WWE Wrestlemania XXVIII - April 1st 2012

[Hammy]

The Rock vs. John Cena

Triple H vs. The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match with Shawn Michaels as Special Guest Referee

CM Punk (c) vs. Chris Jericho for the WWE Championship

Daniel Bryan (c) vs. Sheamus for the World Heavyweight Championship

Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Big Show for the WWE Intercontinental Championship

Randy Orton vs. Kane

Team Teddy (Santino Marella (captain), R-Truth, Kofi Kingston, Zack Ryder, The Great Khali, and Booker T) (with Hornswoggle) vs. Team Johnny (David Otunga (captain), Mark Henry, Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, The Miz, and Drew McIntyre) (with Vickie Guerrero) in a 12-Man Tag Team match to determine General Manager of both the Raw and SmackDown brands.

Kelly Kelly and Maria Menounos vs. Beth Phoenix and Eve Torres

Pre-show Epico and Primo (c) vs. Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd vs. The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) in a Triple Threat Tag Team match for the WWE Tag Team Championship

[AtariLegend]

Matches I want (Not what I think will happen);

The Rock vs. John Cena
Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar
Triple H vs. C.M. Punk
Daniel Bryan vs. Chris Jericho

[Hammy]

I know, I know....its a LONG time off, but I thought this was a pretty interesting subject now, with all the planning that seems to be going into it.

Now in recent years, one of the biggest criticisms of WWE has been the Wrestlemania planning.  Most matches on the cards have be between guys who at the very earliest started feuding at January's Royal Rumble, and more often than not, started feuding round about Elimination Chamber time.

Now old school fans remember the times when the seeds were sown for feuds as far back as the previous Summerslam, heck as far back as the previous Wrestlemania.  Look at Hogan vs. Savage.  Hogan aided Savage in winning the title at Wrestlemania IV and from then they spent the next few months teaming as The Mega Powers until tensions got to much, due to Savage's paranoia over Hogan and Elizabeth.  The whole story was a year long thing.

Now I understand the argument today is with so much tv and ppv it is impossible to stretch it out so far, it generally leads to guys just wrestling each other way too much (Hello Orton and Christian).  But at the moment, look at what we have.

After 'Mania The Rock and John Cena agreed to face each other.  Now they'd already been building up quite the feud, the seeds have been sown, and although not on tv, as evidenced by The Rock's video he posted last week, things will continue, and hopefully he'll get on tv soon, so we can have a long build.  Rock's failure to be a regular character is the only thing that helps this stretch for a year.

Triple H vs CM Punk.  I know, nothing has been announced, but I'm guessing this could well be the long term build, especially after the Comic-Con thing.  I look at Triple H's new character/role leading to him being a "Vince McMahon" and CM Punk is the "Steve Austin".  Look at it, Punk is refusing to wrestle for WWE's fans, he has turned his back on the "WWE Universe" yet he is being treated like the ultimate babyface at the moment.  I say Triple H gets him to resign (after giving in to his demands - maybe giving Colt Cabana and a few others jobs) and then if they have the sense they continue the feud with them to Wrestlemania.

Daniel Bryan.  On Smackdown he said he'd cash in his MITB case at Wrestlemania.  Hopefully WWE stick to this, and spend the year building him up to Main Event level.

So at this point in theory, we already have Punk vs Triple H, Rock vs Cena and Daniel Bryan's rise to the top to look forward to.

Thoughts?

[D]

http://espn.go.com/espn/thelife/videogames/blog/_/name/thegamer/id/7088494/brock-lesnar-talks-wwe-12-undertaker-possible-return-professional-wrestling?readmore=fullstory



Stone Cold just tweeted this:

So @DCBROCKLESNAR was talking trash about me...very interesting. Gonna finish my beverage and mull this one over...catch y'all tomorrow.



Everyone knows they are REALLY good friends.... Hmmmmmmm

Screw Rock/Cena, I wanna see THIS!

[AtariLegend]

You'll get Punk/Austin and you'll like it .

Would be shocking if Dana White lets Lesnar wrestle any time soon, till his UFC contract is up or he loses enough fights.

If Taker is still around say Wrestlemaina XXX in 3 years, Taker/Lesnar is way more likely. Would have loved Austin/Lesnar though, just not going happen.

*Presumably*

[Hammy]

WWE announced Friday evening that the WWE Tag Team Championship will be on the line when champions Epico and Primo defend the straps against both The Usos and the new tandem of Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd in a WWE Tag Team Championship Triple Threat Match prior to Sunday's WrestleMania XXVIII pay-per-view broadcast. The match will stream live on WWE.com and YouTube at 6:30 ET/3:30 PT.

Gabriel and Kidd joined forces following a hard-fought battle on this week's episode of WWE Superstars. Kidd approached Gabriel in the locker room about forming a partnership, stating, "We can go out there and we can tear the house down every single night; we're two of the most under-utilized Superstars here in WWE. But that just be getting around spinning our tails. So I was thinking, how about you and I form a tag team and we go after those tag team titles?"

