Daniel Bryan's WrestleMania XXX Night
WWE WrestleMania XXX — April 6, 2014 · Mercedes-Benz Superdome, New Orleans, LA
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The Story
Daniel Bryan won twice in one night — first beating Triple H, then submitting Batista to capture the WWE World Heavyweight Championship — completing the most satisfying underdog arc of the era. The night as a whole is one of WWE's great emotional triumphs: the undersized, anti-corporate fan favorite the machine tried to bury finally conquering it on the grandest stage.
The plot was almost novelistic. To even reach the title match, Bryan first had to beat the boss himself. His opener against Triple H is a mat classic — crisp, spiteful, methodical — and Bryan's win over the Authority's own figurehead detonated the Superdome. It also set up the cruelty of the main event, where Triple H and Stephanie leaned on Batista and Randy Orton to finish the job the corporation had started.
By the time Bryan reached the closing Triple Threat, he was beaten, taped up, and running on the sheer will of a crowd chanting "Yes!" in unison. He absorbed everything the two hand-picked stars had, then locked the Yes Lock on Batista for the submission and his first world title. Rarely has fan will so visibly overridden a company's plans; the image of Bryan standing tall amid that sea of raised arms is a defining feel-good moment of the decade — the climax of the grassroots run traced in our Yes Movement rivalry file.