WWE WrestleMania XXX: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to another edition of Wrestling Inc.'s retro reviews, where we take a wrestling event from the past and apply our critically acclaimed loved/hated format! Last time, to celebrate the upcoming Bad Blood PLE, we went back in time to 1997 to revisit the very first Hell in a Cell match. This time, with the wrestling world still riding high on Bryan Danielson's dramatic AEW World Championship victory at All In, we're looking back on the last time Danielson won a world title in the main event of a promotion's biggest PPV — which just so happens to have taken place 10 years ago, in 2014 WWE, when the once and future "American Dragon" was becoming famous under the name Daniel Bryan.

WrestleMania XXX represents a massive inflection point in WWE history. In addition to Daniel Bryan's unexpected rise to superstardom, the WWE universe was getting behind the likes of The Shield and The Wyatt Family. CM Punk had just walked out, the Streak was about to end, and the women's division was preparing to wipe the slate almost entirely clean as the up-and-coming women of a new show called "NXT" readied themselves to be the new female faces of the company. WrestleMania XXX was also the very first main roster show to air on the brand new WWE Network, which forever altered the distribution model for wrestling's most powerful promotion.

While we've gotten used to apologizing for not covering entire shows around here, this event doesn't really have that problem, since there were only seven matches on the main card. The only one we're not going to hit in some form is the inaugural Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal (sorry, Claudio). With that in mind, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about WWE WrestleMania XXX!

With WrestleMania hitting a milestone 30 years, WWE incorporated talents of the past, present (at the time), and future throughout the respective four-hour spectacle. Three successful performers of the past, namely Hulk Hogan, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, kicked off the show with an introductory yet retrospective segment. The match card itself also spotlighted numerous stars coming from the more recent PG and Reality eras, including The Shield (Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose), Daniel Bryan, AJ Lee, and Cesaro. In looking closer, though, many fans also took notice of the tease from some future stars of WWE.

In the opening contest, Daniel Bryan battled Paul "Triple H" Levesque, the latter of whom also served as WWE's Chief Operating Officer at the time. For his respective entrance, Triple H emerged from smoke while sitting on a throne. Surrounding him were three masked women dressed in gold Greek-Goddess-like gear (ironic, considering one of them took on a similar nickname three years later). Behind those masks laid the faces of three rising stars of "WWE NXT," Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, and Alexa Bliss. Bliss could be easily identified by her signature blue, dip-dyed hair. Flair, of course, also stood out (literally) as she stood at a height of five-foot-ten, the tallest of any WWE woman at that point. Banks received notable screen-time as well, specifically when Triple H unmasked himself, with Banks appearing closely behind his left shoulder.

While the integration of these "NXT" talents may have been overlooked at the time, especially when dissecting WrestleMania 30 overall, its symbolism is quite refreshing to see. You see, in addition to his duties as an in-ring performer and WWE COO, Triple H was heavily involved in the founding and later building of the "NXT" brand as its executive producer. As such, Triple H played a large part in developing the characters and forging the names of Flair, Banks, and Bliss — all of whom later became multi-time world champions on WWE's main roster. In this moment at WrestleMania 30, though, fans got their first main roster taste of Flair, Banks, and Bliss.

Written by Ella Jay

When I think about WrestleMania XXX, there a few obvious moments burned into my brain — Daniel Bryan winning the world title, Brock Lesnar ending the Streak, etc. But there's one less obvious moment that I've remembered very clearly for the last decade, and that's the Shield showing up and beating some old guys into the ground.

Why should I remember this so clearly? It's by far the shortest match on the card, not even reaching three minutes — a very slightly glorified squash match. What makes it stand out? Is it the iconic skull facemasks the Shield wore to the ring, which they would also wear 24 hours later on the "Raw" after WrestleMania and then never don again? Is it the fact of the Shield itself, three of the immediate future's biggest stars, who ultimately all won WWE Championships before taking their own twisted paths toward becoming the Tribal Chief, the Visionary, and the face of a new wrestling promotion in the form of AEW? Or maybe it's actually the brevity of the match itself; WrestleMania XXX was built on the foundation of four big-time matches, each of which is a back-and-forth contest that goes longer than 20 minutes and involves at least one person kicking out of a finisher. However, as some promotions have yet to learn (Tony), it's best to give the audience some variety in between matches like that so the big moments hit harder. Watching this show back 10 years later, it's legitimately refreshing to have three bad-asses show up in between the five-star classics and (as one of them would famously say later) wreck everyone and leave. I suspect it had a similar effect at the time.

Beyond all that, though, is the fact that this match encapsulates what it was like to be a wrestling fan in April 2014. Yeah, Daniel Bryan won the championship, and it was beautiful — but his reign didn't last long. Even if he hadn't gotten injured, he would have been jobbed out to Lesnar at SummerSlam, because he was never going to be allowed to be the true face of the next generation. The Shield, though? They were 100% the faces of the next generation, and there was something monumental about their destruction of Kane and the New Age Outlaws — three wrestlers far beyond their time. This was the beginning of the Shield's final saga — the babyface turn, the Evolution feud, Rollins' betrayal, the heist of the century. This was the moment they truly ascended, despite — because of — how quickly they won. Bryan's victory was wonderful, but ephemeral. The Shield's victory was the beginning of a tidal wave that would change the face of WWE, and whose ripples we're still feeling to this day.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

Back when I first watched Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena — at 13 years old — I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread that Cena went over the villain. But over 10 years later, as I re-watched the bout, I couldn't help but feel several contradictory emotions and thoughts towards everything that went on. Per the billing, Wyatt sought to destroy Cena's legacy and to prove he was a monster deep inside. His ultimate goal, and the pay-off being teased here, was to break Cena and provide the push for him to turn heel. In concept it certainly wasn't new; Kane had previously made it his mission to break Cena during the "Embrace the Hate" storyline. However, instead of a past-his-prime Glenn Jacobs it was a set of individuals who could have definitely used the feather in their cap: Wyatt flanked by Luke Harper [Brodie Lee] and Erick Rowan.

