BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
Going into WrestleMania XXX I pulled off something that I hadn’t been able to do in a while. I convinced myself to let go. I let go of my jaded predictions, my snarky expectations, and my guarded fandom. I expect too much from wrestling. I’ve been spoiled by getting great content in special occasions and expect it to be like that all the time. Those days are over. The tone and style of wrestling is different. It’s just like life. Music, movies, and people were different during the “Attitude era”. Wrestling is behind in the times, but it always has been. “South Park” and Howard Stern were around before the WWE decided to get “edgy”. Right now the tone of entertainment and people’s moral measure is different. Some would say, it’s more balanced and reactionary. The world, minus five years, equals wrestling. Five years ago reality TV was popular, beards were notable, swamp people characters, etc. etc. etc. were all “in”. People were super sensitive against everything. People were about to “Occupy” Wall Street and start protesting. What’s going in WWE? Yeah… all of that. It’s “the world minus five years equals wrestling”.
I was excited. I wanted to see Mania and I’m glad to take it in. I had issues with my Network stream and had to deal with it for A LOT of my weekend. I’m pretty sure I spent more time trying to fix my extensions on Google Chrome than I will actually watching the Network this weekend. Once I missed out on the Hall of Fame, I got a little frigid towards the show. I expect it to be fun, but I’m not expecting it to satisfy any specific stranded.
This turned out to be a good way to spend six hours. The preshow took forever. The four way tag title match was not all that exciting. When the crowd started chanting “this is awesome” to THAT match it was hard from rolling my eyes at the screen. Are we SERIOUSLY saying this match is “awesome”? It wasn’t bad or anything, but this chant used to be used for Match of the Year candidates NOT stuff involving Usos and Jack Swagger. Stop wasting impactful chants on anything. Why not a “This is de-cent! This is de-cent!”? Anyways, there was no title switch and there was no way we’ll care about this match come a month or so from now.
The first real match on the real card was the Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H match. I did like this match and got caught up in it, but it seemed a little weird to me. It didn’t come off as “explosive” as it should have. I’ll have to watch it again because it doesn’t really have much about it standing out in my head as I write this.
The follow up and “cool down” would be The Shield going over strong on Kane and the New Age Outlaws. I’m happy to see The Shield get this kind of win and positive exposure. They are now 2-0 at WrestleMania. The Outlaws can fade away now and Kane should get one final run to wrap up his awesome career. Being taken out like this almost gives the impression that he’s not a serious threat anymore. The Andre The Giant battle royal was actually really good. It was one of the best battle royals I can honestly say I’ve ever seen. Yeah, Rumbles and gauntlets have been out there and cool but this match was special. They got in a lot of cool spots and the fact that Cesaro got the win was really surprising and sweet. Great surprising pick for sure.
John Cena defeated Bray Wyatt. I’m not surprised by this, but the psychology of the match was strange. Cena kind of overacted this whole thing, but it’s hard to fault him when competing against evil hillbillies who have their own twisted rhetoric on morals and life. They accomplished and sold a lot of stories in this one. I wanted Wyatt to win, but I’m not mad at this. Cena did more than his share in getting Wyatt’s mind games and skillset over.
The streak is… over? Wow. I still can’t believe that Brock Lesnar defeated the Undertaker at WrestleMania. I’ve been to two of the “streak” matches and have been a fan of Taker’s since I can remember. I always said that he SHOULD lose the streak, but I always thought it would be a young guy to pass the torch. Not Brock Lesnar. I don’t think anyone in their right mind would have gone with this pick. No one expected it. Everyone was already talking about next year and even the year after. It almost felt like Taker realized he couldn’t do it anymore and told Brock to take him out. The reaction from Paul, Brock, and the crowd at the end was amazing. Wrestling would never be the same after that. Seriously. I think everyone is going to need some time to let this soak in and settle. Wow.
After this we saw AJ retain her title in a 14 women WrestleMania payday appearance match. It was really surprising to see AJ come out with the belt. I don’t think anyone would have imagined that to happen either, but still people were stocked and awed’ by the whole streak thing.
The main event was only like 23 minutes. I’m not complaining or anything, but didn’t it feel like a lot longer? This match never really felt like it clicked. It hit the big and important spots, but overall it was a big cluster of crap. None of that will be remembered though. People are a going to remember the big first bump, Steph and Hunter’s involvement, the crazy RKO-Bomb spot on the table, and Daniel Bryan winning the match. It wasn’t the best Wrestlemania main event of all time or anymore, but the moment of D-Bry winning will go down as one of the company’s pinnacle moments of a new era.
WWE was exhausting this time. Some stuff shocked me, some stuff underwhelmed me, and some stuff will be forgotten by next week. It was like they took the matches, put them in a WWF Warzone video game simulation and let the results just happen. This isn’t a bad thing, but it was a big confusing . I like that… I think. Another Mania has come and gone. It wasn’t the “greatest of all time”, but it was a solid B+. There was barely anything to complain about. That’s always a plus with me. Always!
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