Wrestlemania 28

Welcome to Jabroni Jabber, I promise as time goes on I’m going to decorate things up a bit around here but for right now I want to focus on what I have to get off my chest. Now before I start I’m sure as you read this some of you will say, “Who the hell is this guy and why should his opinion matter?” Well to be honest maybe it shouldn’t. Who cares about my opinion right? But just to be on the safe side I’ll tell you that I grew up watching WWF wrestling as a kid back in the 80’s. (GASP he said WWF not WWE) Every Sunday morning I would start the tape in the VCR that had recorded the previous nights “Saturday Night’s Main Event” and I would watch my hero’s; Jake Roberts, Ricky Steamboat, Randy Savage and yes Hulk Hogan. Eventually I grew out of wrestling only to rediscover my love for it in the early 90’s while I was in high school which eventually led to me becoming a professional wrestler when I was in my early 20’s. I’m in my mid-30’s now, retired from the ring as a husband and father but I still love to watch wrestling. Not just because I know “the business”, but because I’m still a fan and I still believe in hero’s.


Now, last night was April first and the long awaited Wrestlemania 28 from beautiful Miami, FL. Right out of the gate I was pissed off. I grew up worshipping the WWF tag team division and idolized guys like the Hart Foundation, The British Bulldogs, Demolition, The Legion of Doom, you know ….. tag teams, REAL ones. In the current incarnation of the WWE those days are dead. The current tag team champions, Primo and Epico (Who? Who the hell are these guys and why should I care?), defended their titles successfully against 2 other teams in a 3 way dance, but the match wasn’t even on the pay-per-view. It was streamed over the internet via the WWE’s website before the show even went on the air. It’s a disgrace to those storied and coveted title belts.


Next, Wrestlemania goes on the air and to kick things off is a World title match between Daniel Bryan and Sheamus. Now I was hoping for this to be one of those famous “show stealer” matches that people end up talking about for years. Well if they do it’ll be a short conversation. The bell rang, Bryan got kicked in the face and pinned. Sheamus became the new champion in 18 seconds officially.


Next up was Kane and Randy Orton. I’ll be honest I didn’t pay attention much in this match because the interest just wasn’t there. These two guys just shouldn’t be booked together, they work nothing like each other in the ring and it’s just boring. Is anyone else sick of seeing the same old act from Randy Orton? You know where he hits a power slam off the ropes, he then “goes to that place” where he pounds on the mat with his forearms a few times to warn his opponent about whats coming next. And then he goes for the RKO which his opponent blocks. Yawn, get a new act junior. Oh yeah by the way, Kane won the match with a chokeslam off the top rope.


Then we came to the Intercontinental Title match between the champion, Cody Rhodes, and the challenger The Big Show. For weeks before this match Cody made fun of Show revealing that he’s pretty much never won a match at Wrestlemania. In fact out of the 9 Wrestlemanias Show has been in, he’s only won 3 times and he wasn’t the guy to get the pinfall in those wins. This match went as it should have. Cody scoring a few successful offessive moves to make it interesting, but in the end it was a David and Goliath match where Goliath coldcocks David and leaves with his Intercontinental championship.


Next was where Kelly Kelly and Maria Menounos defeated Beth Phoenix and Eve Torres. That’s all the attention I’m giving to that match because the Divas are a disgrace to pro wrestling and just a joke in general.


Now we come to the first of our 3 main events. Triple H versus the Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match, with special referee Shawn Michaels. Shawn didn’t need to be there at all, this match was big enough without the retired legend. He and his gray facial hair could have watched from home and tweeted from the comfort of his couch which he is fond of doing these days. Anyway this match was kind of a let-down but still entertaining as hell. There were several moments where I cringed at what these two guys were putting themselves through, Triple H shed the blood and Taker had the welts on his back to prove it, (those chair shots were brutal). In the end Triple H just could not get Taker to stay down and Taker finished him off with a tombstone piledriver to extend the epic winstreak to 20-0. Will it truly be the end of an era as it was billed? Was this the Undertakers last match? I guess we won’t know until he mysteriously appears some night on RAW in 6 months or so like he’s been doing the last few years.


Then we had the big 12 man tag team match to determine who was going to be the general manager of Smackdown and RAW. John Laurinaitis, or Teddy Long. Team Johnny got the win here because quite frankly his team had all the talent. Team Teddy was basically mid-carders and one has-been.


Next was the WWE title match between the champion CM Punk and his new nemesis Chris Jericho. I haven’t been impressed with the lead in to this match. Jericho is out making it personal and “revealing” things about Punk’s family. Jericho then steals Punk’s schtick by wearing almost the same ring attire and also calling himself the “best in the world”. All in all the match itself wasn’t bad, I really enjoyed that they utilized traditional wrestling holds and made it an actual “wrestling match”. Which ended in a submission when CM Punk locked Jericho into his anaconda vise to retain the title.


Finally we come to the big match, the one that has been building for the past two years. John Cena versus The Rock. Both superstars had huge entrances. The Rocks was done by Flo Rida and Cena had who I thought was Eminem at first but then I realized that Eminem has more meat on his bones. And talent.
This was your typical back and forth match that could have happened at any time in 1999 when The Rock was relevant. But it ended when Cena got cocky and went to copy the Rock’s signature move “The People’s Elbow”, and Rocky jumped up and hit Cena with his finisher, “Rock Bottom.” Which I might add, Cena had already kicked out of 2 or 3 Rock Bottom’s previously in the match but whatever. Anyway, The Rock wins and his hometown Miami fans didn’t riot.


Overall it was a decent Wrestlemania, not outstanding by any means but I also didn’t feel cheated. I'm still not a fan out outdoor venues because the sound goes straight up, most times you can't tell if the audience is interested or even there. But that's not going to stop me from getting tickets to next years show at Met Life stadium in NY/NJ! I'll finally be able to say those words I've waited the vast majority of my life to say. "I'm going to Wrestlemania!"