing. Unfortunately,
the WWE had to change plans yet again as Rey Mysterio suffered a bicep injury during an
overseas tour. Mysterio announced that his injury would keep him out of action for at
least six months, and he eventually underwent three surgeries within the space of a month.
This injury also meant that he missed WrestleMania 24, which led a one vs one match between Big
Show and Floyd Mayweather which arguably remains as Big Show’s most high-profile WrestleMania
match, a spotlight that Rey
could have shared.