wrestling

411’s Countdown to WrestleMania 28: WrestleMania 27

April 1, 2012 | Posted by Larry Csonka

INTRO
And so we come to the end of the countdown, and if you have made it this far, I thank you for reading the series of columns. Last year was a big deal as far as WrestleMania goes, not necessarily due to the card, but instead due to the return of one man, The Rock. Finally the Great One had come back to WWE as the special host of the event, but he would make his presence known once the main event rolled around. Also on the card was Triple H vs. The Undertaker. Following two failed attempts by Shawn Michaels, Triple H would be the man that tried to end the streak. Let’s get to the breakdown…

* WORLD TITLE MATCH: Edge © defeated Alberto Del Rio @11:00 via pin
* Cody Rhodes defeated Rey Mysterio @ 12:00 via pin
* Big Show, Kane, Santino & Kofi Kingston defeated The CORRE @ 2:00 via pin
* Randy Orton defeated CM Punk @ 15:00 via pin
* Michael Cole defeated Jerry Lawler @ 14:00 via DQ
* NO HOLDS BARRED: The Undertaker defeated Triple H @ 30:00 via submission
* John Morrison, Trish Stratus and Snooki defeated Dolph Ziggler and Laycool @ 4:00 via pin
* WWE TITLE MATCH: The Miz © defeated John Cena @ 16:00 via pin

TJ Hawke
BEST MATCH: HHH vs. Undertaker [****1/2] This match has been divisive amongst hardcore wrestling fans since it happened but I stand by my initial opinion that it was great. It had all the great tension and nearfalls of classic matches, along with some great storyline and character touches near the end.

WORST MATCH: John Cena vs. The Miz [**] Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler may have technically had a worse match, but when you are in the Wrestlemania main event, you have to deliver something, and these two men pretty much gave us nothing.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE SHOW: HHH Tapping Out: HHH tapping out doesn’t happen too often, and Undertaker managed to lock him in Hell’s Gate at the last second to save his streak. Beautiful pro-wrestling moment.

MVP OF THE SHOW: Undertaker: Undertaker wrestled this match reportedly even more banged up than usual, and he made sure that he left it all in the ring. If this was his last match ever, it would have been a hell of a match to go out on.

OVERALL SHOW RATING: 6/10 – This was a very disappointing Wrestlemania. HHH and Taker carried the show into not being worthless and there were some fun matches in the undercard (especially Punk and Orton). Overall though, this show will always be marred by the terrible main event, the strange Lawler/Cole deal, and the lack of awesomeness that was The Rock on this night.

Steve Cook
BEST MATCH: Undertaker vs. Triple H [****] This match sure as heck had a mixed reaction. Some people thought it was the greatest spectacle they’d ever seen, while others thought it was the most boring schlock of all time. When I first saw it at Buffalo Wild Wings while approximately three sheets to the wind, I thought this was pretty much the best match ever. With each re-watch my opinion of the match tends to drop. There are a lot of great spots and I really like the ending, but there’s also a lot of downtime where there’s nothing going on. It’s not on the UT/HBK level, but it’s still the best match on this show by a fairly wide margin. Credit should also go to Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler for their announcing here, as for possibly the only time in 2011 the announcing added something to a wrestling match.

WORST MATCH: Michael Cole vs. Jerry Lawler [½*] This wasn’t a difficult match to book. Even if you insisted on having Cole go over by DQ to continue the program, Lawler still should have beaten the crap out of him and it should have gone five minutes at the most. Instead we had to sit through fourteen minutes of “action”, many of which had Michael Cole on offense! Absolutely brutal, and the only thing keeping this from DUD status is the fact that I laughed at Cole getting some abuse.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE SHOW: My favorite part of this show was watching Cody Rhodes, somebody who I’d been building up in my columns for quite sometime, emerge on the WrestleMania stage and get a victory over Rey Mysterio, one of WWE’s top stars. They had a really nice storyline, as Rhodes was forced out of action a couple of months back when he got his face disfigured by Rey’s knee brace. He came back with a mask and a new outlook on life, and continued his evolution into one of wrestling’s most interesting characters. This was a sign that WWE saw big things in Cody, and he still seems on his way to being one of the company’s top stars for years to come.

MVP OF THE SHOW: The Rock. There’s really no other choice here, as his being on the show popped a monster buyrate for what seemed like a somewhat mediocre WrestleMania on paper. It ended up being exactly that, but Rock generated interest in the show and made it more of a big deal than it would have been otherwise. This is why WWE brings him back and puts him in main events.

OVERALL SHOW RATING: 5 – This just wasn’t up to WrestleMania standards. Outside of Undertaker vs. Triple H there weren’t any matches that you could debate as classics. Rey vs. Cody was good, Edge vs. Alberto Del Rio was a good note to end Edge’s career on and Randy Orton vs. CM Punk was a very good match, but everything else was just kind of there. The main event of John Cena vs. Miz was especially disappointing, as it was poorly booked and the performance from the wrestlers involved wasn’t up to par. Not one of WWE’s finest efforts.

Jack Bramma
BEST MATCH: Triple H vs. Undertaker [****] – I’m upgrading it a hair over my original review. This was the only match on the entire card that carried an iota of prestige that seemed worthy of Wrestlemania and it’s a testament to both guys that they were able to deliver a very good match, given the lack of enthusiasm by some for the pairing and their advancing age and regressing mobility.

WORST MATCH: Michael Cole vs. Jerry Lawler [DUD] – A true abomination. One of the worst never-ending feuds of the past 10 years. This got more time than Cody/Mysterio, Edge/ADR, and just as much as Punk/Orton and Miz/Cena. That’s sacrilege. The ONLY redeeming factor is Booker T’s exuberance at seeing Cole get beat up only to get up by Stone Cold himself.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE SHOW: Triple H tombstones Undertaker – the only “mark out” moment the entire show produced for me was when Triple H gave UT the throat slash, tombstoned him and even stole Taker’s signature, arms-crossed pin. That one moment contained so much of why I watch wrestling even to this day despite the mountains (or more aptly molehills) of disappointment from the majority of programming. It reminded me of why I’m a fan: I still want to believe. I want to believe that the Pedigree or the Tombstone beats ’em all. I want to believe that the streak is real and that Undertaker is a supernatural character that CAN’T be beaten on the grandest stage of them all. I want to believe the cerebral assassin had an ace up his sleeve for the Deadman. For one split second, they had me.

MVP OF THE SHOW: Triple H – for making me believe that he could defeat the Undertaker. I know some would say the Rock but I wasn’t thrilled with that opening promo or his run-ins on the main event.

OVERALL SHOW RATING: 6.0 – I think a year of downtime has let this show settle a bit better in my mind. Wrestlemania is not really about great wrestling. It’s about spectacle, bombast, extravagance, etc. Hogan-Andre, Hogan-Rock, HBK-Flair are hardly scientific classics and if they occurred at other shows or under other promotions with smaller crowds they wouldn’t get the same love, but that’s almost beside the point. No Triple H-Undertaker was not an all-time classic but it did have tens of thousands on fans on their edge of their seat anticipating the ending of that match. Plus, the entrances and pre-match video packages all night were some of the best the company has ever done. That may be irrelevant to a bunch of people but production value is a big plus with me. Not a great or even very good mania, but a solid entry.