10 Worst WWE Roads To WWE WrestleMania

3. WrestleMania XXX

WrestleMania XXX was a complete aberration in the part-timer era in that a new headliner was designated as the man - one, crucially, that the vast majority of fans petitioned for.

Petition is the operative word here. If it weren't for the thousands upon thousands of dissenters, the card would have looked very different. WWE had drafted in Batista to challenge for Randy Orton's WWE World Heavyweight Championship in a move which baffled and upset the fandom. At the notoriously alienating Royal Rumble 2014, he lightly jogged into the ring and literally huffed and puffed his way through an anonymous performance. His turgid effort neatly symbolised the essence of the issue. Batista, visibly, had barely worked towards the goal Daniel Bryan ended up destroying himself to achieve. He sucked the air as if he was drowning. In truth, he was.

Batista's incongruous face act was met with widespread revulsion, compounded by another brief and ponderous match opposite Alberto Del Rio at Elimination Chamber - one so dismal and poorly-received that it compelled top brass to retcon an idea which any sane person would not have conceived of in the the first place.

The event itself was a triumph, a masterclass in audience catharsis - but the journey was so fraught with dashed hopes, tedium and resentment that the show was only just about worth it.