Airing live Tuesday morning at 11:00 am ET on the WWE Network, the WrestleMania 30 press conference featured all of the main event players for this Sunday’s PPV, the entire McMahon family and many other WWE superstars and Divas. Below is a recap of the press conference:
Josh Matthews kicks things off interviewing several WWE superstars and Divas on the floor.
First up were the Bella Twins, who talked about Total Divas. Then, Brie Bella spoke about Daniel Bryan’s mindset heading into WrestleMania, while Nikki Bella discussed John Cena’s work ethic as he prepares to face Bray Wyatt.
Matthews then brought in Summer Rae, who talked about feuding with the Bellas on Total Divas and how anything can happen at the Vickie Guerrero Divas Championship Invitational.
The Bellas then asked Josh Matthews who he thinks would be the better Divas champion, and he said maybe they could share the title LayCool style.
After the Bellas left, Matthews brought in Mark Henry for a quick word before the official press conference kicked off.
Michael Cole was out first briefly before introducing Stephanie McMahon. Stephanie is here as the Chief Branding Officer, her real-life role, not her on-screen persona. McMahon talks about all of the pro-social events WWE is doing in conjunction with WrestleMania 30, promoting their anti-bullying campaign and other initiatives.
Up next is Hulk Hogan. Hogan talks about coming full circle for WrestleMania 30 and being a part of the first ever WrestleMania in New York City. Hogan then talks about WrestleMania not only being the showcase of the Immortals, but a presentation of the future of the WWE as well. Hogan then attempts a call and response with the media, who just seem very disinterested. They really should have planted real fans in the room for something like that to work.
Triple H comes out after Hogan, as Paul “Triple H” Levesque. HHH jokes with the subdued crowd that if Hogan can’t get a reaction out of them, then what is he gonna do? He talks about how no matter how many hats he wears, he is a fan first and foremost. HHH then talks about WrestleMania evolving from one man’s dream into a worldwide phenomenon, and how NXT is where new dreams are formed. Hunter passionately talks about NXT and the NXT superstars who will have a great learning experience this year as they go through WrestleMania week, with dreams of their own in their eyes.
Next, Triple H promotes the WWE Network and how everything WWE does now will always live forever, from NXT through WrestleMania.
HHH then puts on his talent hat, and talks up Daniel Bryan and his dream that the entire WWE Universe shares. However, in this case, and unfortunately for Bryan, Hunter’s dream intersects with Bryan’s, and Triple H concludes by saying, “Only The Game is Forever.”
Daniel Bryan follows Triple H, also talking about dreams. Bryan said to him, dreams are things people think about and wish for just before they go to sleep. Bryan’s dream has always been to headline WrestleMania, and now he has that chance to main event if he can beat Triple H. Bryan says beating Triple H is no easy task, especially since HHH hates him, not as person but as a business man.
Bryan talks about how he looks funny in a suit, but he’s not here because of Triple H or The Authority. Daniel Bryan is here for one reason and one reason only: The people. Bryan then talks about how the fans in New Orleans will have so much more power than anyone in the back, and at WrestleMania they can make his dream come true … together. Can Daniel Bryan do it? He says he has one answer: YES! YES! YES!
Batista comes out next and is completely going off script. He says he hates these things and whoever wrote his script should be fired anyway because it’s garbage, unless it’s Stephanie. Batista said it’s way too quiet out in the press conference room and says he felt bad for Daniel Bryan wearing a suit doing YES! chants with no response from this absolutely dead crowd. Batista then stays completely off script and makes fun of the Boooo-tista movement, references his skinny jeans having a Twitter feed and talks about the crowd reactions. Batista then finally gets back on track saying he will be the WWE World Heavyweight Champion.
Randy Orton follow Batista with one of the most canned and robotic speeches ever, about retaining the title.
After Orton is done, they do a photo op. with Batista, Triple H, Randy Orton, and Daniel Bryan posing together on stage. Batista and Orton then leave, allowing Bryan and HHH to go face-to-face. Bryan throws up his hands to chant YES, then HHH does the NO pose, before a couple of media people finally do the YES! chants.
After the title match participants leave, Michael Cole brings out John Cena. Cena quipped about the fabulous spoken word stylings of Batista, then went into a personal story about having breakfast with Hulk Hogan this morning. A 30-something year-old fan went up to Hogan and told him he was at WrestleMania III when Hogan body-slammed Andre The Giant. Cena marveled at the fan’s appreciation for Hogan 27 years later, and said that’s what WrestleMania is all about: to be able to say, “I was there.”
Cena talks up the “I was there” theme for WrestleMania XXX, saying that this will be a revolutionary event. Cena then closes by saying, “Where are you gonna be, Brother, when you say: I was there?”
Cena actually gets some applause from the otherwise silent crowd of reporters, proving why he’s great at this corporate stuff.
The press conference then ends with a photo op. of everyone who spoke as well as the Divas and superstars who were backstage.
Conspicuous by his absence on stage was Vince McMahon, who must have been at the press conference but decided not to speak.
END PRESS CONFERENCE
