WWE WrestleMania 30 Results: Winners, Grades, Recap and Highlights | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
Daniel Bryan made Batista tap out to the Yes Lock to become the new WWE champion.
Highlights and Quotes
Bryan does the "Yes" chant with just one arm. Damn you, Triple H!
Even in a business built on questionable fashion choices, I have to call foul on Batista's ring gear.
Randy Orton stands and poses after dominating both of his opponents. If wrestling was a legitimate sport, old man newspaper columnists would be sharpening their knives.
Bryan, unceremoniously dumped over the top rope by Batista, came flying back into the ring with a diving headbutt.
Triple H and Stephanie pull the referee out of the ring to prevent a Bryan win. Crooked referee Scott Armstrong enters the match but Bryan kicked out.
With a suicide dive, Bryan took out the entire Authority and the crooked ref. Triple H responded with a sledgehammer, but Bryan turned the tables on him. This plot is moving along quickly!
"CM Punk! CM Punk!" —the SuperDome crowd chanted for their other hero as Batista and Orton combined a Batista Bomb and RKO through the announce table.
"You okay?" —Batista to Randy Orton, who landed on a monitor after the big highspot, cutting his back open.
Bryan, in a neck brace, jumps off the stretcher taking him to the back and reenters the match.
"The Yes Movement dies tonight." —JBL. Perhaps, just perhaps, prematurely.
As Daniel Bryan celebrated his victory, with the crowd chanting "yes" in unison with him as fireworks exploded and confetti fell, it felt a bit like an ending, not a beginning.
The main WWE storyline, ongoing for eight months, culminated with the hero triumphant—just the way wrestling stories are supposed to. WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross echoed that sentiment on Twitter, saying that nothing beats a happy ending that makes sense. For the moment, all is well in the WWE Universe.
For long-time fans, there was a feeling of deja vu.
Ten years ago, at WrestleMania XX, another undersized wrestling machine cried in the ring as his life's dream was realized on the grandest stage of them all. Bryan is Chris Benoit redux, a second chance for the WWE to pay tribute to the unsung workers, those masters of craft who convince even the most jaded that wrestlers are true athletes after all.
Bryan, like Benoit, is likely not the WWE's future. He's a great performer who will always find a place on the card. But he's no Stone Cold or The Rock. He's a placeholder. So, enjoy this moment. It's not forever, but it's for now. And that's something worth cherishing.
