wrestling / Video Reviews
From The Bowery: WrestleMania XXX
Image Credit: WWE
Loading...From The Bowery: WrestleMania XXX
-April 6th, 2014
-Mercedes-Benz Superdome, New Orleans, LA
Announce Team: Michael Cole, JBL, and Jerry “The King” Lawler
-I wrote my first article/review for 411mania in March of 2008, and it was a review of WrestleMania. To celebrate the fact that I have been here for 10 years, I figured it would be nice to get a break from Network shows and get back to reviewing actual wrestling shows. I got through the first 29 Manias and then stopped when we got to the Network era. I also feel doing Mania I at the start and XXX to end this decade here showed some nice symmetry. Thanks to all of you that have read, clicked, or commented on anything I have written and thanks to Larry for giving me a chance and sticking with me through some ups and downs in my personal life. Ten years ago I was a single guy with not much responsibility outside of going to work and a decade later I am a family man with my 10 month old son sitting near me as I check out this show. Life if good!
-Note: News of Daniel Bryan being cleared to return to a WWE ring broke while I was in the middle of reviewing this show. I had actually wrote a little about how sad it was watching this show knowing this was the peak for him as far as his WWE career went, and it still may be, but now there is at least a question about whether he captures a night like this again.
-Hulk Hogan, our host for the show, is out first and the crowd is white hot as you would expect. The Hulkster cuts one of his normal promos, and in the middle of it he accidentally says they are in the Silverdome. Oops! The crowd boos that one and thankfully Hogan realizes what he’s done and gets the crowd back on his side as he says he had flashbacks to picking up Andre and delivering the slam heard round the world. Before he can end his promos, he is interrupted by “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and the pop is insane. Seeing these two in the ring is something special as it hasn’t happened often and I still think the only real match between the two was the 3 on 2 handicap match right before WrestleMania X-8. Austin is ready for WrestleMania and says it is great to be back in the Silverdome to bust Hogan’s balls. He then asks the crowd if they want to see him open a can off whoop ass on Hulk Hogan. They want it and Hogan is great as he gets serious and bows up to Austin. It doesn’t happen though as Austin talks about getting to know Hogan during the Hall of Fame ceremony last night and thanks him for what he has done for the business and goes over how has been in the Main Event of WrestleMania after WrestleMania (which gives the crowd the chance to “What” on cue). Next up is The Rock and the crowd is just beyond bonkers at this point. I watched this show at my friend’s house and we were losing our minds as this alone justified the 9.99 a month for the WWE Network. The Rock also gets in a dig at Hogan’s Silverdome flub and Hogan even has to laugh at it. The Rock is honored to be in the ring with one of his best friend’s (Austin) and his childhood hero (Hogan). He cuts a great coked up promo about people getting so excited at seeing him during Mania that they have sex that night and have “Rock babies” 9 months later. Fantastic! The Rock ties Hogan and Austin into tonight’s show as he compares Bryan to Austin (cheers) and Cena to Hogan (boos). He closes with “if you smell,” which leads “and that’s the bottom line,” and Hogan finishes by tying it back into his opening flub by mentioning the Superdome when he hits “whatcha gonna do.” They then celebrate with some beers and thus ends the best opening to a WrestleMania ever and one which may never get topped.
-Cole JBL, and Lawler welcome us to Mania as they are smiling like kids over that opening. They hype Bryan vs HHH and that leads to one of the best video packages you will ever see. Set to “Monster” it chronicles the Bryan rise and feud with The Authority so perfectly that even if you hadn’t seen one second of the build, you would know what is it at stake and be behind Bryan. I just can’t say enough good thinks about that video package and again I will say that nobdy does these videos better than the WWE. Also of note is the great segment where HHH had fake cops arrest Bryan and then call them off so he could beat the piss out of him while he had his hands cuffed behind his back. As we saw this past Monday they repeated the angle with Reigns, but the difference is Reigns assaulted “real” officers which made him look like a dick before Lesnar came out to take advantage of a situation Roman put himself in.
