Was Wrestlemania 30 the greatest ever?

[BrockTheBeast123]

Mr. McMahon wanted Wrestlemania 30 to be the best ever.But was it the best ever? In my eyes it was.Say what you want but with all the surprises and legendary moments and legendary entrances.At the event we saw 3 of the 4 biggest legends of all-time in the same ring.IMO they did need Cena involved but it was still possibly the greatest moment in Wrestlemania maybe even wrestling history.We also had the biggest shocker in wrestling history with the streak ending.We also had one of the most exciting moments is wrestling history when Daniel Bryan cemented himself as the new face of the WWE and won the WWE hvt title in one night.We had alot of huge accomplishments with Bryan beating 3 legends in one night and winning both world titles (HHH,Batista,Orton), The Streak ending,Cesaro turning into Hogan on Big Show's Andre and winning the inagural Andre The Giant Battle Royal.We had more than one 5/4 star matches.5 star matches include (Both Bryan matches),4 stars include (Cena vs Wyatt,Taker vs. Lesnar,The Attitude Era vs The Reality Era.) We had Hogan,Austin,Rock,Cena all on the same show.But not only that we also had The Undertaker,Triple H,Batista,Brock Lesnar,Randy Orton,Ultimate Warrior,Jake Roberts,Lita all on the same show as well.My question is with all of these legendary moments can Wrestlemania 30 be considered the greatest ever?

 

[Kris Benwa]

In my opinion, fuck no. I did enjoy the opening segment and I agree Cena should have been involved but I'm fine with them saving that for WM 40 when the Cena haters will appreciate him. Match by Match though Bryan vs Triple H 4-5 stars, Shield match was a squash for 2 stars, battle royal was a battle royal the end was good but rest 2 stars, Cena vs Wyatt on the first watch I thought was terrible the first time but I rewatched it and it's not that bad but I can't put it above 3 stars, Lesnar vs Taker sucked it was slow and lackadaisical there was no crescendo to the climax there was no excitement in it. Whether the streak ended or not the match sucked and was easily his worst since WM 20. The Divas match actually was a pleasant surprise and I would give that a higher rating than I'd give Lesnar vs Taker. The main event was great either that or the opener were match of the night.

In the end, I wasn't a fan of the majority of the matches and there's plenty WrestleManias that I've enjoyed a lot more than this one. I think because of the historic moments this Mania is rated high but from the beginning to end I wasn't really into it as I have been with previous WrestleManias. I could probably put it in top 10 but eh.

 

[The Jeff]

It was a good show, great at points, but once Cena won, a lot of the energy was sucked out of the crowd (trust me, I was there) Undertaker stunk up the joint with that terrible, terrible match, but the main event ended perfectly. 4/5 for me and one hell of a good time.

PS, I started the John Cena sucks song chant in 2006 and got it rolling at 'Mania. Finally glad it's catching on!

 

[Attitude_Era_Guy]

WrestleMania 30 had a lot of positives and negatives.

Positives
Bryan winning the title.
The Streak ended.

Negatives
Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar
John Cena won
The Shield's squash match
Battle Royal

Overall, it was a good WrestleMania, but DEFINITELY not the greatest ever.
_______________________________________________________________
RVD, CM Punk, and Chris Jericho.

 

[Skyeborne]

I would say it is number two on my list of top Wrestlemanias. While watching it I really...REALLY...enjoyed the show. It was the fastest six hours to every happen, and that is how you know it's quality wrestling. The only time it really dragged on was Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar...that match really got saved by Lesnar breaking the streak. Plus, the placing of this match was really bad...I did not care about the first half of the main event...I was wrapped up on what I just saw with Undertaker.

While looking back at it, other criticisms I could have are the ending to John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt, while I don't think Bray should have won (he debuted 9 months ago...) I didn't like how Cena was defeated and then just won after an AA out of nowhere, basically same criticism I had with Rock beating CM Punk at the Royal Rumble. Also, the opening segment was suppose to be the greatest icons of 30 years of WM meeting in one ring, yet John Cena wasn't with them. -shrug-

Those are just minor, I rewatched WM30 today while waiting for class today and enjoyed it just as much as I did the first two times. I thought this was an amazing show and in my top 2 for any wrestling shows.