Beating Cena would have been one thing, but if you're the one to make the purveyor of "Hustle, Loyalty and Respect" forsake his vows, that's an entirely different beast. Wyatt was always, by his own design, a character of psychological plot devices. But the moment he fell short of both beating and/or leaving a lasting effect on Cena's psyche, it cut the character down by its knees. There was a pay off being teased that was never delivered, and all at the detriment of the new star being built, and it was done in such a formulaic way – adhering to the tried, trusted, and tired babyface trope of good overcoming evil because it's the way things work. I will concede that six years later, the sorely missed opportunities at WrestleMania 30 became a crucial aspect of the masterpiece of a Firefly Fun House Match. So I guess the universe has weird ways of paying things forward. I just couldn't help but think "What if?" while Cena pondered giving in to the malice at several points of the match. Surely it would have been a better call than Cena going over clean.

Written by Max Everett

The event of Brock Lesnar conquering The Undertaker's illustrious WrestleMania streak remains a polarizing topic in the professional wrestling industry. Even without the luxury of knowing the events to come in the following decade, though, I personally still stand by the argument that Lesnar did not need this distinction.

At the time of WrestleMania 30, Lesnar was two years removed from his returning and thunderous confrontation with John Cena. Furthermore, Lesnar was 12 years removed from his main roster debut, which was followed by three WWE Championship reigns over the next two years. Needless to say, Lesnar was already an established name by the time WrestleMania 30 came about.

As WWE Hall of Famer Adam "Edge" Copeland previously pointed out, The Undertaker's 21-WrestleMania win streak was a prestigious phenomenon that will likely never be replicated. Accordingly, the "conqueror" of that streak should have been someone who could greatly (emphasis on greatly) benefit from the respective title. To directly quote Copeland, "Brock Lesnar didn't need it. He's already made. Put that huge, neon-flashing sign, 'I ended Undertaker's Streak', on a new player that you know is gonna be one of your workhorses and take your company to the next generation."Outside of the initial shock and awe from fans, Lesnar's stock did not dramatically increase in the wake of his victory over The Undertaker at "The Show of Shows" because, again, he was already "made" by that point. If Undertaker had kept his streak intact that year, it would have opened the door for two future Undertaker opponents, namely Bray Wyatt and Roman Reigns, to significantly boost their resumes and carry forth that neon-sign for several years, on a consistent basis.

Written by Ella Jay

Good grief.

I think I can speak for everyone when I say that the fact that we are so far beyond this era of women's wrestling is actually one of the best things to look back on when watching this show. That being said, this is just bad all around for so many reasons.

First of all, let's address the obvious. The women's (I'm not calling them divas, you can't make me) division at this point was more known for they did on reality TV shows than what they did in the ring, so this match was no better than someone coming to the top of the ramp and shouting HERE COME THE GIRLS! LOOK AT ALL THE GIRLS! AREN'T THEY SUCH PRETTY GIRLS! There is no substance, no reason to care about this match, the true definition of a toilet break match that is an insult to all of the work these girls probably did in the year leading up to WrestleMania 30.

Speaking of insults, the Hulk Hogan/Stone Cold/Rock segment that started the show got over twice the amount of time that this match got. Let me say that again. Over twice the amount of time. The circle jerk session where all the three guys did was get nostalgic about how good they used to be got double the amount of time an entire women's division got on the biggest show of the year, despite the fact that AJ Lee was coming up on 300 days by the time this even took place. Hell, Triple H's full entrance before his match with Daniel Bryan was bordering on matching the length of the Vickie Guerrero Invitational, and the less said about Vickie the better.

If that wasn't enough, talk about a death spot. You have a sub-seven minute match with 14 women where they will get an average of 30 seconds each to get anything in follow the most shocking moment in WrestleMania history? I'm surprised some of the girls didn't watch The Undertaker's streak getting broken and go 'yeah I'm not following that.'

The fact that WWE were capable of booking their female performers competently at this time, just look at what the NXT women's division was doing, and they still thought that this could be seen as acceptable is outrageous. We are 10 years removed from this era of women's wrestling on WWE's main roster, and the further we stray away from it, the better off everyone will be.

Written by Sam Palmer

There are some images that will long live in the minds of wrestling fans and some calls from commentary that will live on for years and years to come. Daniel Bryan holding up the WWE World Heavyweight Championship belts as confetti rains down from the ceiling of the Mercedes Benz Superdome as Michael Cole shouts "THE MIRACLE KID! THE MIRACLE KID! A MIRACLE ON BOURBON STREET!" is the absolute definition of one such moment.

Despite their best efforts, Daniel Bryan became so popular with the Yes Movement that WWE couldn't ignore it anymore. In the long haul, the storyline of WWE trying to push back against fans in an effort to cement Randy Orton and Batista as top stars as Bryan fought to secure his rightful spot in the main event scene worked out perfectly as it all led to one of the most iconic feel good moments of all time in professional wrestling.

WrestleMania XXX had the perfect last few bullet points in the storyline, with Bryan defeating Triple H in singles competition to earn a spot in the main event Triple Threat match only to have Triple H and Stephanie McMahon show up during the main event and try to keep him from winning the match but Bryan still emerged victorious by making Batista tap out. It may have been a simple tale of the common man challenging authority, but it didn't need to be much more than that — and it was everything that it needed to be.

Written by Olivia Quinlan