The Real Reason Why Bourne & Swagger Were Kept Off 'Mania

According to a report by The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, one of the reasons given as to why ECW Champion Jack Swagger and Evan Bourne were not booked for matches at WrestleMania 25 was due some company officials feeling they hadn't been in the business long enough to earn a spot on the biggest show of the year.

Although not much is known regarding the decision to keep Bourne off, with Swagger there were some that felt his match with Finlay at No Way Out was a bad performance and that played into the decision to keep him off the card and defending the ECW Title, which many noted really downplayed the importance of the title even more if it couldn't even make it onto the WrestleMania card.

Swagger and Bourne were instead booked as lumberjacks for the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship match between The Colons and John Morrison & The Miz, which ended up getting pulled from the main PPV and took place as a dark match before the show. Were told this surprised many on the roster that not only would the ECW Champion Swagger not be considered good enough to defend his title on a WrestleMania card, but he also wasn't considered strong enough to appear on the actual show and was instead booked as a lumberjack of all things during a dark match that no one saw unless you were there live and many won't get to see until the DVD release.