The end of an era? Reaction and a review of Wrestlemania 28.
Tip of the cap to Lillian Garcia who absolutely crushed America the Beautiful.
78 degrees and sunny (not the diva, but if she shows up, that's cool.) in Miami.
I've felt for a while that this has the potential to be a Top 3 All-Time Wrestlemania. Did it deliver?
Sheamus vs Daniel Bryan
The crowd is fired up for the Sheamus/Bryan match. Some funny pro-Bryan signs declaring "YES"in the crowd. Also, many in the crowd chant "Yes!" as well. Little did they know the real comedy was seconds away. Eighteen seconds, to be precise. After the bell rings, D-Bry waves over A.J. for their traditional "9th graders in a school" like kiss. But as D-Bry turns around from his smooch, he kisses the bottom of Sheamus's boot and the Celtic Warrior gets the fall :18 into the match, meaning the Celtics beat Miami and a Celtic won in Miami on the same day.
I thought it was a fantastic way to open.
I'm a big believer in the idea that a TV production needs to open with a home run of sorts. This worked for me.
If you like vignettes, this is the Wrestlemania for you.
Kane vs Randy Orton
The excitement meter was at about a 4 out of 10 for this one. Injury to Wade Barrett robbed us of what could have been a really good match and gave us this. I will say, it ended up being better than I expected.
The match featured the standard back and forth and six 2-counts on Orton.
The last few minutes of the match were pretty good as there was a nice array of counters.
Orton pulled off a cool reversal of sorts on a sidewalk slam attempt and turned it into a backbreaker across his back. Orton soon nailed the DDT and went to his special place, but Kane countered and delivered a boot to the head. Not to be outdone, Orton nailed Kane with a drop kick as Kane came off the top rope.
Orton had Kane set up for his running Charlie Brown kick to the head, but Kane played Lucy, if Lucy had ever stood up, grabbed Charlie Brown by the throat and choke slammed him.
A pretty good conclusion as Kane finished the Viper with a choke slam off the second rope.
It was our first sign of the night of something we already knew, old guys like South Florida.
Rhodes vs Big Show
My interest in this match was seeing what possible way they could embarrass the Big Show this year.
It's been a fun running gag. Why not run it a little longer?
Apparently that wasn't the plan. Not even an "embarrassing" moment of sorts in the match.
Big Show got in some big slaps that made Rhodes's chest look like he fell asleep on the beach earlier in the day. Then Show showed Rhodes his butt, up close and personal.
Rhodes nailed one Disaster Kick, but (not butt) Show speared him on the next one and set up the WMD. When he nailed Rhodes with it, it became the hardest hit in Miami's history not involving Nick Buoniconti, Zack Thomas or Michi Nogami-Marshall.
Big Show is your new Intercontinental champ.
Divas match.
Props to Kelly Kelly for executing two pretty cool moves.
When the match ends, Michael Cole goes Jim Nantz on us, "For Maria and Kelly Kelly this was an 'Extra' special victory tonight!"
Any chance there will be an end of the Michael Cole Era event at WM 29?
They announce a crowd of 78,363, a new SunLifeJoeRobbieProPlayerParkProPlayerStadium
DolphinStadiumDolphinsStadiumLandSharkStadium record.
It also equals the Marlins 2011 season attendance.
Speaking of End of an Era. It's time for Hell in a Cell.
Between HBK, HHH and 'Taker, we are treated to three of the greatest entrances in WWE history, topped by The Undertaker's, which is #1 in my book.
We are also treated to the presence of Jim Ross calling the match with Lawler and Cole.
When 'Taker gets to the ring, he finally removes his hood and allows me to fire off the tweet I've been sitting on for a month, "Good God, it's the UnderShaver!"
'Taker has given himself some kind of buzz cut, mohawk combo thing. It's awesome.
"Taker was taking it to HHH early on, as Shawn Michael's worked on his Emmy reel, reeling in horror with every devastating shot absorbed by The Game.
'Taker turned back the clock by walking on the top rope and dropping the hammer (not a sledgehammer...yet) as HBK cringes.