 

[Agent Orange7]

I certainly have not seen every Wrestlemania, but I'm a BIG fan of this one. The opening segment with Hogan-Austin-Rock was epic! I especially like that Austin and Rock picked up on Hogan's "Silverdome" mistake, I thought that was great! The ending of the battle royal was a tremendous tribute to Andre the Giant with Cesaro picking up Big Show to dump him over the top rope. I'm a Cena fan, so I was happy he won. Taker losing was a HUGE surprise, and I like surprises (even though at the time I wasn't happy it was Lesner beating the streak). I thought the divas match had some decent action. The title match and HHH-DB were both very good IMHO. I thought it was inevitable that Bryan would win the title, but I wasn't sure how. Part of me thought HHH might cheat to beat him, then Vince would come out and make it a fatal-four way. I like that DB won both matches cleanly.

 

[OYDK]

I loved it. I know some people are criticizing the beginning of the show, the Andre battle royal, and the Lesnar-Taker match but, I was in a chatroom while watching Mania and EVERYBODY marked out hard when Austin and Rock's music hit. Same goes for when Cesaro tossed Show over the ropes and of course when Lesnar broke the Streak shit was going off. That's when you know a Wrestlemania was great. When their are shock factors like The Streak being broken and Cesaro picking Show up, great matches like Bryan vs HHH and the main event, and the fact that almost all the legends were there, it's hard to debate that this Mania wasn't one of the best. I think Mania 30, Mania 14, and Mania 17 are the three greatest Manias of all time, but I honestly can't choose a favorite from those 3.

 

[Dagger Dias]

I loved Wrestlemania 30. It is not the best edition of Wrestlemania ever, but I'd put it in the top 5 if I am being generous. At the very least it makes the top 10. When ranking only the last decade's worth of Wrestlemania shows.... It loses only to Wrestlemania 26 and Wrestlemania 21. I'd argue that 23 comes close too, but 30 was better. Then if you include older editions, I'd put 17 and 19 above it, perhaps 18 too. This was SO close to being an A+ quality show. Had a couple of things gone differently it would have been dang near perfect. I felt it should have had more matches, more big entrances other than Triple H's or the band performances for Bray/Orton, and above all the streak should not have been ended by Brock Lesnar. The small number of matches and the lack of big entrances can be ignored for the most part, but Brock ending the streak tarnished the event for me. When looking beyond the cons, Wrestlemania 30 was an excellent show and I gave the show an A-. When looking back in retrospect in the future, that may change, but for now I'd put it in the top 5.

 

[Sheamus' Suntan]

It's REALLY REALLY hard to see this as the top WM ever when I feel like 2 matches; The Battle royale and the Shield vs NAO/Kane suffered because it took way longer to deliver the intro. Also, they brought in one of the most "charismatic" stars, someone who put wrestling on the map and he fluffed his lines.

Being honest, the ONLY reason this mania was a success was because they allowed the Bryan storyline to play out properly. Aside from that, what did we really have?

- A 4 team elimination tag match on a preshow that SHOULD have been on the main show
- An incredibly short match for the sake of a short match (apparently forced through injury).
- A REALLY drab Undertaker streak match that was more about shock factor than anything else

For me, XX still goes down as the best mania. It all made sense, and while Lesnar/Goldberg was bad, the rest of the card was great. This card...felt very clustered at times and then drab at others.

 

[HeymanHustler]

I haven't seen every WrestleMania, but compared to the ones I've seen, this is definitely up there and I can buy it being looked on as best WrestleMania of all time. I'll have to rewatch some of my favorite Mania's to be for sure and just off memory, the only Manias I'd say were better were 19 and 17 (both of which are close ties for my favorite Manias), 30 is a definite top 5. It had a lot of amazing matches and even matches that exceeded expectations (the divas match and the battle royal both had some really nice spots). Packed with amazing moments that really made the show too (the three legends at the start of the show, Cesaro lifting Big Show, etc.) Maybe it'll grow on me the next time I see it and I'll actually call it best Mania ever one day, but for now, it's in the top 5 for me.

