Wrestlemania 28

The build is here.

Wrestlemania 28 – From Miami

(Dark: The Shield d. Kings of Wrestling)

-Coming out of this show, Ambrose/Black begin to be referred to as the Shield, they’ll debut the X arm pose in just a minute.  Black pins Hero.

Joey/JR/Heyman is your announce

We open on Foley in the ring for the traditional Commissioner’s greeting – he announces that 29 is going to be in New Jersey and references past Commissioners looking to imprint the upcoming year in some way that reflected on who they are.  Foley says to that end, this is going to be The Year of Living Violently in the WWF.  Wrestling is the ultimate combat sport and the WWF will lead the way in demonstrating why as we drive to 29 – when the main event will be a singles match for the WWF Championship that will feature the hardest hitting action that sports has to offer. 

Foley exits – and we’re underway.

1.       Colons d. Henry/Santino

2.        Kidd/Gabriel (w/Cole) d. Usos

The two opening tag matches make up a seamless first segment.  Right after the opening match entrances, the soon to be named Shield comes to ringside.  After some quick spots Henry hits some type of monster power maneuver, his momentum slides him out of the ring, he beats his chest and then is whipped to the ground by the Shield.  They make the arm sign (tomorrow will be the new gear and the new name) and the Kings sprint down to the ring.  Instead of attacking the Shield, they yank Epico from the apron, take him out with a double team, and then begin jawing at the Shield.  Relatively quickly, Primo gets the fall on Santino and then the two outside teams begin to brawl.

Cole runs down the ramp, waving in Kidd/Gabriel to aid their Underground comrades – that’s going to bring the Usos to the ring – that’s going to cause the non wrestling teams to fight their way back up the ramp and we’re underway with the next match.

Cole stays at ringside to manage; he begins to distract the official in a way that allows a doubleteam – that brings the third Uso, Roman Reigns Uso, to the ramp – but before he can make his way to the ring he’s attacked from behind by two men from developmental, Ryback and Langston (Underground becoming a main show stable doesn’t end developmental, WWFU.com continues to stream, and for the past year a new crew, now trained by Finlay and Rotundo, has taken that spot).  They take him down, fairly quickly we get a finish, Kidd pinning one of the Usos (let’s say the one who got real world pulled over for DUI).  Langston and Ryback are going to hit some type of monster double team maneuver on Reigns – but from the top of the set piece (as high as it can be without killing him) comes crashing down the newest member of GDI – Pac.

(Pac’s gonna wear a mask; it’s hard to say if/when he’s ever going to be used, but since he doesn’t have to talk for awhile, I want the ability to take his mask at some point.)

And that’s the first segment. 

The second segment is the Clique – let’s say it starts with a clip package and some sound they were able to get from the guys at WWF100.  Typical too cool for school Clique stuff.   

3. The Miz d. McIntyre (w/Regal)

4. Legends: HHH-M d. Undertaker

So, Miz is still a babyface, and as you know from the real world, that’s not a great idea.

One of the interesting interactions is how the real world informs this one; I know Bryan Danielson is the best wrestler in North America because I saw him be that guy for years, it doesn’t matter to me what they do with him in the real world – he’s locked in.  Miz on the other hand is different, I don’t know if he can be a capable babyface – I knew he wasn’t a believable tough heel, which is why he remained a chickenshit heel in this world – but now, the real world evidence is that he is just fundamentally not capable of doing anything but that.  That’s okay, even from where we stand now – Miz has to fight from underneath, and is willing to take shortcuts to escape danger.  He’s a chickenshit face which is a reasonable extension of the Clique brand. 

And that’s how he goes over here, McIntyre is all brawler, but still a little green, and even with Regal’s aid he gets outsmarted here, Miz grabs the trunks on the fall but it goes unseen by the official and he’s given the fall.

As Miz exits – he’s still on the ramp for Hunter’s entrance.  They go nose to nose – but Miz then offers the Clique handsign which Hunter accepts. 

There’s always a McMahon around somewhere at Mania – this year it’s the Princess, who is identified as both being Hunter’s wife and a member of upper management.  She’s in the front row and reacting to the Legend’s Match.  It doesn’t get the time, obviously, that the real world analogue did – but they can do the abbreviated version of that match, this time with HHH going over.

Stephanie comes to the ring – there’s a hug – and then entering the ramp is a familiar car.

Driven by Ricardo.

Ricardo, Vicki Guerrero, and Dos Caras, Jr. enter the ring.