Then the Deadman from Death Valley delivered a huge leg drop to HHH, whose head was dangling off the edge of the apron. J.R. declares it a "loathsome leg drop" and pays homage to Gorilla Monsoon by saying "Imagine the impact."
Around this time business picked up as the match went from entertaining to epic.
Undertaker countered a pedigree attempt off of part of the stairs (which had been tossed into the ring) and back body dropped HHH into the center of the ring. But moments later HHH reversed 'Taker into a spine buster on the stairs. When Undertaker quickly threw the Hell's Gate on HHH, The Game showed amazing strength by standing up and slamming 'Taker to the mat.
Then we moved to the portion of the match where it could be said Undertaker was having a bad chair day. HHH delivered thirteen chair shots before HBK grabbed the chair and yelled at HHH to cover him. HHH yelled back "you end it or I will!"
Then we got our Apollo/Drago moment as cameras caught the soon-to-be Dead Man telling Shawn, "Don't stop it, Shawn." All we needed was Mrs. Taker yelling, "Throw the damn towel!"
At this point we are up to nineteen chair shots (symmetry?) before HHH goes for the sledgehammer.
After drilling Undertaker in the head with the hammer, HHH again begs HBK to end it, but he can't bring himself to do it. Then a loopy 'Taker grabs HBK and puts the Hell's Gate on him, prompting HHH to deliver another sledgehammer to 'Taker.
What followed was a repeat of last year with 'Taker throwing the Gate on HHH one more time as HHH grabs for the sledgehammer, but this time there was no ref to end it. There were ensuing kick outs from choke slams, pedigrees and tombstones. The highlight coming when HBK nailed 'Taker with Sweet Chin Music, which catapulted Undertaker into another pedigree as Cole screamed "The streak's over! The Streak's over!" But when 'Taker escaped again, J.R. bellowed "The streak lives!! The streak lives!!"
We were even treated to an exchange of blows with the crowd ooohing and aaaahing with every shot.
As the match slugged it's way toward the 30 minute mark, Undertaker delivered ten chair shots of his own to HHH.
With nothing left in the tank, HHH gave 'Taker one last DX chop and made a feeble attempt to deliver a hammer shot. The 'Taker took the hammer, delivered a brutal shot to HHH and delivered one last tombstone as HBK turned his back, unable to watch the end of the era he helped create.
Undertaker made it to 20-0. HHH helped make it happen by delivering an epic 0-2 in episodes 19 and 20 (0-3 overall with his loss in 17 too.)
Fittingly, the three men who are known for their aforementioned entrances, delivered a stirring exit.
They walked up the ramp together, carrying their battered bodies and years of bruising punishment with them, not quite literally into the sunset, but close enough. They stopped to soak in the ovation and shared a three-way embrace. It reminded me of the old pictures of Willie, Micky and the Duke standing together in center field at an Old Timers game.
There was no crashing through the cage, or climbing to the top of it and falling off, so critics can say it wasn't much of a Hell in a Cell match. What it was, was pure Hell.
The effort put forth by both wrestlers was befitting men half their age.
These were two men who were flag bearers of an era that took the torch from the halcyon Hulkamaniac days and literally brought a new attitude to pro wrestling. They are true professionals who left every last ounce they had to give in the ring and they stole the show.
My buddy Sean Grande appropriately tweeted, "Playing big on the big stage is greatness. Greatness, on the greatest stage, is immortality. HHH, Taker, HBK, J.R...they just did it again."
Stone Cold summed it up nicely when he tweeted after the match, "
Well that was damn sure worth $65 bucks. Great F'n story. Brutality personified. HBK tremendous addition to drama. Hats off to Taker/HHH."
Team Johnny vs Team Teddy
This was the "everyone catch your breath" match of the night.
Johnny came to the ring looking like he invaded Rick Pitino's closet.
The match featured the rarely seen use of a little person as a diversion, an impressive triple flip out of the ring by Kofi, Truth and Ryder, and Eve delivering a kick to Ryder's forbidden turnbuckle, buckling Zach to his knees, proving that even friends with benefits find ways to screw up relationships.
