PHOTO BLOG: Why WrestleMania 31 Is Basically WrestleMania 21

As I watch through some of my favorite WrestleMania events in preparation for this week’s MASSIVE series of Wrestlezone Top 10 lists and various other editorial content, I stopped to think about one in particular. 

Has it occurred to anyone else that WrestleMania 31 is basically the same thing as WrestleMania 21? Obviously there are some major differences – there’s no Sting, although Akebono did make an appearance.

The company finds itself in much the same situation now that they did back in 2005. The emerging stars of the previous year’s PPV (Benoit and Guerrero) had fallen back to midcard status, the undefeated champion (JBL) was expected to drop the belt to the up-and-comer (Cena), the Undertaker was making new stars, a legend (HBK) fought a future legend (Angle), and overall the company was in a massive state of flux towards a newer, younger generation of WWE Superstars. 

Take a look at just a few of the reasons why WrestleMania 21 from Hollywood is largely the same event as next weekend’s WrestleMania 31 pay-per-view in Santa Clara.