Daniel Bryan vs. HHH (w/ Stephanie McMahon)
-The winner of this one gets added to tonight’s WWE World Title match between Orton and Batista. Steph does the honors of introducing HHH and he makes his yearly, special WrestleMania entrance. This may be the best one and features the on camera WrestleMania debuts of 3 pretty big stars who were in NXT at the time: Alexa Bliss, Sasha Banks, and Charlotte Flair. Steph and HHH are fantastic with their obnoxious flirting and kissy faces with each other. Bryan is out next and the crowd is thunderous even after the crazy Mt Rushmore opening. I know they are telling a story, but it always annoyed me that Cole would said that on paper this match shouldn’t even be close. I mean, we aren’t far removed from Bryan pinning John Cena clean for the WWE Title at SummerSlam. Feeling out process to start and HHH wants to start with a handshake, but Bryan wants no part of that. Daniel fires off kicks in the corner and HHH bails to the floor to regroup. Now Daniel puts his hand out to offer a handshake as HHH is calmed down on the floor by Stephanie. Back in the ring and HHH smartly goes after the damaged shoulder, but Bryan is able to grind him to the mat with a headlock. HHH is able to get to his feet and fires Bryan to the ropes and gets a shoulder block, but Bryan is right back to the headlock after a two count. HHH fights out to a head scissor and they do some old school grappling with is appreciated by the crowd. They end up in the corner and Charles Robinson wants a clean break, but HHH doesn’t oblige as he gets in a few shoulders. Bryan fights back with some kicks, but HHH catches the foot and drops Daniel with a leg whip. HHH keeps going for the shoulder, but Bryan is able to avoid and then flies off the apron and catches HHH with a DDT on the floor. Bryan is letting it all hang out as expected as he comes off the top and hits basically a Swanton on a standing HHH on the floor. That looked like it sucked actually as he caught some off HHH, some of the floor, and part of the barricade. Back inside the ring Daniel gets a two count as Steph lets Daniel know that he is never going to win. This is a Steph we can all love and appreciate. HHH knocks Daniel off the top rope to the floor and preps the announce table, but Bryan fights out of a Pedigree attempt. HHH is still in control though as he grabs Daniel by the injured arm and drops Daniel straight on the announce table. That looked and sounded great! Now Daniel goes to school to steal a phrase as HHH goes right to work on the bad arm. Bryan fights off and is able to get HHH on the floor, but a suicide dive is blocked by a swinging right hand. We go back to dissecting the arm as HHH drops Bryan on his back with his arm pinned on the ring apron. Again, that looked and sounded great. HHH goes old school as he hooks in the crossface chicken wing and then turns that into a Crippler Crossface (called just a plain crossface by Cole) and that gets a groan/murmur from the crowd. Again, it’s not the first time they have used that move, but still it’s still surreal to see. The trash talk from Steph remains on point as she she tells Bryan “you get the horns when you mess with the bull.” Daniel fights back to give the crowd hope and starts to lay in the kicks again, and then reverses a HHH German suplex to one of his own for a two count. He hangs on and hits a second one for another two count, but HHH counters and tries for a chicken wing again, but opts for a double underhook German Suplex that dropped Daniel right on the bad shoulder. They head up top and HHH tries for a superplex, but Daniel blocks and then headbutts his way out before hitting the sunset flip powerbomb. Each man fights to his feet and Bryan gets up first and hits two corner dropkicks, but a third is stopped dead with a vicious clothesline that naturally pops JBL huge. Bryan counters a pedigree to a jack-knife cover for two and then catches HHH with a kick to the head. Bryan heads up top as the crowd is getting into this one big time, but HHH counters a dive by putting his knee up. HHH goes back to the Cripper Crossface, and when Daniel tries to roll through, HHH rolls with him and that puts Daniel right back in the middle of the ring. The crowd is doing all they can to rally Daniel and it works as he rolls for a two count and then counters to his own version of the hold. The announcers obviously won’t mention it, but most of the crowd is aware that HHH tapped to this hold 10 years earlier at Mania, but not this time as he is able to get to the bottom rope to break. HHH then hits the floor to break the momentum, but Bryan is right on him with a suicide dive and then another one before kicking the hell out of Hunter on the floor. They head back in and Bryan comes off the top with a dropkick, but the landing takes a bit out of Bryan. He is able to kip up and starts firing off Yes kicks and the crowd is full throat into this one. The head kicks gets a two count and that gives the fans a chance to breath. Bryan starts another Yes chant as he looks for the running, knee but a sweet spinebuster kills that noise and the Pedigree has the crowd freaking out, but Bryan kicks out to the delight of the crowd. Steph encourages HHH as he goes in for the kill, but Bryan is able to get a small package for a two count. He is still out though so HHH drags him to the corner and rains down with some heavy right hands as Lawler and JBL finally bring up that the winner of this one is kind of screwed as far as being in any condition for the title match later. HHH goes for another Pedigree, but Daniel escapes and hits another head kick. He tries for a second one, but HHH ducks and looks for a backdrop suplex, but Daniel flips out, lands on his feet and catches HHH with the running knee to get the pin at 25:58. Steph is rather irritated as you would expect as she gets in the ring and slaps Daniel. He just laughs at her, but HHH decks him from behind and then destroys the arm/shoulder on the ring post and delivers a chair shot for good measure. Just absolutely perfect story telling there as they stack the deck even more against Bryan. The heat HHH and Steph drew for that is quite impressive.