 

[MCMG]

It's definitely top 5. Wrestlemania 17 was just so good. It was absolutely stacked and there were so many memorable moments. There was only 5 or 6 minutes of filler but the rest was fantastic. Rock v Austin with Austin turning heel. HHH v Taker. TLC 2. Benoit v Angle. An entertaining hardcore match and brutal Shane v Vince match.

30 was brilliant and there were some iconic moments mixed in. The opening segment was iconic; Bryan winning the belt and the streak ending will all be etched into wrestling history but all together still couldn't surpass 17.

I'm a big fan of 19 as well. Another pretty good Rock/Austin match. Lesnar and Angle put on an absolute classic as did Shawn and HBK. Hogan v Vince was good enough and I enjoyed Booker vs HHH. The top matches delivered but from top to bottom 17 and indeed 30 were better.

26, 21 and 3 were other high quality Wrestlemania's but I'll say WM30 takes second place. It's fresh in my memory so that is having an influence but the big 4 matches were superb. The opening segment made EVERYONE mark out like a kid. The Divas filler wasn't bad and the battle royal had some cool spots. Also, Undertaker's streak ending was shocking. It is something that will make this Wrestlemania stand out from the rest. No-one thought Taker would lose but he did in a fantastic Wrestlemania moment and that is surely how we gauge the quality of a Wrestlemania.

 

[Blade]

Top five, for sure. Triple H vs. Bryan, Cena vs. Wyatt and the Main Event were all four star matches. Yes, even though Cena won, it was still a fantastic match. You losers.

The opening segment was really something special. The Shield vs. Kane and the NAO was what it should've been. It was fun, exciting and made the Shield look badass. Did we really want to see the NAO and Kane wrestle for 15 minutes, even against the Shield?

The battle royal was fine. Kofi's spot and Cesaro's method of victory made it memorable. The divas match wasn't as terrible as it could've been.

Yeah, Taker vs. Lesnar kind of sucked. But it was one of those matches that wasn't about the journey, it was about the finish. It almost felt like it was supposed to be slow and methodical, just so that finish could come out of nowhere. And the aftermath of the finish was so goddamn perfect. Lesnar's reaction, Heyman's reaction. The lack of music. The delay before announcing Brock as a winner. Absolutely perfect.

So yeah, it was an pretty excellent Wrestlemania. Not as good as Wrestlemania 17 or 24 in my opinion, though. With that said, the worst point of Mania 30 never sunk as low as that goddamn nostalgia jerk off gimmick battle royal from 17, or the ECW title "match" from 24.

 

[Skyeborne]

Being honest, the ONLY reason this mania was a success was because they allowed the Bryan storyline to play out properly.

That was actually a downside for me, I am not a huge Daniel Bryan fan and would have rather seen Evolution in the main event instead of a goat faced midget.

 

[workhorse]

I thought it was a great show, but for me, it's not quite in the class of WM X-7, WM 19 or even WM 22. To me, this will be the most memorable WrestleMania. No one will forget the night they saw the Undertaker get pinned at WrestleMania. No one.

The Bryan/Triple H/Orton/Batista match(es) had pretty good build ups and both delivered, in my opinion, fantastic, compelling matches. Cena vs Bray was another excellent build up whilst the match was slow and, in my opinion, average-to-good at best. No cared about Brock vs Taker, until the refs hand hit the canvas for that 3 count. It was a lackluster and lazily booked build, whilst the match quality suffered severely due to Undertaker's concussion. But the shear shock of seeing The Streak end means this will be one of the most talked about moments in wrestling history.

Apart from those 4 matches, which, delivered in some way, shape or form, there wasn't much else to write home about. The ATGMBR was lackluster until the final moments. Even though the ending sequence was awesome it was just another battle royal. The divas match and 6-man tag match weren't great.

7 matches, to me, is really way too few for a WrestleMania card. I don't think it's the greatest ever, but it delivered some great WrestleMania moments and will go down as a top WrestleMania and, in my opinion the most memorable ever.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

I'll be interested to see what the buy rate is on this WrestleMania. For me, it's a top 5 WrestleMania for sure. I loved it, and the reason was the emotional payoff of the Bryan-Authority feud. I admit I'm a Bryan fan, so that's why the PPV buyrate is important; not necessarily because it would solidify Bryan as a top face of the company, but because it would show that the WWE can rely on someone being in that top spot on the marquee who ISN'T necessarily a A+ Level Superstar, a la John Cena or the Rock.

