I'm actually ashamed to admit I walked away from the TV during the Taker/Lesner match. The build was pathetic beyond words and there was 0 part of me that didn't think Taker would walk away the winner. I came back about 10 seconds before the third F-5. Saw it happen, figured Taker would kick out so I walked into the kitchen to grab another soda.
Count 1, open the fridge. Count 2, reaching in for the soda. Then it happened. Count 3. I literally stopped mid-grab because I couldn't believe it. Taker doesn't lose at Wrestlemania, ever. In 21 years Taker has never lost. Its been a fixture of my life since I started watching wrestling when I was 12 years old. I ran back to the living room because I thought that maybe I just misheard the count, but there it was. Paul Heyman's shocked face, Lesnar standing in the ring, Undertaker flat on his back, the ref calling for the bell, and the silence. The complete and utter silence of the arena as everyone, including me, let the moment sink in. Undertaker had lost and a part of our childhood was lost with it. I sat there in complete disbelief, my eyes wide, my mouth just hanging open. I don't think I'll ever forget that moment, the moment that Undertaker lost at Wrestlemania 30.
I know to nonwrestling fans and casual fans will look at that and shake their head, probably even laugh. How could a person really give that much of a shit about something fake like wrestling. Its fake, its scripted, they're all just actors in a play, blah blah.
Aside from the actual bullshit of calling it fake (ask someone like Mick Foley how fake wrestling is), there's a connection there. Its not always there, sometimes you just don't get a wrestler, or you don't connect with their gimmick, or they just don't mesh in the ring and you become disinterested. However when that connection is on you really feel something. You feel terrible when someone who works hard and pays his dues gets the shaft over and over like with Daniel Bryan. You feel elated when that same person overcomes the odds, not just the odds but the very authority that kept them down and wins the title. You actually worry for something as strange as a winning streak at a PPV, then feel relief when it gets defended.
And last night, I felt disinterest for that same streak then heartbroken when it fell.