WWE WrestleMania XXVIII (2012)

WrestleMania XXVIII was the 28th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view event. It took place on April 1, 2012 at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. It is the highest grossing PPV event in professional wrestling history. The main event on the card was a bout between The Rock and John Cena, a match that was announced a year in advance with the tagline "Once in a Lifetime". The 2 reasons why this Mania was awesome was the match between Cena and Rock which was awesome as hell and the Hell in the Cell match between Triple H and Undertaker was cool too with HBK being the special referee also at the time the theme song of this Mania was very popular and everyone had it on their phones just saying.

This was a strong show, mostly because the three main events delivered. The undercard wasn't too bad, and the show had a great atmosphere.World Heavyweight Championship Match: Daniel Bryan (c) vs. Sheamus - This was a disgrace! An 18-second Championship match?! Are you kidding me?! Bryan is distracted for one second, then Sheamus wins the Championship with a Brogue Kick just like that?! To do this is bad enough, but at a WrestleMania?! Unacceptable! RATING: DUDRandy Orton vs. Kane - This match was okay, but it was a TV quality match for the most part. These guys don't have much chemistry, and the wrestling was mostly basic. It did get good in the last few minutes, though. Kane wins with a second Chokeslam. RATING: **1/2Intercontinental Championship Match: Cody Rhodes (c) vs. The Big Show - This wasn't too bad for a big man vs. little man match. It didn't overstay its welcome, which is definitely nice. The Big Show gets his WrestleMania moment by winning the Championship with a Knockout Punch. RATING: **3/4"End Of An Era" Hell In A Cell Match with Shawn Michaels as Special Guest Referee: Triple H vs. The Undertaker - In-ring wise, this match is epic, but it's the storytelling and pure emotion that make the match the classic that it is. HBK's involvement made it that much more dramatic. These two titans engaged in an absolute war that will never be forgotten and truly felt like "the end of an era." The Undertaker wins with a second Tombstone and goes 20-0 at WrestleMania. RATING: ****3/412-Man Tag Team Match to Determine The General Manager of Both Raw and Smackdown: Team Johnny vs. Team Teddy - This match was entertaining for what it was. A nice way to cool down after the epic battle we just witnessed. Team Johnny wins, and John Laurenhitis becomes manager of both brands, which didn't last long. RATING: **1/2WWE Championship Match: CM Punk (c) vs. Chris Jericho - This was a fantastic back-and-forth technical contest. Punk and Jericho have amazing chemistry, and the match got especially exciting and dramatic toward the end. I rate this just slightly below their match at Extreme Rules a few weeks later. CM Punk retains his Championship by submission with the Anaconda Vice. RATING: ****1/4The Rock vs. John Cena - The most hyped match in WrestleMania history, it was everything we expected from a spectacle and atmosphere standpoint and far surpassed expectations from an in-ring standpoint. The Rock is in just as good if not better condition than before, and Cena was a great opponent for him. The finisher kick-outs were also very well done. The Rock wins after Cena attempts a People's Elbow with a Rock Bottom. RATING: ****1/4This show is far superior to the show the previous year. It's mostly the three big matches (particularly HHH/Taker) that make this a show worth checking out.RATING: B+

First, let me say that I was not looking forward to Wrestlemania XXVIII at all. The six weeks of build, overall, were very underwhelming, and the WWE Championship match was being treated as a joke, with the championship sitting in the background in favor of an alcohol storyline. Oh, and THIS Business~!! Still, we had the main event between John Cena and The Rock. I mean it was more than a year in the making, I should have been pumped for this, right? Well, no. I, honestly, couldn't have cared less. The week before Wrestlemania XXVII, Dwayne announced that he respects John, but he just doesn't like him. OK, Whatever. A year later however and that is STILL the only thing fueling this feud. So, suffice to say, this card looked weak. Thankfully, though I was able to enjoy it. Most of it. Well, 3/4 of it. The show opened up, unsurprisingly enough, with the World Heavyweight Championship match between Daniel