WWE's WrestleMania Injury Crisis Is Greatly Exaggerated

There is one simple fact about WWE at this moment that cannot be denied: The injury bug has bitten, and it bit hard. Randy Orton is out, has been for a while and will continue to be. Seth Rollins had his title reign cut short when he got hurt last year. Cesaro‘s shoulder has taken him out of action and his tag partner Tyson Kidd is out after major neck surgery. Sting may be done for good with a neck injury. Former Divas Champion Nikki Bella just had surgery herself, as did her beau and the man probably perceived to be the biggest loss of all, John Cena.

That is unquestionably a heck of a list to toll the injury bells for. It doesn’t, or at least shouldn’t, however, stop a company that proclaims so proudly that they “tell stories” from creating a compelling set of stories for their biggest event of the year. That is especially the case when they have been well aware for months that most of the injured parties would be unavailable.

From the looks of it thus far, it doesn’t seem that those in charge of telling the story of this year’s WrestleMania are actually having the problem that everyone is falling all over themselves to point out. Instead, it appears that for once the company is stepping up and using the resources they have available to put together a show that may be better than it could have been if the talent on the disabled list were healthy.

The Shane McMahon vs. The Undertaker plot twist brings into question how firmly WWE was set to run Cena vs. Taker. Rollins, dating back all the way to before he lost the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the fall, was rumored to be without a featured spot on the WrestleMania card. Over the past few years Orton has been used only as a bit player at WrestleMania, not really doing much of importance. Cesaro has had such a start-stop career with WWE that it’s hard to say whether he would have been fit into a spot on the show that he would have been irreplaceable.

That accounts, generally, for the bunch of guys who are injured. But right now WWE has a roster that is deeper than ever before, and that’s not even counting the insane wealth of talent on NXT, so many of whom are, and have been, ready for a bigger spotlight.

WWE is not facing a crisis right now as it relates to having a talent roster large enough to fill their massive amount of TV time. It’s not even about filling the time. They have the talent to put out five hours of entertaining TV every week followed by a good three or four hours on PPV at the end of the month.

The crisis lies with keeping the talent healthy — keeping them healthy for the sake of those men and women and their families. It’s a human predicament, not a business problem. It can be solved by making sound business decisions, but that’s a different topic for a different day.