WWE.com has published an article previewing the match. Rosa Mendes will accompany Epico and Primo for the bout.

[BlowUpYourVideo]

Have to say, I'm really looking forward to this show. Think it has the potential to be one of the best latter-day Wrestlemanias. Could do without Cena and Rock being played live to the ring (why dammit?!) but other than that, I'm feeling quite optimistic about this one. Cena shall turn heel tonight, I foresee it! Or maybe tomorrow night...

[Hammy]

Tonight at WrestleMania XXVIII in Sun Life Stadium, WWE Champion CM Punk will defend the WWE Championship against Chris Jericho. Former WWE Superstar Ultimate Warrior believes The Straight Edge Superstar will own tonight's show.

He tweeted Sunday afternoon, "WM 28...time for WWE Superstars of today to shine. Feel THEIR power. All of them warriors for today. Watch @CMPunk OWN it. Always Believe, W."

Warrior thinks highly of Punk as he has praised his character and efforts several times on the microblogging website. By the same token, the WWE Superstar frequently acknowledges that he is a fan of Warrior. He tweeted a photo last week of a WWE title belt Warrior had autographed.

Today also marks as the twenty-two year anniversary of Warrior dethroning Hulk Hogan as WWF Champion at WrestleMania VI. He addressed the event after a Twitter user said he couldn't believe it's been exactly twenty-two years since that momentous day.

Warrior wrote, "Believe it. Time stops for no one. Heroes use it wisely."

[BlowUpYourVideo]

Holy ****, the Warrior complimented someone?

[Hammy]

Holy ****, the Warrior complimented someone?

I know he turned it down before, but I'd mark for a HoF induction someday.

[D]

What a bullshit Sheamus/Bryan match  World Title match deserves better. GTFO

[D]

Overall Excellent Wrestlemania

One of my fave matches of the night was big show vs Cody. I thought they really delivered an entertaining solid match.

Match of the night/year once again though was Undertaker vs HHH.. My Goodness how **** great was this?


Jericho/Punk really suffered having to follow this. I may watch it again tomorrow just to give it the proper respect cause after HIAC.. i was spent.



top matches:
1.HHH vs Undertaker with HBK as ref
2. Big Show vs Cody
3.Rock vs Cena *Kinda weird match.. seems they did a lot of stalling/rest spots in the match
4.Jericho/Punk  just didn't live up... fell flat imo
5.Orton/Kane

[Yankee1012]

Great show. First hour wasnt that good. Best match out of that part was Orton vs Kane.

Show vs Rhodes was ok, but nothing more.


Big 3 matches delivered. Hell in a Cell had a great story and it was just so fun to watch. I did feel it was missing that huge kickout moment. I found myself not having any doubt that Taker would lose this year.

Punk vs Jericho was great. Loved how Jericho tried to play mind games with Punk in the match. Good story and the last 6 minutes ish was awesome. Really love this match

Cena vs Rock was a bit better than I thought it would be. Crowd was amazing. Match started slow, but it picked up and got better as the match went on. Really was into it and I was at the edge of my seat the last like 10 minutes ish. The ending surprised me because I thought Cena was winning from day 1.

[Sober_Times]

I liked wrestlemania overall. The first hour did suck. show/rhodes was nothing special. I do admit, as explained below, i was very upset about the bryan/sheamus match so that could of clouded my judgement.

I loved hhh/taker. Once again a match involving shawn michaels brings the house down. 

Loved Jericho/Punk. Just a great match. The begining with jericho playing mind games was great. I found myself rooting for Jericho after that. I kind of forgot how good of a in match heel he can be. His yelling and slapping is just awesome.

I also liked the rock/cena match. So glad the rock won. God, i hate cena. I didn't want to watch that guy celebrate anything. it was funny to see him go for the peoples elbow and lose. Once i saw him doing it i knew it was over and was very very happy. 

Hated the huge tag match, but thats probably because it was the first match after hhh/taker. I just couldn't get into it. But as one of the only fans of the miz, i was glad he got the win so that loser storyline can come to an end.

Its really sad that Bryan and Sheamus get jobbed out of another wrestlemania match. Last year their match was moved to pre-show. And this year its cut to 20 seconds to save time for Santino's skit, Funkasaurus, and 2 need-less band performances. Really wwe? really? Just sucks cuz i really think those 2 could have put on a good match. Kane/orton, big show/rhodes, divas tag match all could of been better by lasting 20 seconds. this really pissed me off, big time. I'm glad the hhh/taker match was semi early and was really good, otherwise i may have stayed mad longer and it could ruined the show for me. its just, WHAT THE ****?! I'm not even that huge of a bryan and sheamus fan but still, its not the ecw championship you ruined, its world heavyweight title and it deserves an actual match. Dumbfuck motherfuckers  .

[D]

They need to **** get rid of a 2nd world title once and for a all. its dumb anyway to have 2 champions.