WrestleMania 28: Once in a lifetime

April 1st, 2012

Location: Miami, Florida

Venue: Sun Life Stadium

Attendance: 78,363

Theme songs: "Good Feeling" and "Wild One" (ft. Sia) by Flo-Rida; "Invincible" by Machine Gun Kelly (Ft. Easter Dean)

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We are in the final week of the countdown, as in just seven days, I'll be at MetLife Stadium, finally achieving my boyhood dream. It's been a fun ride, and it's time to finish this series strong.

Florida was ready to host another WrestleMania as Miami brought everybody to Sun Life Stadium. The main event brought two individuals nobody expected to meet and had a result nobody expected to happen.

WWE's own Lillian Garcia was asked to sing "America the Beautiful" once again to open WrestleMania, having done so in 2005 for WrestleMania 21.

Thanks to the sunlight, this Mania didn't feature opening pyro and just opened the show with the crowd's look.

​Once again, eight matches were scheduled for the night, and like the previous year, the World Heavyweight Championship opened the show.

Unfortunately, this was over faster than you can say, "Welcome to WrestleMania."

Sheamus, who won the 2012 Royal Rumble match, picked Daniel Bryan for his title opportunity. At the start of the match, Bryan gave his girlfriend A.J. Lee a kiss for good luck.

Suddenly, Sheamus nailed him with his signature Brogue Kick and quickly covered him to get the pinfall and win the match. In 18 seconds, Sheamus was the new World Heavyweight Champion, and Daniel Bryan left Miami with nothing.

Although this seems useless and an embarrassment considering the title has a ton of history, I'm sure both were happy with their moment at WrestleMania 28 considering the year before, which had them on the pre-show.

Moving along, Big Show claimed the Intercontinental Championship after defeating Cody Rhodes, and Kane defeated Randy Orton.

Once again, the use of a celebrity in a match occurred when "Extra" host Maria Menounos teamed up with Kelly Kelly to take on Beth Phoenix and Eve Torres.

Maria and Kelly won. Yay for the celebrities.

Finally, to determine who would be the General Manager for both Raw and SmackDown, Theodore Long and John Laurenitis each assembled a team of six and had them square off in a 12-man tag team match.

I won't list every competitor until the results at the end of the article. The only thing that matters is "Team Johnny" would defeat Long's team for brand supremacy.

That being said, it's once again time for the three things that stood out to me from WrestleMania 28.

Punk reigns supreme

2011 was a big year for CM Punk, which could have ended in disaster.

On an episode of Raw in June, Punk sat cross-legged on the stage and delivered what's been known today as his infamous "pipe bomb." With a microphone in hand, he expressed his frustrations with the company and issues with Vince McMahon, leaving nothing left out.

Whether that was planned or not, it's still something that people talk about today as it blurred the lines of what is and isn't part of the entertainment.

At the Money in the Bank pay-per-view in his hometown of Chicago, Punk defeated WWE Champion John Cena and headed into the crowd with title in hand. While this happens regularly in WWE, Punk announced that his contract with WWE was expiring the day of the event and would leave the company with the title, which he did.

A month later, Punk would return with the WWE Championship and began one of the longest title reigns in recent history.

Meanwhile, as Punk was defending his championship month after month, a series of videos began to air stating that in January, it would be the "end of the world as we know it." and a superstar would return. On the first Monday Night Raw of 2012, the series of videos reached its conclusion, and Chris Jericho made his surprise return to the company.

Jericho then began to go after Punk, who accused the champion of plagiarism for using the "Best in the World" catchphrase, stating it's originally his.

At the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, Punk barely retained his championship during the Elimination Chamber match. In the process, Punk injured Jericho, which forced him to leave without being officially eliminated.

The next night on Raw, Jericho won a 10-man battle royal to become number one contender to Punk's championship at WrestleMania, which would settle the score of their intense feud.

The rivalry would peak when Jericho went low and brought up the fact that Punk's dad was an alcoholic and his sister had substance abuse issues.

At WrestleMania, it was the second last match of the night, something that upset Punk behind the scenes but more on that later on.

The two put on a spectacular match, and despite the crowd leaning towards Jericho, both received great ovations for when they had moments where they could have won.

Both went back-and-forth, keeping everybody at the edge of their seats. Punk would find opportunities to escape from Jericho's signature moves and vice-versa.