Winner: Daniel Bryan via pin @ 25:58
-Fantastic match and the last great WrestleMania match from HHH. He seemingly has a formula for what he thinks a Mania classic should be and most times it misses (see Rollins and Reigns in recent years), but in this case it worked tremendously as they told a fantastic story and in this case it didn’t go long just for the sake of going long. It also can’t be stated enough how great Steph was as a manager on the floor and what she added to the match with expressions and trash talk. Fantastic stuff here all around. ****1/2
The Shield vs. The New Age Outlaws & Kane
-The Outlaws are out first, but their spiel is interrupted by The Shield. These stadium shows always made for a cool visual when The Shield would make their entrance through the crowd. The Shield is fresh off their classic battle against The Wyatt Family the previous month where a breakup was being teased, but the WWE held that off for a bit since they were getting over as faces. Ambrose starts the match off with Kane, and they battle in the corner. Ambrose hits the rebound clothesline and makes the tag to Reigns who runs wild on every member of the heel team. He tells the Outlaws to “suck it” and hits both with the drive-by. They each then eat a Super Man punch, before Kane tries to save. Rollins stops that with a knee off the top and then dives onto Kane on the floor. Ambrose in and he sends Road Dogg to the floor. Back inside the ring, Gunn is left alone with The Shield and he smartly tries to bail. Ambrose and Rollins hit tandem suicide dives to take out The Outlaws, as Reigns hits a spear on Kane. The Outlaws get put back in the ring and eat the Triple Powerbomb to end this slaughter at 2:56.
Winners: The Shield via pin at 2:56
-This was exactly what it should have been as The Shield won in dominant fashion. SQUASH
-Fun backstage skit with various Legends and it ends with the expected payoff of Ron Simmons saying “DAMN.”
1st Annual Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal
-Participants: Yoshi Tatsu, Brad Maddox, Brodus Clay, The Great Khali, Big Show, Zack Ryder, Darren Young, Drew McIntyre, Jinder Mahal, Heath Slater, Sheamus, Mark Henry, Titus O’Neil, The Miz, Santino Marella, Damien Sandow, Just Gabriel, David Otunga, Big E, Fandango, R-Truth, Cesaro, Tyson Kidd, Goldust, Cody Rhodes, Rey Mysterio, Kofi Kingston, Dolph Ziggler, Alberto Del Rio,
-Everyone is in the ring except for Show and Sheamus who get their entrances shown. Just moments after the bell rings, Yoshi Tatsu is the first one eliminated. That is noteworthy because Yoshi was the surprise winner of the pre-show battle royal at WrestleMania XXVI. Mentioning that also gives me the chance to note that I was there in Arizona for Mania XXVI. There are just too many bodies in this thing to really do anything. Brad Maddox gets tossed and that gets a laugh from JBL. Khali eliminates Brodus Clay and then Khali follows over the top just moments later. Zack Ryder gets pressed out to the floor to end his night. The announcers make some jokes about 3MB, but they would get the last laugh when 2/3 would go on to win World Titles. Mark Henry then sends Jinder and Drew to the floor with clotheslines and fires Slater out onto his 3MB brothers. Big Show comes up from behind to toss Henry as they are just firing off quick eliminations early in this one. Titus gets dumped over by Show and the crowd comes to life as Santino pulls out The Cobra. The Miz fights it off, but ends up eating the Cobra and hits the floor. As usual in this thing, Santino gets eliminated not long after and as I type that Sandow hits the floor as well. Justin Gabriel takes a crazy bump out as Big E tosses him clean over the top rope and onto his back. Fandango kicks Big E out and gets the crowd doing The Fandago, but he dances too much and Sheamus hammers away on his chest with the clubbing forearms. That is enough to eliminate Fandango. R Truth gets pressed over Show’s head and tossed to the floor to send him packing. Rey and Show have a stare down in the corner and I get flash backs to WCW World War 3 1996 when Show tossed Rey in impressive fashion. Del Rio hits the running enziguri on Goldust to get him out of the match and Cody follows just a few seconds later by Del Rio tossing him as well. We are down to 7 guys left as Rey hits Del Rio with a 6-1-9. He tries the same to Cesaro, but it gets blocked and when Rey tries to spring back in, he takes a European uppercut to the face to bounce him to the floor. Dolph then charges Cesaro and ends up getting popped-up into an uppercut. Kofi charges Cesaro in the corner, but gets boosted over the ring post and seemingly out of the match, but is able to keep his feet on the ring steps. He comes back into the match and ends up getting caught in The Giant Swing, and it’s well over 20 rotations which pops the crowd huge. A Brogue Kick then puts Kofi out and Ziggler gets bounced thanks to a kick to the face from Del Rio. The crowd is kind of pissed by that elimination. We are down to Show, Sheamus, Del Rio, and Cesaro. Del Rio gets Sheamus down with the arm breaker, but Sheamus powers him off the mat and takes him to the ropes where they tumble over to eliminate each other. That leaves 2 and the crowd is firmly behind Cesaro. Show goes for the chokeslam, but Cesaro uppercuts his way out of the hold. Show tries again and sends Cesaro to the apron. Cesaro heads up top, but comes off and ends up getting chopped in the chest for his trouble. The crowd is not happy as Show loads up Cesaro to toss him over, but Cesaro slides off, hits an uppercut and in an amazing spot to call back to Mania III, he lifts Show up with ease and tosses him to the floor to win the match @ 13:25. That was awesome and the pop from the crowd was great. This seemed to be the start of the monster push for Cesaro, but it never happened and he has continued to be a major cog in the WWE’s tag division.