Ultimately, that'd be a good thing for the WWE because it means they don't have to worry as much about building the next uber-photogenic perfect superstar, and concentrate more on storytelling.

Storytelling made WrestleMania 30 work.

 

[capnwillie]

I was at 'Mania 17, which many believe to be the best of all time. I was also at 30 wearing my shirt from 17. After the event, a kid approached me and asked if I was really at 17. When I said yes, he said, "Wow, you've been to the two best Wrestlemanias of all-time!"

It was a solid show. The old-school fan in me doesn't put it on the same
level as 17 but out of the last several years, I believe it was the mosy complete and promising. It carved a new direction for the company in many ways and being there for the end of the streak gave it some distinction as being a real milestone event.

I'll put it in my top 5.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

Pretty damn close. If you measure it on emotion then yes.

Wrestlemania X7 had the most variety of great matches.
Wrestlemania XIX had the best in ring wrestling.
Wrestlemania XXX had the most emotion.

The preshow had "this is awesome chants",
Rock/Austin/Hogan in the ring,
GREAT HHH/Bryan match.
I don't care that Cena won, that feud is about Wyatt ultimately winning and that was a damn good match
Taker/Lesnar shocked me and drew legit emotion from everyone. If you're pissed because of the ending, you're a mark. If you're pissed at the match, you don't have a heart (Taker being concussed, which sort of adds more mystique to the match IMO)
Bryan winning the strap overcoming crazy odds and obstacles and the emotion coming out of it was amazing.
Even the battle royal was great. Best battle royal I've ever seen. Interesting spots with Kofi and several other near eliminations and Cesaro winning and how he won. People shitting on it are kind of like how everyone shits on horror movies. It's its own style. No, it's not the same as a tag or singles match, among battle royals, this was amazing and highly entertaining.

The show took you on an emotional ride more than any other in history had. Was it the best ever? I can't say that. When I watch it in 10 years, I won't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed X7 or XIX. However, I have never enjoyed a wrestling show live as it happened as I did XXX.

I think a lot of you are comparing all of XXX to the highlights of X7. Someone said that X7 had "only 6 or 7 minutes of downtime". The entrances to the gimmick battle royal, lackluster Regal/Jericho match, godawful Chyna/Ivory match, pointless 6 man tag of APA/Taz vs RTC (that went on way longer than Shield vs Authority and was far less entertaining) etc all happened at X7.

Even other Manias you guys are doing that with:

It's REALLY REALLY hard to see this as the top WM ever when I feel like 2 matches; The Battle royale and the Shield vs NAO/Kane suffered because it took way longer to deliver the intro. Also, they brought in one of the most "charismatic" stars, someone who put wrestling on the map and he fluffed his lines.

Being honest, the ONLY reason this mania was a success was because they allowed the Bryan storyline to play out properly. Aside from that, what did we really have?

- A 4 team elimination tag match on a preshow that SHOULD have been on the main show
- An incredibly short match for the sake of a short match (apparently forced through injury).
- A REALLY drab Undertaker streak match that was more about shock factor than anything else

For me, XX still goes down as the best mania. It all made sense, and while Lesnar/Goldberg was bad, the rest of the card was great. This card...felt very clustered at times and then drab at others.

WMXX only had 2 or 3 matches I'd ever want to watch again out of 12 (yes, 12) matches. The triple threat was great, Eddie/Angle should have had more time, Jericho/Christian was decent and Evolution/RockNsock was decent. However, you also had Cena/Show and Kane/Undertaker in what were TV length matches. Victoria/Molly was meh. Nothing on WMXXX was as bad as Lesnar/Goldberg or the goddamn evening gown match. Then you have two fatal fourway tag matches that were basically put in place to cram more guys onto the card and the cruiser match was more of a cluster than the divas match at Mania XXX. Again, I really think many of you are comparing the highlights of other shows to all of XXX.

 

[Kidpolean]

Pretty damn close. If you measure it on emotion then yes.

Wrestlemania X7 had the most variety of great matches.
Wrestlemania XIX had the best in ring wrestling.
Wrestlemania XXX had the most emotion.

