Bray Wyatt

Bray Wyatt started off the year as one of the hottest wrestlers in the company. He was unique, mysterious, and captivating on the mic . His character felt like it walked right out of True Detective and fans were eating it up in arenas around the country.












The start of his year was phenomenal. January saw a scorching hot program with Daniel Bryan culminating with the match of the night at the Royal Rumble (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAel7ahEj5s) and February saw him tear the house down at Elimination Chamber with a six man tag match against runner up Roman Reigns and the Shield (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfGQpI6f90c). The sky seemed to be the limit and the E – who had invested a good amount of time trying to get him over in 2013 - was more than willing to run with this one.














A Wrestlemania program with Cena tells you all you need to know about how over Bray was and how far the E wanted to push him. In theory the program even sounded fine: The manipulative, self-proclaimed God didn't even care about beating Cena. He wanted to break Cena mentally. Sure, this was essentially EMBRACE THE HATE all over again, but this wasn't Kane testing Cena. It was Bray ****ing Wyatt. Cult leader extraordinaire. With how over Bray was, a Mania program with Cena had all the potential in the world to forever elevate Bray to the main event level. What happened instead was the first cracks in the illusion that was Bray Wyatt.

The Cena program saw something we hadn't seen in a while from Bray: matches that just didn't look very good. They were clunky, he moved slow, it was formulaic, and the story they were trying to tell with them just didn't work in execution. While the Mania match could range anywhere between bad to serviceable depending on who you ask, the followup cage match at Extreme Rules would be a front runner for worst PPV match of the year. The Last Man Standing finale at Payback wasn't much better, as it ended what was supposed to be a serious feud with a goofy, gimmicky, 6 man cluster**** culminating in trapping Bray under something heavy. It was bad. People responsible should feel bad.


More concerning than the matches (after all, sometimes two people just don't have chemistry) was the sudden decline of the quality of his promos. No longer mysterious or captivating, they just dragged on talking in circles without actually saying anything before breaking into song. It didn't matter what happened at an event, win or lose Bray would come out and give the same general speech and host his sing along.

His next feud with Jericho didn't help matters on either front. The reason for the feud, the build up, the matches, and the aftermath all were awful. Dreadful. Atrocious. Boring. Insert adjectives here.


At this point we had to make some realizations. The promos that initially captivated us lost their luster. The lack of substance could no longer be overlooked due to the delivery and uniqueness of the person delivering the promo. Regardless of what happened in matches,Bray just came out and repeated the same things for the next feud. There was no evolution to them or to the character. And while Bray was great in the ring when paired with an elite worker like Daniel Bryan or hidden in a six man tag match to explode with big spots, when left in a one on one environment with average workers his matches were quite bad.

The E seemed to recognize these things as well. They took away his stable and pushed them individually. They took Bray off of cards for a couple months (was not on NoC or HiaC). When he returned, they went back to the formula that worked with him: Putting him against a mega over great worker in Dean Ambrose and the results have been better than they were during the summer, but there's no turning back on an illusion once you've peeked behind the curtain. Bray Wyatt is what he is (a mediocre in ring performer that needs to be carried and has no direction for his character), no matter how much the E (and fans) want to make him more than that.

Wrestlemania XXX

The E's biggest show of the year was also its best, edging out NXT Takeover: R Evolution. Wrestlemania XXX had everything a viewer could want in a PPV:



Nostalgia

The three biggest icons Wrestling has ever seen sharing a ring to kick off WM30 was remarkable to watch. It was fun and reminded you that even after they move on to other things, they can still bring you back to your childhood once in a while.





Top notch ring work

HHH and Daniel Bryan kicked the show off with a four-plus star classic (and a damn good promo too). These two stepped away from the spotfesting and infinite finishers plaguing Wrestlemania in recent years and delivered a level of technical wrestling WWE hasn't seen in a while. The booking was simple, but it was all the match needed. A high profile heel believing the plucky, mega over underdog wasn't good enough to main event Mania and being proven wrong. The match was nothing short of excellent and was worth the price of admission (ONLY 9.99) on its own.




Cool entrances, a bunch of finishers, and old people getting their ass beat by awesome newer superstars

Sometimes it's just fun to watch a one sided beatdown.





A Wrestlemania Moment

Cesaro is great and it was nice to see him get his moment. The homage to Andre was an impressive touch as well.






JEEEEEOOOOON CEEEEEENA's legacy protected

Sure, the match wasn't good, but the fact remains that a large portion of the viewers tune in for Cena. And those people were able to be happy for the rest of the show after Cena's legacy remained intact.





History.


Never before and never again will any result surprise me as much as this one. Brock Lesnar conquered the streak. Say what you will about whether or not it was a good idea, or if it worked out (personally I understand it and like it still), but this moment will be remembered for a long, long time by wrestling fans. Andre getting slammed. Miss Elizabeth and Randy Savage. The Rock vs Hogan. The end of the Streak. These are the moments that will live “forever”. Even today the 21-1 image brings a smile to my face.



DIVAS

But more importantly, AJ




People getting what they truly, truly deserve


The culmination of months of booking and frustration, the show ended on the highest note imaginable. Daniel Bryan reached the top of the mountain on the biggest stage of them all and won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the main event of Wrestlemania. There is nothing higher. The small, indie-made star worked his ass off for years, made it through terrible programs like anger management with Kane (even making them work!), and got so mega over that the fanbase refused to quietly let him settle into the midcard. The years of hard work, the countless struggles through them, and numerous times being told he wasn't good enough or didn't have the right look to be the man in the WWE lead up to that picture and watching it was nothing short of glorious.






We all sit through a lot of … bad ... television. Questionable booking decisions, a lack of a long term plan, random burials, midgets fighting each other in bull and leprechaun costumes are just the tip of the iceberg of **** we deal with overall. So why do we put up with it? Because once in a blue moon a night like Wrestlemania XXX happens and it all comes together. When the in-ring product is top notch and the booking decisions make sense. When the emergence of new stars gives you reason to feel like the future of the business is bright. When you stare at the celebration at the end of the show with a goofy smile from ear to ear feeling on top of the world. That's why we watch (well, at least me but I feel like I can accurately project here). WM30 was worth all the bad nights of the previous year and then some.