How To Save Wrestlemania XXX
February 26, 2014

Okay, so we are roughly five and 1/2 weeks away from the WWE’s biggest show ever, Wrestlemania XXX. And so far, we have two matches that are pretty much done deals with Randy Orton defending the WWE World Championship against Batista and The Undertaker defending the “streak” against Brock Lesnar. And based on this past Monday night, I’m pretty sure that we can presume that John Cena will be facing Bray Wyatt and that Daniel Bryan will be matched against Triple H. Am I the only one that is totally under-whelmed so far by all of this? With the exception of Taker versus Brock, which is a year or so too late, there is nothing here that I really find exciting that makes me want to give the WWE my money.

Wrestlemania generally has anywhere between nine or ten matches, but all of the folks with any kind of credibility or drawing power, with the exception of The Sheild, are now already booked, it seems and not in the matches that anyone seems to want. So what I’m going to do here is make a few slight changes, explain how it could work and do some fantasy booking as I try to come up with a strong card, using the current WWE talent, and save Wrestlemania XXX.

We’ll keep Undertaker versus Brock Lesnar as it is and also keep John Cena versus Bray Wyatt as it is. As for the WWE World Title Match and main event, it needs to have Daniel Bryan in it. That’s obvious to everyone. So how do we get Daniel Bryan from a match with HHH to the main event? Pretty simple actually. We look back and take a page from Wrestlemania X and Bret Hart. Have HHH accept Bryan’s challenge. And that match is locked in. But here comes Vince McMahon and in a move that “best for business”, he adds a stipulation to the match. Daniel Bryan versus HHH will open Wrestlemania XXX. And if Bryan wins, he gets inserted into the WWE Championship match at the end of the night, turning it into a triple-threat match. And if Bryan loses, he had to go walk Stephanie’s dog or something of that nature. Who cares what the stipulation really is because this is simple, makes sense and gives Daniel Bryan two great matches to showcase his skills and be able to be where he needs to be at the end of the night with that great “Wrestlemania moment” in the main event.

As for the rest of the card, how do you make a must-see event when the majority of the WWE superstars have been buried by the company so badly that no one really comes across as must-see or bigger than life anymore. With some creative booking, highlighting of the strongest workers, and lots of smoke and mirrors. Based on my little work with the Bryan – HHH match, we now have five matches booked. Let’s find at least five more “must see” matches to round out the event.

Big. E is the Intercontinental Champion and I think that it’s important that we have both of the secondary titles defended at Wrestlemania XXX, so one of the matches would be Big E. versus someone. Who would be good to go after the IC title and be able to give Big E. a strong match. How about The Miz. Yeah, that works. It just takes one good sneak attack and ambush and would be easy to set up a reason for the match. Miz wants to be back in the title hunt and the IC title is a good place to start.

As for the U.S. title and Dean Ambrose, I’m not sure if I want to use him as part of The Shield in a multi-person match or have him defend the U.S. title. I think a title defense is more important and since they’re teasing that he and the other members of The Shield are having issues, it would work better to place him in a singles event. But who would be a good opponent? How about one half of the “Real Americans”, Cesaro. Ambrose versus Cesaro would be an awesome match and I’d love to see it happen.

Next up are the WWE Tag Team Championship titles and the currrent champs, The New Age Outlaws. The top contenders are The Usos and while having the Outlaws defend against the Usos would be good, we’ve seen it too many times already. So what we do is pretty simple and make it a multi-team event with four teams intead of two. The WWE Tag Team Champions defend their belts against the Usos, Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara and Los Matadores. With the two masked teams, maybe the WWE can get that world record that they want about most masked persons at one event, plus with thse eight men, we’d get one helluva fantastic match.

And now, I know some folks might be wondering where are Goldust and Cody Rhodes in the tag match? They’re the former champions, right? Well, another match that has been talked about and I’d like to see is Goldust versus Cody Rhodes. Brothers always fight, right? I fought with my brothers growing up and I’m sure that everyone else has at some point too. So make it a match for Wrestlemania XXX. Why the heck not.

I’d schedule a defense of the NXT Championship to give that brand some exposure and let the fans see what all the fuss is really about. Bo Dallas could defend that title against Sami Zayn and put on a NXT wrestling exhibition for the fans. This would be easy to do as well since JBL is the “NXT Commissioner” and could just announce and add the match.

And I said ten matches, but we’re going to do twelve. With four hours to fill, it would work out well. Especially since this one would hopefully be short and sweet. The Divas Champion AJ Lee w/ Tamina of course, taking on Natayla in a quick title defense. Just give them a quick match and get it over with.

And finally, how about a “Money In The Bank Match” with the winner getting that contract for the WWE World Championship opportunity. I’d make it a ten man match and my participants would be Christian, Mark Henry, Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, Roman Reigns, Kofi Kingston, Kane, Fandango, R-Truth and the returning RVD.

Then in the middle of all of this, throw in a special “Piper’s Pit” where he brings out the “Host of Wrestlemania”, Hulk Hogan and 16-time World Champion Ric Flair. They all do their back and forth thing stuff and get in their promo-time. An interruption by Rybackand Curtis Axel who come out to stir up trouble. Piper, Flair and Hogan clear the ring and the fans go nuts. Here’s the rundown for the event as I’ve written it.

Triple H versus Daniel Bryan – If Bryan wins, he gets inserted into the WWE World Championship Match main event.
WWE World Championship: Randy Orton (c) versus Batista (versus Daniel Bryan if he beats HHH)
The Undertaker versus Brock Lesnar w/ Paul Heyman
John Cena versus Bray Wyatt
Intercontinental Championship: Big E (c) versus The Miz
United States Championship: Dean Ambrose (c) w/ Seth Rollins versus Cesaro w/ Zeb Colter
WWE Tag Team Championship: The New Age Outlaws (c) versus The Usos versus Rey Mysterio / Sin Cara versus Los Matadores
Goldust versus Cody Rhodes
NXT Championship: Bo Dallas versus Sami Zayn
Divas Championship: AJ Lee (c) w/ Natayla
Money In The Bank Match: Christian vs Mark Henry vs Dolph Ziggler vs Kane vs Jack Swagger vs Roman Reigns vs Kofi Kingston vs R-Truth vs Fandango vs RVD
Piper’s Pit with guests Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair

Pre-Show Match: Santino, Great Khali and Zack Ryder versus The 3MB

And there you go – what I would build on for the next five weeks and how I’d book Wrestlemania XXX at this point. So what do you think? Would it work and give the fans matches worth seeing? Would you buy this show? Inquiring minds want to know.

Ubuntu!