When wrestling fans look to their Super Bowl or World Series, Wrestlemania is the event they are looking forward to. While some Wrestlemania events are a slight letdown, most usually have more good than bad when it comes to the memorable moments. Wrestlemania 30 was one of the better events in recent years where it seemed that the WWE finally gave people what they wanted to see.
With the exception of one match, the WWE put over their hot young stars. While there were many quality veterans on the card, every match but one saw the youth put over the longtime veterans. While not everyone was happy with the results, almost every Wrestlemania 30 match featured the winner that should have went over.
Included in those hot moments were Cesaro picking up Big Show and throwing him out of the ring to win the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, The Shield squashing The New Age Outlaws and Kane, and Daniel Bryan pinning Triple H in one match and Batista in another to finally reach the top of the mountain and win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The only two questionable decisions were John Cena cleanly beating Bray Wyatt and Brock Lesnar ending Undertaker’s streak.
At the end of the day, Wrestlemania 30 was very successful and entertaining. The first Blu-ray in this Wrestlemania 30 package features the entire card including the pre-show Kickoff Match. To read Renegade Cinema’s full match-by-match recap of Wrestlemania 30, check out our review from the live Wrestlemania 30 event here.
The second Blu-ray has the full 2014 WWE Hall of Fame show on it. This was a very special year, with Ultimate Warrior finally getting into the WWE Hall of Fame, just three days before his untimely death from heart disease. Also inducted are two of the best stories when it comes to WWE superstars as Jake “The Snake” Roberts and Scott “Razor Ramon” Hall cleaned up after years of drug and alcohol abuse to get in the Hall of Fame. Lita, Carlos Colon, Mr. T and the late Paul Bearer finalize the 2014 inductees. To read the Renegade Cinema recap of the full WWE Hall of Fame ceremony, click here.
All of that can be found on the WWE Network. If you do not subscribe to the WWE Network (and you really should), this Blu-ray is a must buy for those two events alone. However, the WWE also loaded up the Wrestlemania 30 Blu-ray set with some bonus features.
First up is a countdown of the 30 Greatest Wrestlemania Moments. However, while this sounds good on paper, it is not like their normal countdowns and is just a replay of the moments in rapid-fire play. Despite that, it still lasted 20 minutes and brought back a lot of memories. I do have to question putting boxing knockouts ahead of Hogan vs. Warrior and the Battle of the Billionaires ahead of Michaels vs. Flair and Savage vs. Steamboat. They did include the amazing botched Shooting Star Press by Brock Lesnar against Kurt Angle (which was still impressive).
However, when it hit the Top 5, the slowed down and had people finally talking about the moments. No. 5 was the Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart Iron Man match, No. 4 was the first Wrestlemania event kicking things off, No. 3 was Stone Cold vs. Shawn Michaels with Mike Tyson as the referee, No. 2 was Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant, and No. 1 was The Undertaker’s streak.
The next features are from before Wrestlemania 30 took place. There is a four minute feature with Hulk Hogan talking about the legacy of Wrestlemania. After that is a two minute feature with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon introducing the set of Wrestlemania 30.
After that is a very interesting feature considering the fall out, but there is a four minute feature with Batista talking about his return to the WWE. He mentioned that being cheered motivates him and booing him motivates him even more. However, while the interview started out legit, it quickly turned into a worked interview. A six minute Randy Orton interview follows that, which is almost completely a worked interview.
There is an Andre the Giant feature up next. There was a lot of talking heads here and it was very respectful, but the disappointing thing is that it was just three minutes long. There was a similar one about the legacy of Hulk Hogan. Next up was the promo for the Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar match (The Streak vs. The Beast), John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt, A.J. Lee vs. The World, and Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H. The final special feature saw Bruno Sammartino unveiling a statue built in his honor. It is a reminder of what all Triple H is doing to honor people who deserve it so much.
Finally, I want to mention the booklet that came with the Blu-ray set. It is a book called “30 Moments for 30 Years” and features the Top 30 moments in Wrestlemania history. This is not the same list as the Blu-ray special feature and is – quite honestly – the superior list. These WWE and DK books are spectacular (check out my review of the WWE 50 book here).
At the end of the day, if you have the WWE Network, there may not be a lot here to convince you to buy the Blu-ray, but if not, this is a great WWE Blu-ray and well worth the time to re-watch over and over again.