Winner: Cesaro via eliminating The Big Show at 13:25
-This was a good battle royal with a hot ending and was just the right amount of time. It never seemed boring as the early eliminations were quick, and once it settled to the last 7 or so each got some time to work in some key spots and disappear so that Cesaro could go over strong. **1/2
-This show had some great video packages as Cena/Wyatt had a fantastic one set to Eminem’s “Legacy.” Real quick, I have long been an Eminem fan and I will go on record saying his latest album is much better than people are saying. Also, I miss the original Bray Wyatt character before they took him off the deep end with smoke monsters, insect projections, and Sister Abigail cross dressing. Hopefully they come up with something for him following his disappearance in the Lake of Reincarnation.
John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt (with Harper and Rowan)
-Wyatt gets the special entrance with voodoo dancers and then a live band to play him to the ring. Weird that the heels are the ones getting the special entrances this year. The story is that Bray is trying to destroy Cena’s legacy by having him go to dark places, which is similar to what they tried to do with Cena and Kane previously and in both cases neither really worked or made sense. Wyatt trying to mess with Cena by using little kids against him was much more effective and made for some creepy visuals. I remember popping huge for Cena being tied in the ropes and having the lights come on with him wearing the lamb/sheep mask. The mind games start early as Bray falls to his knees and wants tells Cena to finish him and became the monster. Cena yells for Bray to get up and he obliges so we start the match proper now. Bray controls early with some right hands, stomps, headbutts and then he laughs at Cena for not wanting to fight him. A charge by Wyatt is met with a stiff clothesline and that gets Cena into the match for the first time. He shows some good aggression as he pounds away with right hands, and that just causes Bray to laugh. Again, I miss this Bray Wyatt! Harper gets on the apron to check on Wyatt, but he orders him to get down and then tells Cena to bring the fight. A running boot puts Bray down and the crowd starts booing Cena. The match kind of grinds to a stop as Cena is seemingly fighting inner demons while Bray recovers from the boot to the face. Bray capitalizes with a throw and starts hammering away with some ground and pound. A dropkick from Cena stops the Wyatt onslaught, but Cena’s run doesn’t last as he gets caught with a sleeper. This is a very slow start as the crowd is getting noticeably quiet. Cena is able to fight to his feet and breaks the hold and starts firing off his traditional offense. He calls for the 5 Knuckle Shuffle, but Bray does the spiderwalk which rightly freaks Cena out. Rowan gets on the apron and as Cena goes after him, he gets dropped by Wyatt. The crowd is now solidly behind Bray as he leads them in “He’s Got the Whole World.” Bray stalks Cena from across the ring, but runs into a boot and then eats a Tornado DDT for two. Cena is wrestling this match terrified as he gets freaked out looking at Rowan with the sheep mask and because of that he takes too long coming off the top and gets caught coming off with a powerbomb for two. Our hero isn’t down for long though as he comes back with the Five Knuckle Shuffle and tries for the AA, but Wyatt reverses to a gutbuster. The crowd is so entertained they start a “Daniel Bryan” chant. They fight on the apron and Cena takes a DDT on the hardest part of the ring. That gets a two count once they get back in the ring and the crowd starts singing to Bray again while swaying their arms back and forth. That was a pretty sweet visual actually and again shows how far Bray has fallen as a character since his debut. Cena is able to fight back and heads up top, but instead of Bray, he leaps to the floor to take out Harper and Rowan. That seems kind of silly, and naturally, Bray is right there to take advantage. He puts the steps to good use, but Cena is back before any more damage can be done. Cena threatens to use the steps, but thinks better of it and pitches them. Again, this is a silly storyline as we have seen Cena use weapons in matches plenty of times. The indecision to use the steps leads to Bray throwing a body block back in the ring and then he cradles