Smark Out Moment

WrestleMania XXX is almost here and the fans have been very vocal that this is not the card they were looking forward to. So as we do every year, that means it's time for another edition of FANTASY BOOKING for the event. What would you have done for the 30th WrestleMania if you were given the powers to dictate the lineup of matches?


Here are the rules:

1) You need to justify your choices within a reasonable mindset of what WWE has in store. Just because your two favorites may be Justin Gabriel and Tensai doesn't mean that WWE would ever start pushing those two to be in the main event for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship going into this pay-per-view even if they had the past few months to build up to it.

2) No imaginary time skips, roster additions, or comebacks. Shawn Michaels has said he's not wrestling another match, so don't book him in a match. Mr. Perfect has passed away, so he can't wrestle Curtis Axel. You can't just add a bunch of ROH guys to the roster and then book them on the card.

3) CM Punk supposedly quit because he wanted to be in the main event. Thus, you have 2 options here. Either you a) book CM Punk in the main event, or b) keep him off the card.

4) Take into account timing. It's impossible for WWE to give 45 minutes to every match if you book a card that has 20 matches on it.


Commentary Team = Michael Cole, JBL & Jerry Lawler
Backstage Interviews = Renee Young
Pre-Show Host = Scott Stanford
Insight Panel = Josh Mathews, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin
Master of Ceremonies = Hulk Hogan


Half of this time would be dedicated to Scott Stanford and Renee Young promos with the wrestlers and about the matches and feuds going on as well as the legends panel giving their insights and predictions about what will happen. The other half would be a match to warm the crowd up. Spread throughout the night to help give fans a chance to go to the bathroom, relax after the matches, and so forth, we'll be returning to the legends panel as well as running some short commercials, backstage interviews and everything else.

1. [Kickoff Mixed Tag Match]: The Miz & Bella Twins vs. Fandango & Summer Rae & Eva Marie

This gets some promotion for Total Divas but it doesn't make it necessarily about that show entirely. This is basically just a collection of people that are involved in reality television. If Summer Rae and Eva Marie are supposed to be shacking up in some sort of friendship, it makes sense for them to be a team and it just makes perfect sense for the Bella Twins to be their opponents. Fandango shouldn't be without a match and has no other place on the card and the same goes with Miz, so all stars align.


2. [Tag Team Match]: Team Authority (Kane, Bray Wyatt, Alberto Del Rio, Damien Sandow and Mark Henry) vs. Team Question Authority (Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston, Christian, Big Show, and Big E Langston)

Kane takes it upon himself to shut Dolph Ziggler up for speaking against The Authority, but he finds that Kofi Kingston is also sick and tired of not getting a push as well and Ziggler is starting to get other people on his side that aren't afraid of standing up for themselves. There is a clear divide starting, where Ziggler and Kingston have joined up with Daniel Bryan, John Cena and Batista. Big Show joins their side after what happened this past year with the way Stephanie McMahon and Triple H treated him poorly. Christian comes back and joins as well, citing things like Vince McMahon's "blue dot" joke. Big E Langston just wants to stand up for what's right, knowing that if he plans on being one of the future big stars in the company, change needs to happen now, or he'll never get a chance to succeed.

To help fight off this group of people, Kane starts looking for help and finds some heels that are willing to buy into the bullshit and suck up to The Authority. This includes Alberto Del Rio and Damien Sandow. Mark Henry is roped into teaming with them because at this point, he'll have started a vendetta against Big E Langston out of jealousy for Big E reminding him of himself from the past (and how he's no longer a young gun), worried that he'll take his spot. Bray Wyatt finally explains what he meant by him saying "the devil made me do it". He's been working with Triple H. That explains why Kane went from being abducted by The Wyatt Family to joining The Authority. This is a throwback to the Corporate Ministry in a sense.

3. Batista vs. Sheamus

Sheamus as a babyface has never been as good as WWE would hope, so Sheamus should have returned as a heel. His friendship with Triple H could have been the reason for him joining The Authority and Batista could have kept the "you used to be cool, Triple H" attitude, coming to the defense of the anti-Authority folk. This feud could have started at the Royal Rumble, with Sheamus having been brought back as a security policy by Triple H to make sure Batista didn't win. After all, what happened the last time Batista won a Royal Rumble? He turned on Triple H and beat him at WrestleMania for the World Heavyweight Championship.

These two would be one of the marquee matches and not shoehorning Batista in the main event would have kept the fans from turning on him in the first place. They can have a rough brawl of a match which follows the more fast-paced tag match that preceded it.

