Bang for Your Buck PPV Review: WrestleMania XXX

BROCK LESNAR DEFEATS THE UNDERTAKER TO END HIS 21-0 UNDEFEATED STREAK AT WRESTLEMANIA

Worst Case Scenario: Lesnar wins. Not because he’s not great, but because he’s the least deserving — or, more accurately, it would do the least to help him — out of anyone who could actually have done it.

I was wrong. Mostly because I was fundamentally unable to comprehend that Lesnar would actually end The Streak. It seemed implausible at best that any one was going to beat The Streak, and without the build that many people were hoping for, it seemed almost impossible that it was going to be Lesnar. But once it happened, it became clear on a number of levels “why” they did it.

It gives Lesnar (the character) and Paul Heyman pretty much carte blanche to do whatever they want from a storyline perspective now. While it’s easy to forget how this match came about — with Lesnar and Heyman getting a chance for an open challenge  at WrestleMania after their request to be put into the WWE WHC match was denied — this result ultimately fives them the ability to feud with anyone they want whenever they want. After kind of (sort of) learning their lesson — and more importantly, taking that move off the story board — with giving the belt to The Rock out of the blue, they likely don’t want to pull the same stunt when Lesnar inevitably takes the belt off Bryan at some point this year. This gives them leverage within storyline to get whatever they want without upsetting the delicate quasi-meritocracy they’ve established with this new era of face champions.

And from Taker’s perspective, he no longer has to carry the weight of essentially headlining WrestleMania every year. While the Streak is an incredible testament to his longevity, work ethic and the deep connection he has with the “WWE Universe”, there’s pretty much no arguing that he’s reached the point in his career where the Streak had the potential to have a “Cal Ripken, Jr. after game 2200” effect on future WrestleMania cards. With this, he can retire as the second most successful performer in the history of the business — behind Hogan — and easily the most internally beloved/well-respected performer of his generation. There was no downside to this from his perspective, and if anything it enhanced his career and put him on a pedestal as one of the truly unselfish workers in the history of the business. Especially as stories of the serious injuries he legitimately picked up during the match help  to balance out what — relative to his past few performances — felt like a slightly lackluster match. At least until the ending.

Which brings us to the final and most important part of this match’s “greatness”: THIS, more than any other match or any other thing outside of Hogan and Andre, is the type of thing you pay money to see. To have your mind blown and your heart ripped out at the same time. Like Bash at the Beach ’96, this was something you could have only seen on PPV, and because of that (and the magnitude of what happened), it has to be a match that gives you all the Bang for Your Buck Possible.

Match 1.0 | PPV 3.7

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