CM Punk Reveals Original WrestleMania XXX Booking Sheet

When CM Punk left WWE in early 2014, one of the causes was reported to be creative frustrations over his WrestleMania direction.

During his infamous appearance on the Colt Cabana podcast (that subsequently led to a lawsuit from WWE), Punk noted that he was booked for a match with Triple H at WrestleMania XXX. Punk eventually walked out of WWE and has never wrestled again.

In a post over on his Instagram page, Punk noted he was doing some cleaning and found one of the original booking sheets for WrestleMania XXX. The paper is dated January 20th, 2014 and indeed shows Punk vs. Triple H scheduled for the show. Notably, it also has Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus on the card.

The internal card on the paper has the following matches listed:

• Batista vs. Randy Orton (c) for the WWE World Heavyweight Title
• CM Punk vs. Triple H
• The Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar
• John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt
• Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus
• Big Show vs. Kane
• Roman Reigns vs. Dean Ambrose (c) for the WWE United States Title

WrestleMania XXX would end up being the show that was highlighted with Bryan defeating Triple H early in the event and then going on to defeat Randy Orton and Batista to become the Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion.

Many have claimed over the years that the direction was always for Bryan to walk out of WrestleMania the champion, this booking sheet seems to directly refute that. Despite achieving a level of popularity in 2013 and 2014 that few stars have achieved since the Attitude Era, WWE was reluctant to push Bryan to the top of the card.

Eventually, the fans seemingly forced WWE's hand and what resulted was one of the most memorable WrestleMania moments of all time. The booking sheet would seem to indicate it was indeed the fans that made that happen and that WWE was not planning on Bryan headlining the show, which would have been a disastrous decision.

Another eye-opening piece of this original WrestleMania XXX booking sheet is that Roman Reigns vs. Dean Ambrose for the U.S. Championship was originally the plan, leading one to believe that WWE would have broken up The Shield several months earlier than they eventually did. Instead, WrestleMania XXX featured The Shield taking on The New Age Outlaws and Kane.