Wrestlemania 30 began as a spectacle to behold. It started out very strong with the Mount Rushmore of Wrestling all in the ring at the same time: Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and The Rock. The crowd went wild, the segment was entertaining, and it was a truly great Wrestlemania moment (which is appropriate for such a milestone event).
Triple H vs. Daniel Bryan
The first match, Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H, kept the event going strong with both competitors working together to deliver a 4 star match that was epic in many ways. It started strong with Triple H’s awe-inspiring entrance and carried on from there. From the reversals, to the Tiger Suplex by Triple H, to the multiple German Suplexes by Daniel Bryan, to the vicious right hand Triple H used to counter the outside dive, the match was exciting with many great moments. While the wrong man won in my opinion (Triple H has been top quality in every category lately), and they did the whole kick-out-of-his-finisher-but-he-doesn’t-kick-out-of-mine thing, the match was epic enough that I looked past it.
Shield vs. Corporate Kane and NAO
The second match, The Shield vs. the New Age Outlaws and Kane was, simply put, filler. The crowd was burnt out by awesome Triple H and Daniel Bryan bout and gave none of the competitors in the ring any reaction, and the match itself was far too short. It was essentially a squash match to give the Shield something to do at Wrestlemania. They deserved better.
30 Man Battle Royal
The third match, The Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, was pretty much just filler as well. There were a few moments: Kofi’s save that he always does in Royal Rumble type situations, Mark Henry eliminating all of 3MB, and of course Cesaro’s excellent show of strength of not only swinging Kofi forever and a time, but easily lifting Big Show over his head and over the top rope to win. I’d rather Kofi or Big E or even Drew McIntyre to win, but Cesaro’s not a bad choice.
Cena vs. Wyatt
The fourth match, John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt, was a great match with a great story but a terrible ending. Bray Wyatt showed out as he usually does in big matches, the spider walk during the five knuckle shuffle, laughing off Cena’s offense near the beginning of the match, getting down on his knees and asking Cena to end him (especially when he did it a second time and handed Cena a chair), and of course good counters , moves, and reversals. Cena did his part for most of the match, recoiling in fear, being weirded out by Bray’s eccentric behavior, remembering not to run on the ropes for the five knuckle shuffle, and so on. But Cena winning with a simple Attitude Adjustment was 100% the wrong outcome of such a match. Cena gained nothing, Bray has to recover from his abrupt halt in momentum, and it is generally a no-win situation. I was very disappointed with the outcome of this bout.
The Streak Match
The fifth match, Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar, was….wrong in many ways. The match itself had no real entertainment value and was fairly boring. The only thing of note that happened was….Brock winning and the Streak being broken. I don’t agree with Brock getting an accolade that could’ve been used to elevate a new, young talent such as Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt, or even Drew McIntyre, or almost anyone BUT Brock, but I’m not as bitter or sad as most people. WWE needed something to make up for the predictability (Every odds on favorite won EXCEPT Brock if I remember correctly. Maybe Cesaro too) and this was it. It was shocking, it was a memorable Wrestlemania moment for the milestone of number 30, it was given to the wrong man, but we’ll see where this goes.
Divas Invitational
The sixth match, the Divas Invitational was completely useless and shouldn’t have even been booked from the looks of it. Nothing happened. AJ won. Again. How horrible.
WWE Championship Main Event
And finally, the main event, Randy Orton vs. Batista vs. Daniel Bryan was an epic bout that probably took the “Match of the Night” title from (ironically) the Triple H vs. Daniel Bryan match. The outcome was pretty bad though. The match started alright, Orton was putting in work, taunting the crowd a lot, posing and Bryan was selling his injury. Eventually Bryan started to get the advantage and that’s when Triple H came in as interference, did nothing but get beat up really, but allowed Batista and Orton to get up and decide to double team Daniel Bryan. That team up gave us the epic Batista Bomb+RKO through a table that was a great Wrestlemania moment. Or it would’ve been had Daniel Bryan not simply gotten up from his stretcher, no sold his injuries, and superman through the match. Even after the match, Daniel Bryan didn’t sell his supposedly grave injuries and it felt like a Cena match all over again. So it was a great match, but Super Bryan annoys me as much as Super Cena (if not more due to his size). Wrestling two matches with an already injured shoulder and STILL winning against three top competitors isn’t realistic.
So overall, Wrestlemania 30 did nothing and was obvious and predictable besides the Streak being broken. Daniel Bryan winning was the obvious and wrong choice, AJ has been retaining her title since forever now, and the motto of WWE is practically ‘Cena Wins. Deal with it.’ So it was a pretty ‘meh’ Wrestlemania overall.
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