The Ladder Match gamble at WrestleMania 41

We are fourteen days out from WrestleMania 41 and the booking desk at WWE has officially lost its collective mind. Rusev is out here acting like he just discovered fire because he managed to snag a spot in the Intercontinental Championship ladder match. Let’s be real: ladder matches are where wrestling psychology goes to die, sacrificed at the altar of high spots and potential concussions.

Rusev recently sounded off about the concerns surrounding his involvement in this chaos. He is quoted as saying, "This is my time, this is my match." It is a classic babyface confidence play. Whether you buy the bravado depends on if you think he can actually survive a five-man scramble without getting his knees turned into gelatin by a errant steel ladder.

The booking problem in the Mid-card

Here is where I start pulling my hair out. We have five names confirmed for this ladder match. That is five guys fighting for one strap, and honestly, the crowd is going to be exhausted before the main event even hits the ring. Multi-man ladder bouts are great if you like watching people treat their lumbar spines like they are made of bubblegum. But as a storytelling device? They are sloppy.

You are essentially asking these guys to put their careers on the line for a title that has been treated like a hot potato since January. I have seen guys take a backdrop onto a vertical ladder only to pop up and hit a finishing move three minutes later. It ruins the suspension of disbelief. If the IC title is the workhorse championship, why are we turning its biggest showcase into a glorified stunt show?

Is Rusev the right pick?

Rusev has presence, sure. He has the size and the look that pops a crowd, but technical grappling is not his wheelhouse. If you put him in a ring with guys like Logan Paul or Chad Gable, the contrast in pacing becomes painfully obvious. Gable is going to be doing moonsaults off the top rungs, and Rusev is going to be there trying to clothesline people out of their boots.

There is also the matter of the recent chatter regarding WrestleMania 42 that has been circulating on the message boards. While some people are already trying to map out the next year of booking, let's focus on the fact that this current ladder match feels like a panic move. When the creative team runs out of ideas for an individual feud, they just throw everyone into a ring with a bunch of metal furniture and hope for the best.

It is lazy booking. We deserve a clean one-on-one contest where the psychology matters more than the gymnastics. Watching a guy play to the rafters while he sets up a ladder in the corner for 20 seconds while his opponent politely waits on the mat is torture. If they want us to take the IC belt seriously again, the champion needs to beat someone, not just be the guy who stood upright the longest while everyone else bumped on the floor.

Don't get me wrong, I will be screaming at the monitor just like the rest of you when someone hits that ladder face-first. I’m a fan, and that dopamine hit of a dangerous spot is undeniable. But as a card-carrying member of the cynical wrestling observer club, I have to call out the lack of depth here. If Rusev walks out with the gold, he better have a better plan than just "being his time."