It will go down as one of the historic Wrestlemanias and the number 30 will not be the reason for it. It will be for a number of iconic moments that will live on forever and some that have the potential to be. Going into Wrestlemania 30 it was all about what would happen to Daniel Bryan. After things are over the talk is all about the end of the Undertaker’s Streak surprisingly.
After 5 years of legitimate threats to the Undertaker’s streak with matches with HBK and HHH Twice and CM Punk last year no one gave Brock Lesnar a hope in hell. The match itself was not all that good as I kind of foreshadowed as a possibility. Lot of MMA stuff in the match but it was slow and lethargic. Brock would hit a couple F-5’s on the Undertaker and no one believed he had a chance of winning off them. He would hit a third and a stunning three count would go down and the world would collectively be in total disbelief.
The Streak was dead and 21-1 flashed on the board and people still shocked moved on to confusion. Taker looked terrible and tired and like his age and magic of the streak was gone. The crowd eventual cheered him but still was trying to process what they just saw. Just like after the last Rock vs.Austin match, it was implied but not stated that we may have seen the last of the Undertaker it was a sad end to something that all fans, but Undertaker fans most of all held with such hi regard.
In a touch of irony Jimmy Korderas on our Podcast previewing Mania he talked about the wrong guy beating that streak. Most feel for a lot of reason’s Brock is that wrong guy. First being he is a part time wrestler and never really gains as much as someone else could from beating this historic streak. Let’s face it though Taker is the one that wanted this to end and Brock never wins if Taker wasn’t on board with it. In fact when this match was originally thought of Taker had reported wanted this match to end his streak years earlier.
This will be something that love it or hate it will be one of those moments you will remember for a lifetime and where you were and who you were with.
This was another moment like that in a much different way to kick off the show for both live and PPV audience. Hulk Hogan came out as The Rock did back at Wrestlemania 27 when he hosted Wrestlemania. Hogan had some instant Botch-A-Mania material when he called the Superdome instead the Silverdome. Hogan would be interrupted by Stone Cold Steve Austin who teased Hogan about his flub and than asked the crowd if they wanted him to Stunner Hogan. Most seemed, all for that but given the state of Hogan’s health that was never happening. Instead Austin would but over Hogan and than the two would be interrupted by The Rock who would come out and talk about his iconic matches with both. Eventually Austin would call for the beers and the three would have a toast in the middle of the ring.
It was a cool moment that fit perfectly with an iconic number for a Wrestlemania. The reaction both live and on social media was very positive for this moment to kick off the show.
There was a lot of debate on when we would see the HHH and Daniel Bryan Match would take place. There were basically two schools of thought on this. One seeing this mimic what happened at Wrestlemania 10 with Bret Hart facing his brother Owen to kick off the show and return to face Yokozuna to win the title. Others felt this match would go back to back with the 3-way Championship match.
In the end they went the historic route and just like in that Mania 10 angle Bryan would have an injury story line that would progress throughout the night. Bryan was selling the beat down of a few weeks early when he was handcuffed and beating down. He came out with a wrapped up shoulder that would be a focal point of the match.
Triple H and Bryan delivered in the ring as many expected them too. Triple H would have Steph out at ringside with him and she was brilliant in her role as basically heel manager. In the end this match told a story of Triple H trying to work the injury to Bryan’s shoulder. He would hit a Pedigree on Bryan and he would kick out. The finish of the match would be Bryan landing his knee out of no where and getting the pinfall. HHH was furious as was Stephanie after the match and it lead to a violent chair shot to injured shoulder against the poll leaving Bryan injured and questionable to make it to the main event.
If you blinked you missed The Shield beating Kane and Outlaws. Roman Reigns looked pretty good in this short squash match. Also in Canada if you were being good little boy or girl you were not able to see the pre-show match. It was for the tag-team title match which turned out to be an elimination tag match. Los Madators would be the first to exit followed by Ryback and Axel and we would be left with Usos and Real Americans. In the end the Usos would retain and Real Americans would break apart. Csearo would go baby face and as things would turn out would end up on the main card in Battle Royal.
So why not go there next as the Andre Battle Royal went down. Not as shocking as streak ending the internet pick to win this match never was even in it. Rusev did not even participate in the match as it turned out. The match would come down to Dolph Ziggler, Csearo and Big Show the storyline favourite. There was one other person I think Del Rio in the final four. In fact it was Del Rio as he eliminated Ziggler I believe. In the end we got Csearo and Big Show.
How it would end was the early in the night mind blowing event. Cesaro would slam Big Show to the floor over the top rope in an amazing strength spot that was a throw back to Hogan slamming Andre. Show would in end shake hands with Cesaro and Cesaro would lift the Giant trophy of the Giant in the air in celebration.
Bray Wyatt and John Cena match was a story telling match but didn’t seem to jive with live audience as it did for me at home. If you remember the Cena Feud with Kane where Kane was trying to get John Cena to embrace the hate this took a similar vain.
By mentioning that feud I feel I have given Bray Wyatt not enough credit cause he did a much better job than Kane. He started the match on his knees begging Cena to hit him Cena would not go for it. Later in the match Wyatt was going to hit Cena with steal steps and Cena avoided it. Cena would pick up the steps and thought about hitting Wyatt with them but refused to do it. Later the same with a chair and even the ref had to encourage John not to use the chair. In the end the story of this match was great as Cena. In addition to battling with in himself he was always mindful of Wyatt’s family on the outside which would led to his demise and some near falls for Bray the best of which on a power bomb off Cena attempting his leg drop from the top.
In the end Cena got his finisher and the crowd through out this match was pretty flat to this match that had the best build heading into Wrestlemania. I am not sure if Bray based or failed in this match with Cena overall. He clearly didn’t have the crowd into it. He may have had the whole world in his hand but it didn’t include the 70,000 or so in the Superdome.
The Divas got stuck following the Undertaker match and in the end they worked hard but no one cared and the matched ended with the expected finish if your smart to the game or unexpected result if you are not A.J Lee would get the win via her crazy submission hold on one of the Funkadactyls.
On to the Main Event and the crowd still have stunned tried to get into Bryan but were far less exited based on Taker outcome and fact they were just burned out at this point in general, As in the opening match both Orton and Batista would target the injured shoulder. Orton giving Bryan a Garvin Stomp to the shoulder.
The big spot of this match was Batista power bombing Bryan into a reverse RKO through a table. Orton would smash his back on a monitor and get legit cut. Bryan on the other hand looked dead and you could almost believe he may have been legit injured. They put a neck brace on Bryan and wheeled him off but he would rise off the stretcher.
HHH would make an appearance pulling out the ref and he brought along Steph and Ref Brad Armstrong. Remember him costing Bryan the title in one of those angles since Summerslam. He would count a fall against Bryan for only two. HHH would get in his ear as would Stephanie. Bryan would take a suicide dive and take out all three. Triple H would bring out the Sledge Hammer and end up on wrong end of it from Daniel Bryan.
A lot of false finishes would eventually lead to Daniel Bryan getting the tap out win over Batista. His long 8 month journey would come to an end with him finally having his moment in the sun.
This was a really excellent Mania in my view despite the end of the streak I thought the show aside from that match it was a pretty good show bordering on great. Some great story telling in a lot of matches on this card. I really felt like this was a pretty well done Wrestlemania that matched and played to the history of the moment being number 30. But it will be most remembered for 21-1 at the end of day.
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