Cena’s head while singing, “He’s got the whole world…” Again, I wish we still had this Bray. A backsplash misses and Cena is able to hit the AA for a two count and now the crowd is back into this one. Rowan gets the attention of the ref and Cena ends up eating a kick from Harper. Bray tosses Cena to the floor after a two count and watches as Cena decides to go after Harper and spears him through the barricade. Bray goes after Cena and fires him back into the ring. Bray sets for Sister Abigail’s Kiss, but Cena is out and counters to the STF. Wyatt is able to escape and ends up catching Cena with Sister Abigail, but that only gets him two. Wyatt just laughs and then gets serious as he preps the announce table. He changes his mind about the table though and opts to bring a steel chair into the ring. Rowan is in the ring for some reason, and gets sent out by the ref. The mind games continue as Wyatt gives Cena that chair and yells at him to “finish me.” The little kids in the crowd freak out as they worry if Cena will hit a defenseless man with a chair, but instead he hits Rowan instead, which is pretty much the same as it would be if he hit Wyatt. That small distraction leads to Wyatt setting for Sister Abigail, but Cena reverses and gets the AA for the pin at 22:25. The announcers talk about how this win keeps Cena’s legacy intact which is still weird for this story. I guess we cheer Cena for showing restraint in not hitting Wyatt, but hitting Rowan with the chair is perfectly fine.
Winner: John Cena via pin @ 22:25
-That was a decent match and thankfully would get better in the following months. I get the idea of the mind games from Wyatt, but there was never anytime you felt Cena was in danger of losing the match. For whatever reason this one never got into a higher gear and the “Cena’s Legacy” story kind of hurt it as well. Again, we cheer him for not using the chair on Wyatt but using it on Rowan is fine? **3/4
-The Hall of Fame Class is announced: Carlos Colon, Lita, Mr. T, Razor Ramon, Paul Bearer, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, and The Ultimate Warrior. It’s quite sad seeing Warrior soak in this cheers and have that at peace look on his face, knowing now that around 48 hours later he would be dead.
-They cut to the medical area and we see Daniel Bryan getting his damaged shoulder taped. Keep stacking the deck and building the sympathy.
-Hype video for Lesnar/Taker. Again, good stuff!
Brock Lesnar (with Paul Heyman) vs. The Undertaker
-There has been a lot said about this match and result over the years, so we will just focus on the match itself for now and then discuss the result when we get there. Taker’s special entrance this year sees caskets on the stage marked for each victim of the streak including one already marked for victory 22 against Lesnar. The mind games start with the entrance as he shoots a lightning bolt and it sets Lesnar’s casket on fire. The Punk casket does make it on screen which was kind of a surprise. I watched that match recently again and it is still fantastic, and is the last great match Taker has had at Mania. I do have hopes he can pull out something this year with what will be a motivated Cena. For those keeping track Taker’s entrance (from opening bell toll to entering the ring) clocked in at just a tick under 4:29. The bells sounds and the brawl is on as they start fast with heavy blows. Brock gets Taker down with a belly to belly suplex and a clothesline sends him to the floor, but he lands on his feet. Lesnar clubs away on the apron, but Taker breaks by hanging Brock on the top rope. The striking continues in the corner and from there Taker sends Brock shoulder first into the ring post. Back to the floor the brawl continues as this is the type of match you would expect and want from these two. Taker continues the work on the shoulder by bouncing Lesnar into the post. Taker looks for Old School back in the ring, but Lesnar stops that with some right hands. Brock charges in the corner and again, shoulder meets post. That leads to them going back to the floor and Taker continues to work the shoulder. He lays Brock on the apron and drops the leg. Snake Eyes follows and Taker sets for a chokeslam, but Lesnar is out and tries for the F5, but Taker counters and sends Lesnar shoulder first into the corner. Now Taker misses a charge in the corner and jams his knee on the top buckle. Back to the