4. [Divas Championship Lumberjill Match]: AJ Lee vs. (Paige or Tamina Snuka)

This one is tricky. If I could bump Paige up, I'd have her face off against AJ with the gimmick being that the NXT Divas, the Total Divas cast, and the non-Total Divas cast that's on the normal roster are the ones that make up the women surrounding the ring. But if WWE won't allow Paige to move up, the next most logical option is for Tamina to turn face and go against AJ. But while everyone would naturally assume that Tamina would come out on top and win the title, I'd throw the swerve and keep it on AJ. She's the most valuable Diva they've had for the longest time and her title reign should go on as long as possible.

This match would be a good time for fans to take a bathroom break since the first two matches were important and the pre-show is something we want to make sure they watch—just the same as the next match.


5. [United States Championship]: Dean Ambrose vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins

For all intents and purposes, Ambrose is the heel, Reigns is the babyface, and Rollins is the tweener. All three men need a lot of time to shine.

6. John Cena vs. (Randy Orton or Triple H)

If you go with Triple H, then the story is about Cena trying to stand up against The Authority and prove to the fans that he's not trying to bore them by doing the same old stuff all the time. If you go with Randy Orton, then the story takes a very different turn from what we've seen over the past few months. Orton would not have faced Bryan after cashing in, but had a feud with CM Punk instead. Then, he would have had his unification match with John Cena and it would have ended in a draw with Triple H declaring himself the champion instead of having it be vacated, telling Orton that he had lost some faith in him and he needed to prove himself to Triple H. Orton takes this as Cena getting in his way yet again and from TLC onward, it's his personal mission to just destroy Cena's life and chances at any success, targeting him specifically at the Royal Rumble (which is ultimately why he loses it to Bryan). Orton and Cena influence each others eliminations at Elimination Chamber (which is not for the WWE title as HHH would hold it, but instead, HHH would be forcing Bryan to put his Royal Rumble title shot on the line in it). Cena vs. Orton would be a street fight, but HHH vs Cena wouldn't.


7. [Tag Team Championship]: New Age Outlaws vs. The Usos vs. Wyatt Family vs. Cody Rhodes & Goldust vs. Real Americans vs. Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara vs. R-Truth & Xavier Woods vs. Ryback & Curtis Axel vs. Prime Time Players vs. 3MB vs. Los Matadores

Fit in as many as you can in some kind of a scramble, battle royal, turmoil, gauntlet, whatever-style format match. Give the Usos a somewhat elaborate entrance for their opening chant and make this when they win the titles. Make sure Rey and Sin Cara have matching outfits. Go all out and really try to showcase the scope of the tag team division. As you can see, the Prime Time Players didn't split up in my scenario, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan are in the mix, and there's no match between Cody Rhodes and Goldust but they would be the final team that The Usos would need to beat. Yes, I'd have the New Age Outlaws somehow get eliminated before that. It's always interesting when a champion gets taken out of a match and you know that you have a guaranteed title change, but you just aren't sure who will walk away with the belt.

8. Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar

This is pretty self-explanatory. I think John Cena should be the final opponent for Undertaker whenever he decides to retire and since the Sting deal hasn't been fully set up yet, the only logical people for Taker to go up against this year are Lesnar or possibly Sheamus. Between those two, Lesnar is the bigger match.


WWE Hall of Fame Recap

Transition into this by talking about how Undertaker is a future Hall of Fame member and use this for downtime. Make it a true celebration instead of just having these people come out to wave. Use Hulk Hogan here in some capacity as well as Ultimate Warrior and everyone else. Since he doesn't have a match, maybe include Bad News Barrett here somehow.

9. [WWE Championship No Holds Barred Match]: Daniel Bryan vs. (Triple H or Randy Orton)

If you go with Triple H against John Cena, then by default Randy Orton cashed in at SummerSlam and used the Money in the Bank to steal Bryan's belt from him and Bryan won the Royal Rumble to earn a title shot that he was never given originally (instead of getting lots of matches with Orton). That way, people would actually want to see a match between the two as it hadn't been beaten down yet.

If you go with Randy Orton facing John Cena, then at some point, Triple H declared himself the WWE champion and Bryan won the Royal Rumble to earn a shot to challenge him. Whatever the story is, the big overall point here is that Daniel Bryan should have been booked to win the Royal Rumble against all odds (but not from the #1 spot - he should have won from the unlucky #13 spot with a price on his head similar to Austin in '98) and this ends with Bryan winning the WWE Championship and celebrating with his fans.