Monday Night Raw from the Barclays Center sets up Crowded WrestleMania 30 Card

I attended Monday Night Raw at the Barclays Center earlier this week with a few friends, so this week's article will feature some personal anecdotes from inside the Brooklyn arena as we break down the WrestleMania 30 card.

Firstly, was Stephanie McMahon's promo with Randy Orton and Batista any good? I don't actually know, because the boos were so loud throughout that I couldn't hear a damn word any of them were saying. Much like Triple H, his wife is a tremendous heel and generates heat like few others can. The way she interrupted Orton and encouraged the crowd to keep chanting for Daniel Bryan was excellent.

Also, my friends and I got a "skinny jeans" chant going for Batista, which someone told me actually got picked up on TV, though I couldn't hear it. Either way, the man ripped his pants, and I like to think it was because of us.

Speaking of Bryan, the fans were not happy that he didn't appear on the show, particularly because he was advertised pretty much up until Raw went live on the air. He was also supposedly backstage, which upset fans even more. But he was selling Triple H's attack from last week, so no harm no foul as far as I'm concerned.

Hogan easily got the biggest pop of the night, even though he completely and hilariously butchered Joe Manganiello's name. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger got it right, for goodness sake!

Brock Lesnar's "Let's...do...thiiiIIIIIISSSS!" is still echoing in my head and makes me smile uncontrollably every time I think about it. But oddly enough, the crowd seemed to lose its juice after the first segment, even into the Brock/Taker segment that closed the show. For a Brooklyn crowd, it didn't have quite the bite that one would expect.

The episode set up the WrestleMania 30 card, and I am happy to announce that I will be competing in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal! Seriously, though, this card is CROWDED. It has the fewest singles matches since WrestleMania 2000, and people weren't too fond of WrestleMania 2000.

We've got a 30-man battle royal, a 14-Diva match (that's 44 people), a Fatal Four-Way Tag Team match (52 people), a six-man tag team match (58 people), three singles matches (64 people) and either a Triple Threat match or Fatal Four-Way match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship (I haven't ruled out the possibility that both Hunter and Bryan get into the title match).

That's 65+ people on one card. Justin Gabriel is in the battle royal, for cripes' sake, and he hasn't been on WWE television since DDP was running around telling Christian to smile.

The card has definitely shaped up, but my concern about the Undertaker/Lesnar match remains. Well, two concerns. One is that Lesnar is going to F-5 Taker into a cloud of dust and end the poor guy's life. The other is the way this feud has been booked. It's totally fine that they decided to give Lesnar a chance to end the streak because it fits with Paul Heyman's whole "history to conquer" speech.

But how are we supposed to buy that Lesnar is a credible threat to the streak when Taker has owned him in their few interactions thus far? Shouldn't Lesnar be at least on equal footing with the Deadman, if not have the advantage going into Mania? I was hoping Lesnar would start F-5ing druids until Taker emerged on Monday, but we did get the hilarious image of him stomping on the casket lid.

I'm excited for WrestleMania 30, but as usual, I'm cautiously optimistic. WWE has done a great job crafting parts of the card (Bryan-HHH) but a not-so-great job in other spots. But hey, it could be worse. We could have John Cena vs. The Miz again.

On the way out of Barclays, I spotted Bob Backlund near one of the merchandise stands taking pictures with fans, presumably for money because he was at a booth of his one. I thought about snapping a picture with my cell phone, but I was afraid he'd see me and lock me in the crossface chicken wing.

What do you think of the WrestleMania 30 card? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.