Bryan and the challenger Sheamus. And then in 18 seconds my favorite wrestler was buried as if he was nothing more than dog crap. So for the next hour I was in a depressed state, and a negative mood, so pulling out the positives in any of the under-card matches was going to be a lot harder than normal. Randy Orton vs. Kane was an average match. Nothing too good, but nothing bad. They had a rematch on Smackdown that was much better and probably should have taken place here, but whatever. Then the I.C. Championship match. My favorite title being held by one of my favorite wrestlers (Cody Rhodes) and he lost it in five minutes to a 40 year old Big Show. Wow. I mean it was a nice moment for Show, but Cody is your future. You just don't do things like that, especially when your ratings are going down. Next was the Divas match. It sucked. Then finally that dreadful first hour was done with and we got into the second hour with the "End of an Era, Hell in a Cell match" between The Undertaker and Triple H with Shawn Michaels as the Special Gust Referee. Could they have added any more stipulations to that? Anyway, the match started off pretty slow with Taker dominating, but around the 10 minute mark HHH turned it around and hit a spine buster to Taker on top the steel steps. From then on it was, for lack of a better phrase, an emotional roller-coaster. Undertaker is by far my favorite wrestler of all time, and HHH has always delivered in big time matches. Pedigrees, chokeslams, sledgehammers, chairs, tombstones, I mean this match had it all, and it was all made better by the amazing performance from Shawn Michaels. The only complaint I could really have is they didn't really use the Cell, but I'm really nitpicking here. This was great and by far the match of the night. To follow this up we got the 6 on 6 tag team match. Didn't really pay attention to the match and it really only served as a cool down match for the crowd seeing as how nothing could have really topped the HIAC match. In the end John Laurinaitus' team gets the win, and not much else really needs to be said. Next, we got the WWE Championship match in the co-main event of the PPV between CM Punk and Chris Jericho. Two of my favorite performers fighting for the top prize in Sports entertainment, and overall they delivered. The beginning kind of sucked since they just felt the need to add a stupid stipulation to the match, where if CM Punk got disqualified then he would drop the belt to Jericho. What's the point? Just let them wrestle. Anyway, after we got dumba$$ remarks from Jericho about Punk's family, the actual match got underway and it was 20 minutes of greatness. There was mat wrestling, counter wrestling, chain wrestling, an amazing reversal sequence near the end where Jericho countered a hurricanrana off the top rope into the Walls of Jericho, which Punk got out of. They even did that suplex spot on the outside of the ring from the apron, which is always teased, but never delivered. In the end Punk locks in the anaconda vice and gets Jericho to tap, to retain his WWE Championship. Then the main event preceded by a ridiculous Brodus Clay segment, and BS concert that NOBODY CARED ABOUT!!! When the match finally got underway, these two men did nothing, but prove to me as great as they might be to some, neither of them are Stone Cold Steve Austin. Like it or not Austin ALWAYS delivered in big time matches, and that's because he gave the crowd what they wanted. Just two guys beating the hell out of each other. Instead, we get two terrible in-ring wrestlers going for a mat classic. Dafuq? Headlocks, arm-drags, GROUND BEAR HUGS??? Ugh. Overall, I didn't hate this match, but I liked it about as much as Randy Orton and Kane from earlier, so...yeah. The ending came out of nowhere, and it sent the pro-Rock crowd home happy, so I guess it was the right move, but in all honesty, I never cared who won. I never cared to see this match. And I sure as hell, never care to see it again. If Rock really cares about the WWE he'll do the job next year at Wrestlemania XXIX to a young up and comer, like Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, or Cody Rhodes and really give them a nice push. Overall, I'd say a 6/10, because the HIAC and WWE Title matches together took up about 2 hours while the rest of the night (first hour aside) had a good feel to it. If you haven't seen it yet, you don't really have to, but if you ordered it on PPV, then it's fair to say you got your money's worth.