floor where Taker takes a nasty bump getting dumped on his back. Brock fires him back in the ring and starts raining down strikes. The crowd is not into this one at all at this point, and I’m not sure what has them burned out. Taker takes a powder on the floor to sell the knee, but Brock gives chase and targets the damaged knee. Brock fires into the security wall and then back inside the ring where he delivers a suplex. I am not sure where Taker takes the shot that gives him the concussion, but it may have been by now as Taker seems out of it and things are kind of stalling to seemingly give him time. Brock pounds away on an out on his feet Taker, but tries a backdrop and that is countered by a DDT. Taker still looks out of it in the corner, but catches a charging Brock with a boot and then a splash in the opposite corner. Taker goes back to Snake Eyes and then hits the running boot to finally get the crowd into this one. Lawler covers for the crowd reaction by saying there is a sense of dread of what may happen throughout the crowd. Taker sticks Brock with the chokeslam, but it only gets two. Taker does seem to be moving better now, so perhaps the concussion hasn’t happened yet. Brock shows life as he pops up and catches Taker with the F5 for two. Taker plays possum and suckers Lesnar into Hell’s Gates, but Brock is a beast and just casually dead lifts Taker and drops him to break the hold. Nice! Brock goes in for a suplex, but Taker catches him again with Hell’s Gate which Brock again breaks in the same manner. Neither man can get to his feet so as Taker crawls towards Brock he gets caught in the kimura. Taker struggles for a bit, but reverses to his own, and hooks his legs around Brock, Now Brock gets to struggle for a bit before getting to the bottom rope to break. For the first time in about 5 minutes Taker gets to his feet and catches Brock with a boot in the corner. That sets up Old School, but Brock brings Taker off and positions him for another F5. Nice counter! That gets two as everyone in the building isn’t really buying any of these near falls on Taker. Suplex City before it was a thing is next as Taker gets dropped with two German suplexes. That shows the age of this show as I was questioning why the crowd wasn’t counting along and I remembered we were a year away from “Suplex City Bitch.” Lesnar pounds away in the corner, but makes the mistake everyone does against Taker and mounts the ropes which leads to a Last Ride. Taker is gutting his way through this match, but is able to get Lesnar up for The Tombstone and everyone assumed that was the end, but Brock is out at two. I know watching this at my friend’s house we both figured that was the end. Taker signals for the end and tries for another, but Brock reverses to another F5 and that ends The Streak at 23:20.
-To say the crowd is shocked would be an understatement. Again, watching live, my friend and I both jumped to our feet and watched with our jaws dropped. Heyman’s selling of the moment is absolutely amazing and even Brock deserves credit for the way he sold getting the win. This is one of the moments I have watched over and over because of how historic and how crazy the reaction was. The fact they delayed the announcement and Brock’s music only adds to the surreal nature. The crowd freaks out even more when the 21-1 graphic appears and then they are booing the crap out of the announcement of Brock as the winner. After the shock has started to wear off, some start chanting “bullshit.” I know some have compared this reaction to what happened when Sammartino lost the title, but that was before my time so I can’t comment. I just know the match is obviously secondary to the result. JBL, Cole, and Lawler speak in hushed tones as Taker gets to his feet. The crowd starts an “Undertaker” chant as the 21-1 graphic looms in the background. Fantastic visual. Then in perfect timing Lawler says “I can’t even imagine what is going through Undertaker’s head” and a fan shouts “you suck.” All 5000 announcers at ringside give Taker a standing ovation and the crowd follows as Taker finally gets to a stable base. Again, just an insanely surreal moment that is still fascinating to watch 4 years later. I also recommend watching the reaction videos on YouTube as they pretty much sum up what everyone was thinking at the time, but the one with the guy nearly having a seizure still takes the cake for me.