Dos Caras says he has been on a long vacation with his now fiancée Vicki Guerrero (Vicki flashes a giant ring) and now is ready to definitively prove that he belongs to the greatest wrestling dynasty of all time.

The Miami fans may chant for the Rock, as he beat Dos Caras under that same angle – that’s would be fine.  

Dos Caras no sells it.

You see where this is going – Dos Caras says there’s only one wrestling family left to vanquish – it’s the McMahons – and he challenges Hunter to face him at Summer Slam. 

Vickie says something obnoxious to Stephanie – she says something vaguely derogatory about the Guerrero family that’s designed to get people who care about that sort of thing super hot – and now we have our first match for the next show.

The next segment steps things up a little bit.

5. Nick Nemeth (w/Kelly and Regal) d. Jack Swagger

6. ECW Title: CM Punk (w/Steamboat) d. John Cena 

The reveal “who will Kelly side with” comes when Nemeth walks down the aisle.  Swagger’s sister took the full build without deciding with whom she’d come to the ring – she takes her boyfriend (the next night on RAW Nemeth's going to dump her for taking so long to decide, and that will wrap Kelly)

The story for these two matches is told by Heyman; recall, in two of his Heyman Hustle segments he directly challenged Swagger and Punk.  He said the problem with Swagger was not enough hate – and so the story of this match is despite all that Nemeth has done to him, Swagger wants to beat his ex-partner and not annihilate him.  Nemeth looks to taunt Swagger throughout the match, there’s also Regal from the outside – and even Kelly decides to cheat on behalf of Nemeth.  That last one clearly stings Swagger – he’s always been a wrestling robot – but that type of betrayal clearly gets to him – but as Heyman points out he can’t turn his pain into hate – maybe he just doesn’t have that kind of experience or he doesn’t have it in him.  Heyman discusses that’s what’s flawed about Underground – Regal can teach you how to be a professional wrestler – but when you need to reach down for something more than that, something you don’t get from a textbook or film study or a thousand Hindu squats – something you only get from being a man who has walked a lonely mile,  that something is either there or it is not – and it’s not there with Swagger. 

And, Swagger loses.  And sits alone in the ring like a man who lost a match he could not lose.

For those of you who are new, RVD was the last champion in ECW, when WWF absorbed it, he came over with the belt (Rey did the same with the NWA belt; in fact, all the tag belts and the main secondary belts also came over with their final champions to protect the lineage – for about a year I’ve been thinking about a way to position TNA for some similar result). The belts were unified under Angle; Punk infamously threw away the WWF and NWA belts after winning them which led to a brand split – he’d later regain both of those belts and they were decommissioned.

Heyman was able to get the ECW belt put up in this match in the build (Cena’s Wrestlemania staple is a light tube match, he took over that spot from the Undertaker; the ECW brand obviously lends itself to a garbage match and Cena beat Punk at the Rumble) Heyman argued (and like the Swagger match, continues that argument here) that Punk’s problem is he isn’t enough of a prick anymore.  The guy who threw the WWF belt down even though he knew the dressing room was going to shun him forever is the guy who won 3 WWF titles.  The guy who has taken a step behind Danielson in GDI, who has graciously accepted second place in the organization he started – that’s the guy who lost to John Cena.

So that’s the story – and Heyman can use how he was proven right in the Swagger match when making the case that Punk isn’t enough of a prick to win this type of match – Heyman tells that story right up until Punk finds inside what Swagger didn’t – say pulling out some barbed wire, tying Cena’s hands and legs together, and then smashing him with light tubes until he’s left pulp in the ring and covers him for the fall.

It should be enough that JR says Punk’s gone too far – that even a Wrestlemania match isn’t worth that type of brutality – Heyman responds by standing and clapping – Punk’s handed the ECW title into one of his bloody hands which he raises high in the air – and as Heyman cheers Punk takes that ECW title and drops it to the mat with complete disdain.

Punk wipes some blood away, flicks it on the ECW belt – points at a shocked, just dumbstruck Heyman and laughs his way back up the ramp, taking Steamboat's white towel from his shoulder to wipe away the blood from his face.

And here come your title matches.

7. Tags: Young Money d. Defiance

Heyman doesn’t talk during the match, conspicuous by his silence.  When the camera cuts to the announce he just looks shellshocked  - occasionally he’ll mutter something like “that son of a bitch – that’s my belt – my belt” and after the match he just gets up and leaves the announce for the remainder of the show.

This is also a garbage match, Foley told Kingston that the rules would be relaxed if he would reunite with Killings, who is, by all appearances, a crazy man who has forgotten the last year of his life.

