Okay, it’s that time of year again everyone, it’s WrestleMania. You know the greatest spectacle, well maybe not but I was actually excited about this year’s WrestleMania because of all the uncertainties and of course the 3 main events between Cena/Rock, the Taker/HHH/HBK saga and the Punk/Jericho match. Let’s get started and see how WrestleMania XXVIII turned out.
Coming into this match I thought this could be one of the best matches of the night because not only, I’m a fan of both but these are 2 of the better wrestlers. Boy was I wrong on this front, after Bryan kissed his girlfriend A.J. he turned around to a Brogue Kick from Sheamus for the win in about 18 seconds. Now if you watched Raw maybe this could be a good thing for Bryan because it seems that Yes! is the new What! chant, whcih was made famous by Stone Cold Steve Austin, pretty good company. Winner and New World Heavyweight Champ: Sheamus
Match Rating: DUD
The feud is built on Kane not being himself after Orton beat him in a good match on Smackdown a few months back and he shook his hand afterwards. The match was alot of brawling back and forth from these 2. The finish came when Orton had Kane on the second rope, in what it seems like he may have been going for the RKO but Kane grabbed him by the throat and chokeslammed him from the second rope for the surprising win. Winner: Kane
Match Rating: 2.5/5
This feud started with Rhodes causing Big Show the World Championship and led to Rhodes mocking Big Show because of his bad history at WrestleMania. This match wasn’t anything special which is more because of the Big Show than Rhodes. Actually I’m hoping Rhodes get a world title run in the near future. Big Show picked up the win after spearing Rhodes after he attempted a second Beautiful Disaster, which led to the Knockout Punch. Winner and New Intercontinental Champion: Big Show
Match Rating: 2/5
Well I’m not going to recap what led to this match because they could’ve got a better divas match for WrestleMania, maybe have a Natalya/Beth Phoenix match would’ve been great. But the finish came when Maria and Kelly rammed Beth Phoenix into Eve and Maria rolled her up for the win. Winners: Maria Menounos and Kelly Kelly
Match Rating: 1/5
If you’re a wrestling fan I don’t need to tell you the history of these 3 guys involved in this match. This match had so much great storytelling and had some unbelievable spots by all 3 guys also. For me personally, I love storytelling more than just about anything in wrestling matches, also it’s been rumored that Undertaker requested Jim Ross call this match, which is definitely cool in my book. The match was so emotional and both men had there share of war wounds, check out HHH’s face and the back of the Undertaker.
So many near falls when both men hit finishers to no avail. One of the best spots was after HBK gathered himself after being put in the Hell’s Gate by the Undertaker he gave the Undertaker Sweet Chin Music followed by the Pedigree from HHH for almost a 3 count. Chairs, the cage, the steel steps and the sledgehammer was used in this match. At the end the Undertaker was telling HHH to stay down but HHH did the DX crotch chop to Undertaker and then was hit with the sledgehammer and then finally the Tombstone piledriver for the win.
After the match HBK and the Undertaker helped HHH up as a sign of respect and they helped them up the entrance ramp and they stood to the crowd as a sign of respect, really nice moment as this was billed as the “End of An Era” match. Winner and 20-0: The Undertaker
Match Rating: 4.5/5– Just wow, maybe a little better than the match last year and that says alot.
Next we had all the members of the 2012 Hall of Fame and this was a great class headlined by recently retired Edge, due to lingering neck issues. The other inductees were Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen, who I believed should’ve headlined and arguably the greatest group of all time. Also, we had Ron Simmons, the great Yokozuna, Mil Mascaras and Mike Tyson, congratulations to them all.
Before I get started I liked the build for this match but so many guys should be having singles matches that participated in this match. Jack Swagger, Drew McIntyre, Dolph Ziggler, R-Truth, The Miz, Kofi Kingston, Zack Ryder and Mark Henry(he’s had a great year and carried Smackdown). Fast paced match and it was as fun as a 12-man tag match can be. The finish came when the Miz hit the Skull Crushing Finale on Zack Ryder for the win. Afterwards Eve checked on Ryder but kicked him afterwards. Winner and Control of both Raw and Smackdown: Team Johnny
Match Rating: 2.5/5
This match pits “The Best Wrestler In the World” C.M. Punk vs. “The Best At What He Does” Chris Jericho. This was a great match from the beginning to the end but they had to get the fans back into it because of the HHH/Taker match because the fans were into that match but they definitely got them back with alot of action. There were alot of counters and physical action but after more counters Punk got the win with the Anaconda Vice. Winner and Still Champion: C.M. Punk
Match Rating: 4.5/5– Great match and looking forward to this feud continuing.
This match was made the night after WrestleMania last year and the feud really heated up the last month. This is billed as “Once In A Lifetime” with these 2 all time greats. The Rock as you know has been doing his thing in Hollywood and haven’t wrestled a singles match in over 9 years.
Let’s say that the crowd was crazy for this entire match, as a matter of fact the Miami crowd was great all night and the following night for Raw. Now I’m not one of those guys that dislike Cena but my big problem with him is that he doesn’t know how to sell nothing, which is a big part of matches. There were alot of nearfalls with the Cena hitting the Attitude Adjustment a few times for some nearfalls which got the crowd louder.
The Rock hit the Rock Bottom for nearfalls also. The finish came when Cena was going to mock The Rock by doing the People’s Elbow but the Rock jumped up and hit the Rock Bottom for the win. Winner: The Rock
Match Rating: 4/5– The crowd made this match better and I honestly can’t believe The Rock was able to do what he did after all these years.
Overall- 3.5/5– I rated it a little higher because the top 3 matches more than lived up to expectations. Also, the crowd was great throughout the night. I really was looking forward to the Sheamus/Bryan match but made Bryan will come out a bigger star from it. I really liked the 2012 Hall of Fame class and it would be nice guys like Ziggler, Swagger, McIntyre, The Miz, Kofi, Zack Ryder and Cody Rhodes have a better role at WrestleMania XXVIII.