Winner: Brock Lesnar via pin @ 23:20
-Well the match was dull and boring, but we found out that Taker was banged up in the match and frankly it is amazing he made it through the match as he passed out in Gorilla once he made it through the curtain. Thankfully these two delivered over a year later with a good match at SummerSlam and then a manly war inside Hell in a Cell. Now as I said everyone complained this was a waste of Lesnar as him jobbing to Taker was stupid, but yet, when Brock wins everyone crapped on that as well. Brock was the perfect person to end The Streak because he was the most believable person to do it and he was the perfect person to take all the hate and vitriol from the crowd. With Heyman milking it at every turn it turned Brock back into a big fight attraction and the follow up slaughtering of Cena was perfect. Now as for the match, as noted it was dull and boring, but was better than I remembered watching live. It lacked in drama due to everyone feeling the winner was a foregone conclusion and Taker’s health issue didn’t help matters. This match is similar to the 6 Man Tag at Bash at the Beach 1996 in that what happened at the end and after the match is what is important. **
WWE Divas Championship: Vickie Guerrero Invitational Match
-Participants: AJ Lee (Champion), Aksana, Alicia Fox, Brie Bella, Nikki Bella, Cameron, Emma, Eva Marie, Layla, Naomi, Natalya, Rosa Mendes, Summer Rae, Tamina
-These poor ladies have to follow The Undertaker taking his first loss at WrestleMania, but I guess they are a good buffer to give the crowd time to comprehend what just happened before getting to the Main Event. Obviously you couldn’t close the show with Taker/Lesnar, but man did it kill this crowd deader, than dead. The story here is that AJ has dominated the division and Vickie decided to have her face the entire division in this match in an effort to get the title off of her. AJ is the only one to get an entrance and I forgot just how adorable AJ is. I guess she retired just in time as the WWE would have a decision to make with her and AJ Styles in the same company. I also forgot that AJ had Tamina on her side at this point as the girls gang up on the two of them. The crowd just doesn’t care about anything happening in this match due to what happened with Brock/Taker. AJ fights off Summer Rae in the corner as now even the announcers are still talking about Taker losing. I also had forgotten that Emma was up on the main roster by this point. Tamina drops Naomi with a kick and things break down to the Bellas being left in the ring. They don’t fight each other and opt to take everyone else out with dives to the floor. Back inside the ring they finally turn on each other as Nikki hits the Rack Attack for a two count. Nattie comes in and throws some suplexes, but eats a Samoan Drop from Tamina. She heads up top, but gets knocked off by Naomi. Aksana tries for a superplex, but Nattie brings them both down with the Tower of Doom spot. AJ comes back in and catches Naomi with Black Widow. The ending is kind of botched as AJ uses her had to force Naomi to tap, but the ref doesn’t see it and it forces Naomi to tap with the other hand to end the match at 6:48.
Winner and still WWE Divas Champion: AJ Lee via submission at 6:48
-This was the right result as AJ had cleaned out the division and this was the catalyst for bringing Paige up to challenge her the next night and start that feud. The match was what it was considering this was before #GiveDivasAChance became a thing and it kind of sucks AJ retired before the WWE started to let the women make history and try to tear down the house. *1/2
-Fun segment backstage as Okerlund interviews Piper and Mr Wonderful and they complain about losing at WrestleMania I. Hogan comes in and wants to bury the hatchet which brings in Mr. T, and Pat Patterson, dressed as an old school WWE ref. Piper reluctantly shakes T’s hand and they all embrace. Tremendous!
-Bruno Sammartino, Bob Backlund, Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes, and Bret Hart all get introduced while sitting at ringside and Bret gets the biggest reaction. My guess is everyone of those legends came up to Bret with tears in their eyes to tell him how amazing the pop he got from the fans was.
WWE World Heavyweight Title: Randy Orton (c) vs. Batista vs. Daniel Bryan
-Orton continues the trend of heels getting the special entrances as Rev Theory is there to play his theme. You should all know the story here by now as Batista was to come back with a hero’s welcome and dethrone Orton here and take the WWE Heavyweight Title with him to movie premieres and what not, but the crowd in Pittsburgh (I was there) for the Royal Rumble hijacked the show and booed Batista out of the building while cheering for Bryan. That continued until the WWE was forced to change course and go with this story of Bryan winning his way into this match. I am curious as to how they get here if Punk hadn’t walked out as he was the one that was supposed to be beating HHH. My idea would have been have Bryan and Punk both get a match where if they win they get put in the Main Event. Punk beats HHH, Bryan beats Kane (blows of their story) and both end up in a 4 Way with Bryan winning. You still get the same end result, but you also get Punk in a WM Main Event to make him happy. Anyway back to the match as the crowd is all over Batista when he is introduced and Big Dave is awesome as he rolls with it. Bryan starts fast as even Lawler points out that Bryan has to win this one quickly since the longer this goes the worse it can be for him. Batista tries a Batista Bomb early but Daniel spins out and sends Dave to the floor. Bryan kicks the crap out of Orton, but Big Dave is in to take Bryan out as we take turns having someone sent on the floor. The crowd boos anytime Bryan is not involved which is what is happening as Orton and Batista fight on the floor. Orton gets sent into the steps as the first few rows