Ladies and gentleman, as you're reading this, take a look at the image above this piece. Some of the words described for this above image were heartbreak, shock, and surrealism. The streak no one thought could end, ended this past Sunday at Wrestlemania XXX. The streak that, for 21 years, has been of legendary stature in not just wrestling, but all of sports. The Undertaker's iconic Wrestlemania undefeated streak has come to a decisive end. More on this in a few.
However, the rest of the night was not nearly as saddening and shocking. If anything, out of the tragedy came triumph. Daniel Bryan pulled off, what many feel, as one of the best Wrestlemania performances in recent memory, as he defeated not one, not two, but three men in two matches to become the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. The evening kicked off with what was clearly a historic Wrestlemania moment, in Hulk Hogan, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and The Rock all sharing the ring in what was a goose bump-inducing moment for viewers across the world and for the live 74,000 fans in New Orleans. From there, the HHH/D-Bryan match took place (which was preceded by a quite awesome HHH entrance). The very hard fought 20-minute match resulted in Bryan defeating "The Game", only to get ambushed and humiliated by WWE's version of Jay-Z and Beyonce, HHH and Stephanie McMahon (Levesque). The 30-man Andre The Giant Invitational Battle Royal soon occurred. While Kofi Kingston did quite an impressive spot to prevent getting eliminated (sadly he got eliminated shortly thereafter), the event belonged to new found fan fave Caesaro, who definitively eliminated the 7-foot, 500-lb. Big Show by literally scoop slamming him up and over the top rope. The six man tag match of The (now baby face good guys) Shield vs. Kane and The New Age Outlaws. This was nothing but domination from the opening bell by The Shield, in which they defeated Kane and NAO in under 5 minutes. As a side note, Billy Gunn was injured as a result of the power bomb from Roman Reigns. Although he was noticeably coughing up blood, he was not seriously injured. Doctors diagnosed him with suffering a damaged blood vessel in his lungs but will make a full recovery. The John Cena/Bray Wyatt match was next and I must say, what a tremendous entrance from The Wyatt Family. Complete with a voodoo aura and a mysterious dancer, The Wyatts made their way to the ring with Mark Crozar and The Rels performing the Wyatt theme "Broken Out Of Love (Live In Fear)". The match was more of a story than an actually hard hitting, highly competitive match. However, Bray proved that he belonged on the main stage by hanging with Cena. Clearly with the fans in the palm of his hands (at one point, they were actually singing "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands"). Cena, however, came away with the win but unquestionably a new found respect for the young Mr. Wyatt. Next up, the match that will now go down in wrestling history as the match that ended the streak. Taker, complete with yet another incredible entrance, was set to compete against off and on rival, Brock Lesnar. At one point during the match, Lesnar executed a single leg takedown, and apparently Taker hit his head against the mats on the floor outside. This reportedly caused quite a severe concussion. This, along with a few other shots where Taker bounced his head off the mat, caused him to perform virtually on auto-pilot for the remainder of the match. Soon after, the unthinkable happened. Lesnar countered the Tombstone piledriver into Lesnar's third F-5 slam onto the Taker in the match. The referee counts 1-2-3!! There's a stunned gasp among the nearly sold out crowd in the Mercedes Benz Superdome as they witnessed history. The Undertaker's 21 year Wrestlemania undefeated streak came to an end by "The Beast Incarnate". After several minutes, Take finally got to his feet and received a standing ovation as he slowly walked to the back. Unfortunately, things turned serious as, according to witnesses in the locker room, Taker collapsed to the floor backstage. From there, he was transported to the hospital via ambulance and was followed by Lesnar and Vince McMahon. He was released the next day with a severe concussion and nearly suffered a cracked skull and a broken neck. Let's hope this doesn't mean the end of the 30-plus year career of the Taker. After the heavy shock and emotion of the match the fans just witnessed, the Vickie Guerrero Divas Invitational was next and clearly the fans were out of it. Although the action was fast paced and competitive, the fans were just not in it. At Vickie's final event for WWE, she witnessed the champion AJ Lee retain her title (good luck to Vickie in all her future endeavors). The main event was finally up, and a less-than-100% Daniel Bryan were taking two fresh guys in Batista and the WWE World Champ Randy Orton. The match was as hotly contested as anticipated but Bryan made Batista tap out and became the new WWE World Champ. The sold out crowd, who was just in dismay over the death of the streak, was in unison as they loudly celebrated with Bryan his huge win. Complete with fireworks and dozens of confetti, Bryan won for the underdog and ended a very emotional night on a very positive note, just as the night started with Hogan, Austin, and The Rock. While the last few Wrestlemanias weren't the most memorable besides the matches with Cena vs. The Rock and Taker vs. HHH or CM Punk, this Wrestlemania was quite excellent and will be remembered for many years to come. By the way, in a match before the actual show began, The Usos retained their Tag belts by defeating The Real Americans (Caesaro then turned against Swagger), Rybaxel, and Los Matadores. Here's a look at the highlights of the big event.
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