The preshow had "this is awesome chants",
Rock/Austin/Hogan in the ring,
GREAT HHH/Bryan match.
I don't care that Cena won, that feud is about Wyatt ultimately winning and that was a damn good match
Taker/Lesnar shocked me and drew legit emotion from everyone. If you're pissed because of the ending, you're a mark. If you're pissed at the match, you don't have a heart (Taker being concussed, which sort of adds more mystique to the match IMO)
Bryan winning the strap overcoming crazy odds and obstacles and the emotion coming out of it was amazing.
Even the battle royal was great. Best battle royal I've ever seen. Interesting spots with Kofi and several other near eliminations and Cesaro winning and how he won. People shitting on it are kind of like how everyone shits on horror movies. It's its own style. No, it's not the same as a tag or singles match, among battle royals, this was amazing and highly entertaining.

The show took you on an emotional ride more than any other in history had. Was it the best ever? I can't say that. When I watch it in 10 years, I won't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed X7 or XIX. However, I have never enjoyed a wrestling show live as it happened as I did XXX.

I think a lot of you are comparing all of XXX to the highlights of X7. Someone said that X7 had "only 6 or 7 minutes of downtime". The entrances to the gimmick battle royal, lackluster Regal/Jericho match, godawful Chyna/Ivory match, pointless 6 man tag of APA/Taz vs RTC (that went on way longer than Shield vs Authority and was far less entertaining) etc all happened at X7.

Even other Manias you guys are doing that with:

WMXX only had 2 or 3 matches I'd ever want to watch again out of 12 (yes, 12) matches. The triple threat was great, Eddie/Angle should have had more time, Jericho/Christian was decent and Evolution/RockNsock was decent. However, you also had Cena/Show and Kane/Undertaker in what were TV length matches. Victoria/Molly was meh. Nothing on WMXXX was as bad as Lesnar/Goldberg or the goddamn evening gown match. Then you have two fatal fourway tag matches that were basically put in place to cram more guys onto the card and the cruiser match was more of a cluster than the divas match at Mania XXX. Again, I really think many of you are comparing the highlights of other shows to all of XXX.

I would put it in the top 5 BUT WM17 and WM19 was so far better than WMXXX that its really not that close.

WM30 had NO classics. It was probably the most balanced Mania of all time, every match was either good or ok imo. There just wasn't anything that stands out though. Db vs HHH was very good but not something I will go back and watch, Cena vs Bray could have been better, the triple threat was good but not really a classic either I would compare it to Rock vs Austin at WM15 in that it was so much extra over booking in the match that it took away from the actual wrestling aspect of it.

Imo just the lack of a classic match makes it hard for me to even compare this with WM17. Rock vs Austin, TLC2, Shane vs Vince, and Taker vs HHH were all better than or equal too every match at WM30 imo.

 

[Skyeborne]

Again, I really think many of you are comparing the highlights of other shows to all of XXX.

That is what nostalgia is though, you remember the best and forget the bad parts. In 20 years the Universe era will be the attitude era when all the kids watching today grow up and compare everyone to John Cena and Randy Orton. It's a never ending cycle of the "good ole days."

 

[Kidpolean]

These were classics but Bryan vs HHH wasn't? How do you figure that?

I never said those were classics, maybe how I wrote it made it seem that way but that was not my intention. TLC2 and Rock vs Austin are classics and Shane vs Vince and Taker vs HHH are on the same level as HHH vs DB imo. That is why I stated that those four were either better or equal to every match at WM30. In other words, if we took ANY match from WM30 and put it on the WM17 card, at best it fall under being the 3rd-5th best match of the night and that alone makes it illogical to put this ahead of WM17.

 

[OYDK]

I never said those were classics, maybe how I wrote it made it seem that way but that was not my intention. TLC2 and Rock vs Austin are classics and Shane vs Vince and Taker vs HHH are on the same level as HHH vs DB imo. That is why I stated that those four were either better or equal to every match at WM30. In other words, if we took ANY match from WM30 and put it on the WM17 card, at best it fall under being the 3rd-5th best match of the night and that alone makes it illogical to put this ahead of WM17.

