Wrestlemania 30 was a very good show. It wasn't the best, there was very little bad, and all in all entertaining. But first, all the credit in the world has to go the WWE Network and MLB for having a near-flawless showing tonight when everyone thought the worst would occur. I personally only had two problems, one involving the feed rewinding before the Cena-Wyatt match and the PS3's Network App crashing on me when I tried to reload the feed because it fell behind after said match. This year's Wrestlemania had two signature moments, although there were a few other quality ones as well, but in the end, the moment we're all talking about now isn't the one we thought we'd talk about going in.
Pre-Show Tag Team Title Match
The Usos retained in a very good match. The crowd got into it, ended in a fine way and started the show off with a bang. Maybe not the biggest bang but a bang nonetheless. Cesaro turning face and swinging Swagger was what it needed, and that's what we got, so all in all a good match.
Daniel Bryan vs. HHH
After 38 minutes of talking, we finally had some Wrestling. HHH's introduction was amazing, crazy and outlandish, reminding me of Skeletor from Masters of the Universe. This match may not have been Owen v. Bret at Wrestlemania 10, but it was pretty damn good. No real botches to speak of, Bryan winning clean and HHH hitting Bryan's injured shoulder with a chair gave caution for the rest of the night. I thought overall, the post-match portion was the weakest part here, as it left Bryan able to wrestle from the get-go in the Main Event, but left little room for the imagination.
Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale
This match was boring until the last 8-10 guys were in the Ring where you could finally have room to do some cool moves. In the end, Cesaro picking up Big Show and tossing him over the Top Rope for the win paid homage to the end of Wrestlemania 3 when Hogan slammed Andre. It was a perfect ending and the people were happy for it.
John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt
This match had very good psychology and storytelling to it. It was sort of slow, and perhaps needed to be faster. Cena was playing the obvious heel and Bray the face, though the crowd was somewhat muted during it. This match felt like it was in Bray Wyatt's head until the end, particularly with moments where Cena went for the Five Knuckle Shuffle, getting booed and Michael Cole saying 'this is the type of reaction John Cena is used to getting.' Perhaps it was unintentional, but it worked, especially with Cena trying to hold back his inner demons and destroy Wyatt, which he wanted to do. But in the end, Cena resisted those urges and won, which was pretty disappointing.
Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker
In a match with a poor build that people thought would turn out to at least be okay...didn't. This match was bad. It was slow, it was sloppy and overall uninteresting, as people were really just waiting for The Undertaker to win the match. It wasn't Brock Lesnar's fault either...it was The Undertaker, and for that, he lost. That's right, 21-1 happened. This is the moment of complete shock and awe that encapsulated the show for the rest of the night, resulting in a delayed announcement and music for Lesnar, as well as a 21-1 graphic on screen. As the crowd shots occurred, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE was in shock, including myself. Was it the right decision? The Undertaker wasn't physically prepared for this match, Brock was. So in that sense, he deserved to lose. Given the moment, where no one thought Brock could win versus letting it go on forever...they pulled it out from under us, just as the Undertaker stumbles to his feet. While Taker looked disappointed afterwards and hobbled off to applause, you could tell that he was done. But to Brock Lesnar? I'm not against it, but this moment was bad and Undertaker didn't deserve to go out like this.
Divas Invitational
AJ Lee won. The crowd didn't care. They were still trying to comprehend Undertaker losing.
Daniel Bryan vs. Batista vs. Randy Orton
Until Daniel Bryan came out the crowd was completely dead. I feared the worst, and Bryan only got a halfway decent pop when he came out. You could tell when he came back halfway in the match that he was giving it his all, and so were the other 2 guys, but the crowd just wasn't into it until Stephanie and HHH came in. THEN the crowd turned it up a notch. A couple of nearfalls happened when Orton hit an RKO on Batista and the crowd nearly died at this. Perhaps the Undertaker's loss helped this out, for me...yeah, it certainly played a role in me thinking it was over. Next Bryan hit a flying knee and Batista threw out Bryan to get a cover, and the crowd almost died here too, but thankfully didn't. Bryan eventually got the YES lock on Batista and he tapped, giving Bryan the Championship he so rightfully deserved. This match was pretty good with interesting spots, and it pushed this card to a top 10 Wrestlemania, perhaps even top 5.
While Bryan won...no one's talking about it, which is disappointing. It was his night to shine and unfortunately The Undertaker losing cost him a lot of talk. I'm not sure how late the decision to have Taker lose came, but I'm sure it came before the match started, with the burning of Lesnar's casket, as if it were unnecessary. That's unfortunately where I stand on this. Taker's loss puts a stain on the whole Daniel Bryan victory party, because fans aren't talking about him, but the Streak ending. It's unfortunate and I feel bad for him. It took everyone involved in that storyline to get that crowd into the Main Event when it really shouldn't have been necessary. I recommend this show to people who want to watch it, but hopefully you won't get a bad taste in your mouth afterwards.
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