Then we were treated to a cutaway of A-Rod and Torrie Wilson in the crowd. Apparently Torrie didn't get the "stuff popcorn in Alex's face during the cutaway at the big event" memo.
Jericho vs Punk
Before the match, Laurinitis adds a stipulation that if Punk gets dq'd, he will lose the belt.
As Jericho's entrance begins I can't help but think "You know, on South Beach, Jericho's jacket is actually understated."
When the match starts we get a heavy dose of the "Punk on the brink of disqualification" card.
This bothered me as I felt it took away from what should have been a great wrestling match and turned it into something else. Eventually the match took it's proper course, although it did seem like the crowd was pretty subdued throughout.
There were two scary moments for Punk, which I thought could have caused real injury. One came when Jericho suplexed Punk off the apron and onto the mats below the ring, with Punk's back (not his feet) striking the floor first. The second came when Jericho yanked Punk backwards off the rope and Punk's head whiplashed hard into the mat.
The rest of the match featured some cool counters to their staple moves, highlighted by Jericho taking Punk's attempted hurricanrana off the ropes and turning it into the Walls of Jericho.
As a nod to Steamboat and Savage, we even had back-to-back attempts at a small package.
In the end Punk forced Jericho to tap out of the anaconda vice and retained his belt.
I had gone into the night with the highest hopes for this match. It could have been on par with some of the best 'Mania has offered through the years. It ended up being a B+ match. The hope is that this is just the tip of the iceberg in a series of great matches yet to come.
Then it happened. Brodus Clay came out to his music and announced that he was actually going to call his mama. This lead to a bit where Mama Clay and her "bridge club" friends all come out and danced the Funkasaurus dance. While I agree that the song and dance are the best part of what Clay has to offer so far, I think we just jumped the Sharkasaurus.
Cena vs Rock
A few leftovers from The Walking Dead show up to sing a rap song and tell the world John Cena is an underdog. Then Cena comes out in a Heineken t-shirt that he's converted into a Cena shirt. Boos rain down from the crowd that feels about 80/20 pro Rock.
Flo Rida comes out shirtless, because it's hot and all, and sings his song for about 6 minutes, or roughly 23 times longer than the Sheamus match.
The crowd is all kinds of fired up.
The pace of the match was pretty deliberate, but it worked. As each guy made their assaults on the other, they let the moment breath. There were flurries followed by dramatic pauses. Like the HHH/Undertaker match, you could sense this match building toward a crescendo. Early on Rock was selling the pain he was receiving and Cena was selling a state of shock that the Rock was still able to bring the goods.
Each man delivered his signature move. Each man escaped said moves. By my count, Cena kicked out of four 2-counts, Rock did it eight times.
Cena threw a bear hug (breath catcher) on Rock that would have made Andre the Giant proud. The Rock pulled a Hulkster by having his arm dropped twice while in the clutches of the STF, but held his arm up on the 3rd drop, setting up a big rally.
I went into the match having no idea who was going to win, and there were more than a few times when I thought it might end. (admittedly, knowing the PPV would be over around 11pm ET ruined some of that.)
Finally, Cena was set for the kill and decided to steal Rock's finish, but Rock jumped up and caught Cena coming off the ropes and gave him the Rock Bottom for the W. I didn't think it was epic, but it certainly was very entertaining. The Rock proved that he could still deliver. Cena probably didn't prove anything but reminded us that he can carry whatever ball the WWE asks him to and put on a heck of a show.
It was a little surprising that The Rock won the match, in that similar matches in the past have resulted in losses for the star whose career is closing. But with the event in Miami, the brass did for Rock exactly what they did for Undertaker, they gave him his one (final) shining moment. Rock stood on the second rope, struck his iconic pose and breathed it all in. It was a better script than most of his films have produced.
Time will tell where Wrestlemania 28 ranks. History will say that The Undertaker, HHH and The Rock, three men in their forties, left us with indelible images and final memories of an era now gone.
Perhaps the biggest take away from Wrestlemania 28 will be the opportunity it provided the fans to express gratitude for the Attitude Era.
