[lastlastlast]

Hey guys! I've been on and off of being active on this board for a few years, but seeing everyone posting these retro universes has gotten me interested in running one of my own, from one of my favorite recent eras of wrestling. Without further ado, I present the WWE post WrestleMania 30 in 2014!

I love this era because Daniel Bryan got me invested in wrestling again after a period where I largely didn't watch. I played the WWE games but didn't really enjoy them as much as I used to, and the TV product didn't really interest me as I was heading into middle school and started to have more hobbies outside of school that took up more of my time. However, I started getting more interested in the WWE when new talent such as the Shield and the Wyatt Family debuted, and the WWE began to rely more heavily on CM Punk and Daniel Bryan. Because of this, 8th grade me ate up the Authority angle like crazy. I hated HHH, Orton and Stephanie and sympathized with the faces who fought against them. This was also the point where I started reading wrestling news sites such as Lords of Pain, and I began to lose interest again when it broke that WWE planned to have Batista return and main event WrestleMania. The thought of WWE truly thinking of Daniel Bryan as a B+ player in reality broke my heart, and I didn't understand the point of having Batista come in and win the title just so he could take it to Guardians of the Galaxy events (although in all honesty with everything that has transpired since then it would be par for the course now).

However, the Yes Movement, Occupy RAW, and the public disapproval of the WWE's decisions such as the YES chants at basketball games and other sporting events caused the WWE to change their mind and allow Bryan to not only enter the match at WrestleMania but win it and become champion. My friends and I who talked about wrestling during first period Spanish 1 went crazy because we thought we had really changed the WWE machine and made them realize that they needed to listen to the fans. Yet again, however, we ended up being wrong.

Another reason I love writing about this era is the "what if" stories that can happen, most notably regarding what transpired soon after WrestleMania. Daniel Bryan's neck injuries mounted, and much like Steve Austin before him, he was forced to take time off of wrestling and relinquish the title. This led to WWE going back to the John Cena well and even allowing Brock Lesnar to be a part time champ, but an even bigger issue loomed; the overpush of Roman Reigns (which I won't get into as I realize I have written way too much and you will see how I would have handled his push in time.)

Sorry for the walls of text, but I wanted to give some context as to why I love this era and chose to cover it for this universe. In the next post I will show my changes to the WM30 results, the rosters for this universe, and the current champions.