Match 1: Daniel Bryan (c) vs. Sheamus for the World Heavyweight Championship - The front row was filled with "YES!" signs and fans chanting Daniel Bryan. The bell rings and Bryan gives his girlfriend AJ a kiss before the match, Bryan then turns around to a Brogue Kick from Sheamus and this match is over. 18 seconds, really? I have no problem with Sheamus going over Bryan here, but the 18 seconds was a waste of money for all that purchased tickets for the event or bought this on pay-per-view. Winner: and NEW World Heavyweight Champion SheamusMatch 2: Randy Orton vs. Kane - Very uninspiring stuff early on from these two. They ultimately finished strong and picked up the pace. Orton, at least in my opinion, was the favorite to win this. In the end Kane hits Orton with a chokeslam off the top rope for the win. One of the bigger surprises of the night was seeing Kane win this match, which he desperately needed to do in order to protect his image after losing to Cena. Winner: KaneMatch 3: Cody Rhodes (c) vs. The Big Show for the Intercontinental Championship - Nothing too spectacular to comment about in this match. The story of Big Show never having his "WrestleMania moment" actually added some depth to save this match. Rhodes looked pretty good here being in the ring with someone a lot bigger than him. In the end Rhodes goes for his Disaster kick, but Big Show counters and literally spears him right in the balls. After a knockout punch Show gets the pin, the win, the Intercontinental title, and finally his "WrestleMania moment." Winner: and NEW Intercontinental Champion The Big ShowMatch 4: Divas Champion Beth Phoenix & Eve vs. Kelly Kelly & Maria Menounos - Still scratching my head as to why this got more time than the Bryan/Sheamus World title match. Your basic WrestleMania divas tag match that dragged on longer than it needed to. Don't get me wrong, they are all extremely hot, but this match should not have gone more than at least 3 minutes at best. Winners: Kelly Kelly & Maria MenounosMatch 5: The Undertaker vs. Triple H in a Hell in a Cell match with Shawn Michaels as Special Guest Referee - All I have to say is damn, what a match. These two guys are a lot older than most of the guys on the roster, but can still have a better match than most of them. The cell wasn't really needed, as it wasn't utilized really at all during this match. I don't think I've seen a match with more drama involved in it. They overbooked a little in this match, but the storytelling ultimately saved it from being some overbooked mess. At times it actually looked like Undertaker would being going 19-1, but after kicking out of the second Pedigree Undertaker losing was out of the question. WWE really did a nice job here of tying together The Undertaker's matches with Shawn Michaels as well as his match last year with Triple H all into this one match for a final conclusion. Undertaker tombstones Triple H for the win. Winner: The UndertakerMatch 6: Team Teddy (Santino Marella (captain), R-Truth, Kofi Kingston, Zack Ryder, The Great Khali, & Booker T) vs. Team Johnny (David Otunga (captain), Mark Henry, Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, The Miz & Drew McIntyre) - The match for control of both shows. It was your basic multi-man match to make sure that some undercard talents got a spot on the show. Zack Ryder actually had a really strong showing towards the end of the match, which just shows that WWE has really dropped the ball and failed to push him to his full potential. The Miz pins Ryder for the win after some distraction from Eve to further her storyline with Ryder. Johnny has control of Raw and SmackDown, which was needed here, because let's face it, if WWE didn't have a heel manager figure it would eliminate half of the story lines on their shows. Winners: Team JohnnyMatch 7: CM Punk (c) vs. Chris Jericho for the WWE Championship - The match of the night as far as wrestling goes. The match started off like some sort of a T.V. angle with Jericho trying to get Punk disqualified so he could become WWE Champion. After getting past that part of the story these two turned everything around to have the match of the night. Both men delivered and the audience really invested into CM Punk, although Jericho fans were also very vocal throughout. After a nice exchange during the end Punk is able to apply the Anaconda Vise on Jericho and make him tap out to retain the title proving himself to be the Best in the World. Winner: and STILL WWE Champion CM PunkMatch 8: The Rock vs. John Cena - The match that basically sold this show. It was really hard to deliver after a year-long build, but both of these guys did just that. The Rock proves that he still "has it." The fans were so against Cena that a riot might have actually taken place if he won this match. The general feeling was that Cena would win this after all the build-up since the last WrestleMania. A really strong match that was main event worthy for this WrestleMania. Really enjoyable back and forth battle from these two. After two Attitude Adjustments didn't work, Cena tries for the People's Elbow. The Rock immediately jumps up and hits the Rock Bottom on Cena for what I thought was a surprising win. Cena really needed to lose here, because his character desperately needs to change. Looks like it could be time for a heel turn finally. Cena could be embracing the hate. Winner: The Rock