WWE WrestleMania 28 Discussion Thread - April 1, 2012 from Miami, FL

[Dante Spears]

What a horrible Wrestlemania.

[Maxximus]

What he said.

[The B-Man]

Well that was pretty much what I expected bar 2 things. The length of the World Title match and The Rock Winning. I was buying this show based on 3 matches and you could tell it was those 3 matches the WWE invested in.

[Paul]

That wasnt a bad event at all. I called every match right bar the opener, not often Im that good.

[DraVen]

Very odd show in parts. I was amused that they used the first hour as fluff, rushing all of the meaningless matches and cutting the crowd noise once the Daniel Bryan chants began during other matches. Then as soon as 1am hit, the big pyro display kicked off, Jim Ross was out and Wrestlemania began, and from that point it was a good show. HHH/Taker was great, just brilliant storytelling from all involved. The 12 man was fine, and the right man/team won. Jericho/Punk was fine, although not show-stealing. The Funkasaurus segment was funny, no matter what anyone thinks. And Rock/Cena was really good for what it was. The crowd was super hot, probably the last truly hot match you'll ever see on the big stage, and the two worked well together. Cena can't do the looking into the crowd deal for sh*t, but he worked hard and I only hope there is a rematch now because otherwise Rock winning makes zero sense. He needs to get his win back, so maybe that's Summerslam then. But it was a really fun match and the crowd left happy, so no complaints.

It was the least worst Wrestlemania since WM24 which was great, so I'm satisfied.

[Da Showstoppa]

WrestleMEHnia for me. Sparked into life at the last half of HIAC - and Punk V Jericho was good, but overall a disappointing show especially given the hype.

WWE needs to decide that if they're going for four hours - that they fill it adequately, because for me there was too much non wrestling stuff. Why not cut it back to three, and have better quality matches.

[John Hancock]

Also, Daniel Brian jobbed to Sheamus?

That squash match was a little bit of of Vinne MacMagic. They managed to make one guy look look stupid, yet, at the same time, stopped the other guy from getting anything out of it, AND massively devalued a title at the same time. That's like the Inception of bad booking.

Completely unrelated; I want a shirt with Johnny Ace's face on it.

[Ciaran The King]

I'm 50/50 on this years Mania. I can't quite decide if it delivered what I personally expected.

Going in I was genuinely excited, the card looked good and it featured what should/were some very good matches. The stadium and WM set looked as good as always and the national anthem was spirited with the McMahon's showing how much they love America.

Then for the second year running the World Title match went on first, no big deal to me because the Sheamus/Bryan encounter had been lost in the shuffle weeks ago. Although I wasn't holding out much hope for Bryan I really didn't believe WWE would job him out so easily on a national/world stage. As I said when watching it, this match showed how much WWE obviously dislikes Bryan and that all his hard work since winning the title was for nothing. I nether thought Bryan would truly win but for WWE to do it in this fashion was just wrong.

What followed next was better than what I expected. As I have mentioned many times the fact that Orton was booked against Kane for WM was beyond me, after a great 2011 I believed Orton deserved a more high profile match than this. To give credit to Kane this was his best performance in a long time, along with Orton they put together a hard hitting match which was very exciting in places. Although it wasn't the finish I was expecting Orton sold it well and it was another feather in the cap of Orton.

Then it was time for the Big Show to so what everyone expected him to do This match was good in places but for me personally it wasn't a good showing for Cody, he can do better and will do better but when your paired with the Big Slow thing's can quickly deteriorate. Unless Cody took the loss to earn something bigger down the line this was just another example of WWE pushing a has-been over someone destined for future greatness.

Divas match/Fireworks/Attendance announcement/Proper start of the show.