chant “Boo-tista,” which is always funny. Batista sets for a Batista-Bomb on the steps, but Orton backdrops out and that bump had to suck for Dave. Bryan finally shows up, but Orton drops him on his back and shoulder on the security wall. Orton goes back to Dave and after sending him into the retaining wall, he takes a moment to pose on the steps. He sends Batista back into he ring and covers for a two count. The Garvin Stomp follows and the crowd is not happy with the lack of Bryan being involved. They are also still kind of shocked from what happened earlier with Taker. Bryan comes back in off the top rope and hits a dropkick on both men and now the crowd is alive. Bryan takes turn delivering the Yes kicks to both men, and catches Dave with the head kicks, but Orton catches Bryan and dumps him with a suplex on the bad shoulder. Orton goes for the cover, but Batista breaks and then drills Orton with a powerslam that only gets two because of Bryan. A charge by Batista gets countered by Bryan and that sets up the corner dropkicks on each man. The crowd loves all this! Orton gets put on the top rope and Bryan brings him back down with a Frankensteiner. That gets a pin attempt, but Orton is at two. Batista is back and he suplexes Bryan to the floor in a crazy bump, but I guess let it all hang out at Mania. With Bryan gone, Orton and Batista fight up top as Orton looks for a superplex. After a bit of a fight he connects with the move and with both men down, Bryan comes back in off the top with a flying headbutt. Orton gets caught in the Yes-Lock, but HHH and Steph are out through the crowd. HHH pulls out the ref to many boos and some “CM Punk” chants. Batista catches Bryan with a spinebuster and then a Batista Bomb. HHH’s personal ref, Scott Armstrong, is in now for the count, but Bryan is out at two. This is beautiful in stacking everything in the deck against out hero. Batista is annoyed and that costs him as he misses a charge in the corner. Armstrong gets orders from HHH, but Bryan kicks him to send him out of the ring. Bryan follows with a suicide dive to take out Armstrong, HHH, and Stephanie. Now HHH is pissed at seeing his wife get knocked down, so he brings in his sledgehammer. Bryan knocks HHH down and gets the hammer and takes HHH out with it to a great pop. He then rolls up Batista and the original ref is back to count, but Orton breaks up the fall. Orton sends Bryan to the floor and Batista joins him as they work over Bryan together. Bryan gets destroyed as he gets bounced off anything and everything that is around ringside. The fans serenade HHH with the “Goodbye” song as he is helped to the back. Meanwhile back on the floor Orton and Batista prep the announce table as they have bad intentions in their eyeballs (as I believe Dusty Rhodes once said). A very loud CM Punk chant starts as the crowd wants anyone to save Bryan at this point. Instead Bryan takes a Batista-Bomb into a RKO through the table. That was insane! Replay also shows that the bump sucked for Orton as well as he landed on one of the monitors which had to kill his back. Batista is the only one left standing as the officials check on Bryan and also check on Orton who is just wrecked. The EMTs come down to stretcher Bryan out so Batista decides to beat the piss out of Orton. Sound strategy! The crowd is too concerned with Bryan to care about the other two, though they continue to boo Batista. Back inside the ring Orton and Batista have what would have been our Main Event. They only stay in the ring for a few seconds as Batista backdrops Orton to the floor, but Orton is able to recover and trip up Batista and connect with the elevated DDT to the floor. Nasty! Bryan crawls off the stretcher as the crowd freaks out, but he doesn’t have much left. Orton sends him into the stairs and then poses over his lifeless corpse back in the ring. He sets for the RKO, but Bryan counters to the Yes-Lock. That gets broken up by a returning Batista, but Bryan has a Yes-Lock for him as well. This time Orton stops that noise and he decides it’s best to test Batista, but that doesn’t work out well for him. A spear is avoided by Orton, but Bryan ends up eating it, and Orton uses that as a chance to stick Batista with the RKO for a close two count. The crowd is rocking now as they are wanting Bryan back in this fight. Orton goes to a dark place though as he preps for the punt, but Bryan is back with the flying knee. Batista is a smart man and tosses Bryan to try to steal the cover, but Orton is out at two. Batista plants Orton with the Batista-Bomb, but Bryan comes back with the flying knee and transitions to the Yes-Lock and with Orton unable to save, Batista taps to a monster pop at 23:20. The party is on in New Orleans as everyone gets sent home happy. They go all out with the pyro and confetti as Bryan celebrates with members of his family including his sister and niece (I believe), who enter the ring. This would be such a bittersweet moment as it looked like this would be the last big time celebration for Bryan in his professional career, but now anything is possible with him returning to the ring. I will also note it was very weird hearing Cole cheer like crazy for Bryan considering their history, but maybe that’s just me.
Winner and New WWE World Heavyweight Champion: Daniel Bryan via tap-out @ 23:20
-Fantastic match that told an amazing story and did everything it could to give the fans the underdog win when the deck was stacked against Bryan. Batista and Orton were great in doing everything they could to eliminate Daniel and credit to Orton for finishing that match after that table spot destroyed his back. ****1/4
-Now just tossing this question out there, but knowing how Mania X, XX, and XXX have closed with internet darlings getting their moment in the spotlight, any thoughts on what happens in six years at Mania 40? Gargano? Omega? Or more Roman?
-Thanks for reading!
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