​As Punk would nearly seal the match, Jericho would find opportunities to reverse it into his Walls of Jericho or Codebreaker.

Eventually, Punk caught the best of Jericho and wrapped him into the "Anaconda Vice" and got his nemesis to tap out and retain his WWE Championship.

As I mentioned, Punk was severely disappointed that he didn't close the show despite having the WWE Championship. Jericho revealed in an interview with Inside the Ropes that Punk believed their match should have gone after The Rock and John Cena.

As much as I understand the frustration, the reality is, many would have loved to be in Punk's position and be WWE Champion. Punk joins Hogan and Triple H (to name a few) to enter and leave WrestleMania as champion. Personally, had I been Vince McMahon in 2012, I also would have closed with Rock and Cena, considering their bout was highly anticipated and the most promoted.

CM Punk's reign wasn't going to end anytime soon, either. His reign would continue to the following year in 2013. At least he's considered one of the best WWE Champions in history.

End of an Era

At WrestleMania 27, Triple H was seen tapping out to The Undertaker as he once again couldn't take him down on the grand stage.

The Undertaker was also carted out of WrestleMania and wouldn't appear on WWE TV for nearly a year.

Triple H found a position within WWE Headquarters during the year and was labeled as Chief Operating Officer for on-screen purposes. In reality, he would rise to Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and would go on to create the popular developmental brand known as NXT.

In January, as Triple H was confronting Raw General Manager John Laurinaitis, a familiar gong went off in the arena, grabbing his attention and The Undertaker made his unexpected return.

Despite Undertaker keeping his undefeated streak intact, he was upset at how he couldn't physically walk out of the arena after their match and wanted to prove he's still just as strong. He challenged Triple H to a rematch at WrestleMania (their third encounter at WrestleMania), which was declined.

As Triple H walked away, Undertaker told him that he denied the opportunity because he knew he wasn't better than his best friend Shawn Michaels, who failed in both of his attempts at WrestleMania 25 and 26. Hunter came storming back to the ring and immediately accepted while letting Undertaker know that their match would be inside Hell in a Cell.

A few weeks later, Shawn Michaels appeared on Raw to confront his best friend. The Heartbreak Kid was frustrated that it seemed Triple H only accepted the match because he didn't like hearing that Michaels was better than him.

HBK reminded Triple H about his guarantee the year before in how he knew that he wouldn't be able to defeat The Undertaker. Once again, Michaels assured that he'd knew who would win but dropped a bombshell when he said the only reason why he knew would be because he was named special guest referee.

​Fans worldwide instantly got excited as the man who had his career cut short by The Undertaker held power to end "The Streak" and back up his best friend.

The match labeled as "End of an Era" was so big, Jim Ross was asked to return to the commentary booth and sat with Michael Cole and Jerry "The King" Lawler.

At first, the match was even, and Michaels was unbiased and not showing any favoritism. However, if you thought that would be the case for the entire match, think again.

Triple H knocked Undertaker with a sledgehammer, leaving him down for a while. As Triple H was about to smash Undertaker's head with the hammer, Michaels took it away from him just in time. Triple H begged Michaels to end the match as his opponent was unresponsive. With Michaels contemplating not to finish the match, he went to go check up on Undertaker.

In a sudden response, 'Taker put Michaels in his Hell's Gate submission, leaving HBK unresponsive.

Moments later, everybody's heart dropped when Undertaker set up Triple H for his Tombstone Piledriver. As Triple H got out of it and pushed him away, Michaels stood up and nailed Undertaker with his Sweet Chin Music superkick, which led into Triple H's Pedigree.

In Sun Life Stadium, fans erupted in shock as Michaels began his three-count but came up short as Undertaker kicked out in time.

The back-and-forth battled continued as finishing move after finishing move was broken up, not keeping Triple H or Undertaker down. Michaels began to show a face of stress as he started to sit in the corner, in amazement that neither man would give up.

After suffering from multiple chair shots from The Undertaker, Triple H continued to get up, told his opponent to suck it, and would meet his fate.

With Michaels unable to watch, The Undertaker delivered one final Tombstone Piledriver and picked up the win to push his winning streak to 20-0.

HBK stared at both of them lying on the ground as the cell began to rise, looking disgusted with what all three went through. Michaels would help Undertaker get up and raised his hand to the crowd.

Triple H needed to be carried out by his best friend and long-time rival up to the stage entrance in a turn of events. There, the three would look out into the crowd and tell the world that their five-year story was over.