Then what came next was one of the greatest WM matches ever. Undertaker/HBK/HHH all played their roles to perfection, once again the veterans stole the show with an emotional back and forth war between two of the very best ever. For me this was the real main event, dubbed 'End of An Era' this truly was what it said on the tin, and boy did it deliver. The importance of this match was etched on the faces of the three men involved, each knew what had to be done to establish each other as greats of the ring. Although we all knew Taker would never lose they still made it seem possible with the HKB's Sweet Chin Music and multiple viscous chair and sledgehammer shots from HHH. But as always Taker rose to the occasion time after time, the match ending segment with HHH accepting defeat was beautifully acted and Taker's acceptance that he would have to finish HHH was mesmerizing. This was a WM classic.

Johnny v Teddy was a complete letdown for me, I was expecting standouts performances from Ziggler/Miz/Drew/Kingston but due to the mess that this match was no one had time to do anything of significance.

That whole mess then brought us to Punk/Jericho. In what should have been a WM classic descended into mediocrity, from the opening bell this match was sapped of any energy and as much as I like Punk he really didn't stand out as a WWE Champion on this stage. Punk and Jericho should have been better, with what came before it and what was going to follow this match just didn't deliver. After his Rumble loss and poor EC display Jericho should have gone over here to keep this feud alive, he now look's like a mouthy brat who couldn't get it done.

Brodus/Mama's/Flo Rida/MGK - this is a wrestling show.

After another waste of time we arrived at the main event, a main event which we waited a year to see. I really don't have much to say on this encounter, it just wasn't very good. The Rock looked better than ever and performed to his standard and Cena was just Cena, all smiles and little else. There was no better time than this for Cena to complete his much needed and long awaited(I now do not believe it will ever happen) heel turn. I wasn't holding out much hope for a classic but both men did their best but it just wasn't deserving of the main event spot. The finishing segment was rushed and the Rock Bottom was sloppy. As already stated I wasn't expecting fireworks but I was genuinely surprised Rocky won, unless there is a rematch at Summerslam it doesn't make sense. Cena now looks more of an idiot than he did before and WWE made their top hated face look simple and not good enough.

As much as I moan I did enjoy the spectacle that was Wrestlemania. The crowd wasn't as hot as I thought they would be, it was really quiet at times and that always makes any event seem mediocre. What now worries me is the initial WM aftermath, what does Cena do now? Is Jericho even a threat anymore? Is Bryan's main event career over?

For the first time in a long time Raw needs to be big tonight, it needs to have meaning and purpose.

[Burakiosaurus]

I enjoyed it. I wasn't expecting fantastic undercard matches, as I've come to enjoy the spectacle and razmatazz of Wrestlemania. Heck, even Funkasaurus calling his mama put a smile on my face (and Stone Cold's tweet saying he called his mama to tell her he was very confused was excellent also).

Triple H vs Taker was best match of the night for me, followed by Punk vs Jericho, and I'm glad Johnny didn't interefere and cost Punk the title.

Rock vs Cena was a bit slow, and as Rocky said on his new dvd, if you watched it with the sound off it would be goddamn awful, but you could tell the crowd were hot and into it. I was genuinely shocked Rock run as I had convinced myself it would be another passing of the torch match, with Rock giving it to Cena. However, this was Miami bitches!

Not sure if Machine Gun Kelly (who looks like a proper hick by the way) helped Cena's cause by calling him an underdog and calling Rock the ego, but screw it, I like that song.

Also, love the fact they gave Miz the pin, they need to build him now as a believable heel. Damn, Ziggler can sell. That monkey flip sell remined me of the old school Jannetty clothesline sell

To sum, a decent Wrestlemania as I was entertained thoroughly and saw some great matches.

I just hope that greek Maria gets Glam Slammed on her face on the steel steps tonight on RAW.

[Magic]

It was a good show and a few minor adjustments for me here and there would have catapulted it to being a great show. For example I would have preferred Cody to go over, Punk/Jericho to lose all the family sh*t and just have a great match and a little less skits/promos and that would have made quite the difference to me. Was still solid though.