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As this post helps to illuminate, I think for all of the (over)analysis of the strength of a given Wrestlemania's card/celebrity power, a lot of people tend to buy this one event based on fairly emotional reasons. Two years ago, the card sucked save for HBK/Undertaker (and yes, Orton/Trips was a very hot feud and that helped, too) but it still did pretty well on its own terms primarily because WWE hyped it to high heaven as the "25th Anniversary of Wrestlemania" and a lot of casuals were attracted to the hype. I was talking with a casual fan last night at a grocery store who literally said they'd be buying this year's Wrestlemania because he wants to see how the Georgia Dome looks for a Wrestlemania.
Obviously, these can be considered "outlier" buys to some degree, but if you bundle a bunch of "outlier" buys together, they probably make some kind of impact. Hype. Hot, soap opera-like feuds that attract casuals. An interesting location/venue. A guest host? Etceteras.
Last year's card was stacked from bottom to top and underperformed based on the strength of its card.
I do think Orton/Cena would be the worst option, though. Even casuals are tired of it, much less the smart mark audience of which the Boston crowd was representative at The Royal Rumble. Orton's still not nearly at Cena's level. This isn't the time for their Wrestlemania one-on-one encounter (which I'm quite certain will happen before either guy retires).