Past meets future, again

The night after WrestleMania 27, The Rock and John Cena agreed to a match in advance, leaving the entire year to build to what would be the main event of WrestleMania 28.

Yet, not much was done in the year until roughly a few weeks before their encounter.

The first big instant came in May when Cena interrupted The Rock's birthday celebration to assure him that their match would be for the WWE Championship. That didn't work well when Punk left Money in the Bank with Cena's WWE Championship.

In saying that, it would end up being John Cena's first WrestleMania match in history that didn't have him competing for a championship. Streak over.

The second moment had them in a tag team match against R-Truth and The Miz at Survivor Series. Cena and Rock would win the match, but The Rock hit John Cena with his Rock Bottom as a reminder of their encounter at WrestleMania.

The big day had arrived, and before either man came out, Machine Gun Kelly performed "Invincible," which brought out Cena, and Flo-Rida performed "Good Feeling" and "Wild One" and brought out The Rock.

Being that WrestleMania was in Miami, and The Rock grew up in Miami, you can expect that one out of every thousand fans in attendance were cheering for Cena (including a fan completely dressed like Cena, looking concerned for his hero, in the front row).

The match was underway and would end up being nearly as long as the Hell in a Cell match and would be an absolute classic.

Both men showed great chemistry in the ring and proved why they both were or currently the face of WWE.

They kept the crowd on their feet when they caught each other off guard with their signature maneuvers. Whether it was an Attitude Adjustment from Cena or a Rock Bottom from The Rock, nothing kept the other down.

Cena was in complete control and ready to pick up the victory in the match's final moments. Cena had The Rock in the middle of the ring to taunt the Miami crowd and began his opponent's People's Elbow. Just as he was about to sink the elbow, The Rock sprung up and nailed him with his Rock Bottom.

The Rock would pick up the win, and the fans in Miami erupted in what was an upset victory. Cena would be seen sitting on the ramp in disappointment as the closing image of WrestleMania 28 had The Rock posing to the crowd with fireworks going off.

Cena did all that he could, but unlike the last time we had the present meet the past at WrestleMania, the past caught up and stood tall.

Final thoughts

Let's start with the fact that this WrestleMania was better than the year before. Sorry, Atlanta.

WWE bounced back from the disaster of WrestleMania 27 and provided a solid show in Florida.

The first half started weakly, yet nothing disappointed from the Hell in a Cell match and on (except for that 12-man tag match).

This would be the first Mania I watched live since WrestleMania 24. I ran home from work and caught the second half of the Hell in a Cell and was shocked when HBK kicked Undertaker and nearly ended the streak. The match provided such great storytelling; you couldn't have made it any better. I think it's one of the best WrestleMania matches of all time.

As for The Rock and John Cena? I was ready for a Cena win. I expected Cena to come out on top because that's what WWE loved to show. Not to mention, I was instantly reminded of WrestleMania 18.

It brought me back to my first WrestleMania when Hogan confronted The Rock. I had the mindset of Cena winning like The Rock ten years prior because of the future that was ahead.

I jumped out of my chair when Rock came up with the victory. I absolutely couldn't believe that they let a man of the past who wasn't going to do much after WrestleMania pick up the win, or so I thought.

The following year would return to an outdoor environment, and even though Cena and Rock were labeled "Once in a Lifetime," nobody was ready or wanted act II.

Results:

- Sheamus def. Daniel Bryan (c) - World Heavyweight Championship

- Kane def. Randy Orton

- Big Show def. Cody Rhodes (c) - Intercontinental Championship

- Kelly Kelly and Maria Menounos def. Beth Phoenix and Eve Torres

- The Undertaker def. Triple H - Hell in a Cell match with Shawn Michaels as special guest referee

- Team Johnny (David Otunga, Dolph Ziggler, Drew McIntyre, Jack Swagger, Mark Henry, and The Miz) def. Team Teddy (Booker T, Kofi Kingston, The Great Khali, R-Truth, Santino Marella, and Zack Ryder) - 12-man tag team match to determine the General Manager for Raw and SmackDown

- CM Punk (c) def. Chris Jericho (via submission) - WWE Championship

- The Rock def. John Cena

Rating: B

Thanks for reading. Look out tomorrow when I take a look at WrestleMania 29.

7 days away until WrestleMania 35.