Gotcha. I still wholeheartedly disagree with the Shane/Vince match being better, but Austin/Rock is my favorite match of all time and TLC 2 just happens to be my second so you're right there. Don't remember the Taker/HHH match much other than Taker chokeslamming HHH off of... something down to the ground so maybe I gotta go rewatch.

 

[Rocky84]

Pretty damn close. If you measure it on emotion then yes.

Wrestlemania X7 had the most variety of great matches.
Wrestlemania XIX had the best in ring wrestling.
Wrestlemania XXX had the most emotion.

The preshow had "this is awesome chants",
Rock/Austin/Hogan in the ring,
GREAT HHH/Bryan match.
I don't care that Cena won, that feud is about Wyatt ultimately winning and that was a damn good match
Taker/Lesnar shocked me and drew legit emotion from everyone. If you're pissed because of the ending, you're a mark. If you're pissed at the match, you don't have a heart (Taker being concussed, which sort of adds more mystique to the match IMO)
Bryan winning the strap overcoming crazy odds and obstacles and the emotion coming out of it was amazing.
Even the battle royal was great. Best battle royal I've ever seen. Interesting spots with Kofi and several other near eliminations and Cesaro winning and how he won. People shitting on it are kind of like how everyone shits on horror movies. It's its own style. No, it's not the same as a tag or singles match, among battle royals, this was amazing and highly entertaining.

The show took you on an emotional ride more than any other in history had. Was it the best ever? I can't say that. When I watch it in 10 years, I won't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed X7 or XIX. However, I have never enjoyed a wrestling show live as it happened as I did XXX.

I think a lot of you are comparing all of XXX to the highlights of X7. Someone said that X7 had "only 6 or 7 minutes of downtime". The entrances to the gimmick battle royal, lackluster Regal/Jericho match, godawful Chyna/Ivory match, pointless 6 man tag of APA/Taz vs RTC (that went on way longer than Shield vs Authority and was far less entertaining) etc all happened at X7.

Even other Manias you guys are doing that with:

WMXX only had 2 or 3 matches I'd ever want to watch again out of 12 (yes, 12) matches. The triple threat was great, Eddie/Angle should have had more time, Jericho/Christian was decent and Evolution/RockNsock was decent. However, you also had Cena/Show and Kane/Undertaker in what were TV length matches. Victoria/Molly was meh. Nothing on WMXXX was as bad as Lesnar/Goldberg or the goddamn evening gown match. Then you have two fatal fourway tag matches that were basically put in place to cram more guys onto the card and the cruiser match was more of a cluster than the divas match at Mania XXX. Again, I really think many of you are comparing the highlights of other shows to all of XXX.

I'd definitely have to agree with your assessment of the top 3...best card/build, best in ring performance, and best emotion. Perfectly said. Also agree with your analysis of every match.

That definitely was the best Battle Royal I've ever seen...Kofi's save was simply amazing, and the finish was the best way to pay tribute to Andre...also was totally unpredictable.

Both DB matches were just awesome. HHH & Steph were flat out great in each of them.

The Hogan/Austin/Rock skit was the best Mania moment ever. I've never been so shocked and never marked out so hard in my life.

Taker vs Brock was actually a good match the 2nd time around watching it...now we know Taker was hurt explains a lot. Was expecting to see something crazy in the ring watching live, but the ending was legendary.

Wyatt vs Cena told a great story although slow, it was still entertaining. Their entrance was badass as hell and so was HHH's...prob the best I've ever seen next to Takers from last year (and HBK @ 12).

I definitely have this in my top 5. Some may disagree with me, but 28 was in there for me too...Rock vs Cena, HHH vs Taker w/ HBK, and Punk vs Y2J, plus attending live for me was insane.

17, 19, 28, 30 and I don't know which other one I'd put in the top 5...going by best overall card and not best matches like Mania 6, 12 etc...I'd probably say 21 goes in there to complete the top 5.

 

[Robert Roode Fan]

It was good, but COME On as good as wrestlmaina 17 OH HELL NO!!!!!! Great show though.

 

[BadGuy]

It was pretty good but not the best.We saw good battle between Bryan and HHH or Bray debiut in wrestlemania.It was really unique, because of Undertaker lost.