This doesn’t have the intensity of the previous match; not everything can be the end of the world – Kingston jumps off a ladder, Killings gets RKO’d on a table, it’s largely spots with subtle teases where we might see turns from both teams.  Orton has a history of blaming his partners for losses – and if one believed Killings was faking this amnesia that would make some sense.

But no turn comes – instead Kingston gets the highspot fall on Orton and Young Money regains the belts. 

8. IC: The Rock d. Sheamus (w/Regal) (Mick Foley - guest referee)

Take away the idea of the Rock as super hero and focus on this actual matchup – what advantage does he have over Sheamus (who is younger, tougher, and despite cosmetics, clearly in superior athletic condition)?

Experience – so that’s this match; Sheamus has the advantage for most of the match, he roughs the Rock up, Regal is useful on the outside – the Rock is outmatched – but what he has (besides the crowd) is experience, Sheamus has been IC Champ for a year but is still a young wrestler – and the Rock is not only a vet but a third generation vet – he wins this match with guile, he uses ropebreaks, he sticks a thumb in Sheamus’s eye, he hits Sheamus off the break and he wins the match by playing possum, suckering Sheamus in and rolling him up into a small package.  It is a moment of joy for the Rock – he takes the belt into the crowd – it’s his first ever singles belt at any level of wrestling and it happens years after his retirement in his hometown.

The next night on RAW the Rock hands the belt back to Foley – he says he wishes he could stay but he has commitments for the rest of 2012.

Foley asks what he’s doing next January – Rock says he has a couple of free weeks at the end of the month. 

Foley hands him back the belt and says he should keep it – and come back in January to defend his IC belt against the winner of an 8 man tournament, which will start at Summer Slam.

What we’ll eventually find out is those 8 men will be drawn based on results of the Number One Contender Battle Royal (which occurs every other year) – the winner will face the WWF Champ at Summer Slam and the last 8 men eliminated will make up the IC tournament – the winner of which to face the Rock at the Rumble. 

9. WWF: Bryan Danielson (w/Steamboat) d. Chris Jericho

The champ goes over in the best possible match they can do.

Danielson is the top guy at the top of his game; the goal here, in his first title defense as babyface world champion (at Wrestlemania no less) is to have a match of the year candidate – Danielson’s fundamental character trait, and the way he is sold, is based on match quality – watch this guy and you might see an all time great match. No matter the style.  This is showcase for what he can do.

That it’s against Jericho allowed for the bottle breaking bit in the go home RAW to raise the stakes, and also allows for some continuity with what is called the Workrate Era, the recent period dominated by Benoit/Eddy/Angle.

Those guys can’t provide any transition to, what is hopefully, a new workrate era – but what we do have is Rey (both for his work and his connection to Eddy) whose Mania unbeaten streak Danielson took last year (is that Rey’s last Mania?) and Jericho (for his work, his long title reign, and his connection to Benoit). 

So there’s a handoff element here and that requires Jericho, really for the first time, to face his wrestling mortality.  There’s never been a period, maybe never a match, where Jericho had to admit to himself that he wasn’t good enough – when he arrived, it was Austin and Foley who were on top – but Jericho could correctly reason that they wouldn’t be around for long.  He then got slotted behind the aforementioned three workrate stars – but Jericho could then reason that this was a long game, that Benoit’s and Angle’s maniacal intensity would burn out, and Eddy’s personal demons would consume him.

That left Jericho, and while his nearly two year run was ended by Edge, it wasn’t because Edge was a better wrestler – Jericho’s admittedly fragile psyche crumbled a little against Edge; he knew that – but it wasn’t about skill, and with Edge gone – maybe the skies are blue.

But the Jericho story told in this match is his inability to find anything that gives him a real advantage – he tries to go chickeshit like the Miz – countered.  He tries to find that dickishness like Punk – countered.  He tries to be the savvy veteran like the Rock – countered.  We see Jericho’s frustration, it’s as if he wants to rip off his own skin (which we’ll see manifested in the stretch after Mania where his customary suit will be shredded, he’ll still wear it – but now it’s in tatters).

When Jericho finally submits to cattle mutilation,  it’s as much because he has nothing left in his bag as it is from the pain.

Danielson and Steamboat celebrate – the rest of GDI (including Punk) make their way to the ring to join in – Wrestlemania 28 ends with the champ holding the belt aloft while the rest of GDI raise their arms in triumph.  

I'll be back in May with something.  The road starts.