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.
Review of WrestleMania XXVIII
