Exactly one week away from night 1 of WrestleMania 36’s 2-night mega-event and my WrestleMania Rewind series rolls on, this time we’ll be diving into WrestleMania 28.

If you’re new to this series and want to catch-up with previous reviews, click the ones that you’d like to checkout!

WrestleMania 20 Review

WrestleMania 21 Review

WrestleMania 22 Review

WrestleMania 23 Review

WrestleMania 24 Review

WrestleMania 25 Review

WrestleMania 26 Review

WrestleMania 27 Review

Now, let’s get into WrestleMania 28…

Location – Sun Life Stadium, Miami, Florida

Date – April 1st, 2012

Attendance – 78,363

  • Triple-Threat Tag-Team Match, WWE Tag-Team Championships – Primo and Epico (C) defeat Justin Gabriel/Tyson Kidd and The Usos

Headline – For the first time in awhile, the pre-show was actually used to showcase a solid match. This time, Primo and Epico would retain the tag titles.

Rating – 2.5 out of 5

  • World Heavyweight Championship – Sheamus defeats Daniel Bryan (C) (with AJ Lee)

Headline – After the bell rang, Daniel Bryan asked Sheamus to wait a second and Bryan asked AJ for a good luck kiss and when Bryan turned back around, Sheamus drilled him with a “Brogue Kick” and got the 3-count to become the new champion in 18 seconds.

Rating – 1 out of 5

  • Singles Match – Kane defeats Randy Orton

Headline – The pair exchanged some back and forth for a few minutes and Kane would get the win after Orton attempted an RKO from the top rope but Kane countered it with a choke-slam from the top rope and got the pin-fall victory.

Rating – 2 out of 5

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4p8y57
  • Intercontinental Championship – Big Show defeats Cody Rhodes (C)

Headline – This match was basically Cody running around the ring and outside area for a bit until Big Show caught him and knocked him out cold with the WMD punch to snag his first Intercontinental Championship.

Rating – 1 out of 5

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x27mmjb
  • Women’s Tag-Team Match – Kelly Kelly and Maria Menounos defeat Beth Phoenix and Eve Torres

Headline – This was nothing but a time filler and a way of WWE getting a celebrity a match at WrestleMania which has seemingly become and annual thing at that point.

Rating – 0.5 out of 5

  • Hell in a Cell Match (Shawn Michaels as Special Guest Referee) – The Undertaker defeats Triple H

Headline – This match was billed “End of an era”. We got some excellent storytelling throughout this entire match by all 3 men. We had steel steps and a sledgehammer all involved at some point by both men. Taker and HHH would exchange several finishers and close pin-falls and Shawn Michaels (who had his career ended by The Undertaker at WrestleMania 26, 2 years prior) planted Taker with a Sweet Chin Music kick to the face which he would kick out of the ensuing pin attempt by HHH. Taker would improve his WrestleMania undefeated streak to 20-0 after hitting a 3rd Tombstone Pile-driver on HHH. After the match, all 3 men embraced on the stage to a huge ovation from the fans in attendance.

Rating – 4.5 out of 5

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x18u2o2
  • 12-Man Tag-Team Match – Team Laurinaitis (Dolph Ziggler, Drew McIntyre, The Miz, Jack Swagger, Mark Henry and David Otunga) defeats Team Teddy (Booker T, Kofi Kingston, Zack Ryder, R-Truth, Santino Marrella and The Great Khali)

Headline – This match was the definition of mediocre and would end once Ryder’s girlfriend, Eve Torres (who joined Team Teddy at ringside) would hit Ryder with a low-blow and The Miz would pin him for the victory for Team Laurinaitis to ensure that John Laurinaitis would gain full-control of Monday Night RAW.

Rating – 2 out of 5

https://youtu.be/mOs1KlzYQls
  • WWE Championship – CM Punk (C) defeats Chris Jericho

Headline – This was an absolutely terrific match and I won’t bore you with many details, just watch the excellence between 2 of the very best, below. Punk would retain after a series of several countered submission attempts by both men and Jericho would tap-out to Punk’s Anaconda Vice.

Rating – 4 out of 5

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6z3ntr
  • Singles Match – The Rock defeats John Cena

Headline – The match dubbed “Once In a Lifetime”, ended up being twice in a lifetime as the pair would have a rematch the very next year at WrestleMania 29 but it was a very good match between 2 of the biggest stars in Professional Wrestling history at would end when Cena went for Rock’s signature “People’s Elbow” and Rock would counter with the Rock Bottom to get the 3-count and the win in his hometown of Miami, Florida.

Rating – 3.5 out of 5

WrestleMania 28 Rating – 3 out of 5

Summary – A very solid WrestleMania but nothing to write home about and was pretty much carrier by Undertaker vs HHH, Punk vs Jericho and Rock vs Cena, but didn’t have many absolute duds outside of the women’s tag-team match and it’s a bit upsetting we didn’t get a full Sheamus vs Daniel Bryan match, because it would’ve been terrific.

Thanks for reading! Follow me on my new Twitter (@CJ_PSE) for tomorrow’s (March 29th) installment of WrestleMania 29 where we got the rematch between The Rock and John Cena, this time with the WWE Championship on the line!

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