Remembering WM 28 (no wonder Punk walked out)

[Deleted]

I was walking back from the restaurant to the house, and WM 28 randomly came to mind. I immediately remembered Cena/Rock, and Rock winning on his first 1-on-1 match since his return. Then I thought, who was the WWE champion then? It took me about 40 seconds to remember that it was CM Punk. Then I tried to remember his opponent. It took me about 2 or 3 minutes to remember it was Chris Jericho.

This kind of stuff hurts careers. I'm guessing a lot of people have already forgotten about CM Punk's only WWE title match at WrestleMania, despite Punk's relative star power, heck, people still cheer for the guy while he's not there anymore.

[Famous Rocking Chimes]

I still remember it

[gr1990]

Cena-Rock was definitely something worth doing from a business standpoint, but why they couldn't have made it a triple threat at 29 with Cena pinning Rock to end Punk's title reign, I'll never know. Well, I know why, but it's a load of crap.

Make it a three-way and you're not making a mockery of the 'Once in a Lifetime' tag, the smarky Mania crowd would have someone to cheer, Punk can't beat you with the 'I never main evented Wrestlemania' stick and is less likely to walk out on you the following year, Punk going into meltdown about losing the title without being pinned would have been awesome, and when Rock mangles his guts a few minutes in then Cena and Punk could carry the match and it wouldn't have ended up the damp squib that it did.

[BRV]

This is no dig at CM Punk, but nothing was ever going to main event WrestleMania XXVIII over The Rock's first one-on-one match in a decade.

Never mind the fact that John Cena vs. The Rock had been hyped for a full year. You don't invest that sort of time building and hyping the event for it to be the penultimate match.

[wallabylikeyou]

You know how everybody laughed at Cena's angry face during the Embrace the Hate angle? Go back and watch Punk when Laurinaitus puts that dumb DQ stipulation on his match with Jericho just before it starts. He gets this Popeye face and it is hilarious.

[FAR5222]

I found the WWE title match boring anyway. I was hyped for the match but the storyline was odd and felt like the material used was something that should have been used post Mania 28.

But this is a no-brainer, Rock is having his first match back in the WWE since 2004 and it's in his home town and it's WrestleMania and has been built up for a year. Nobody was allowed to main event Mania for two years because of The Rock and that's not a bad thing it's just he's THE ROCK.

[xCompackx]

I didn't like Punk vs. Jericho at all anyway and Rock vs. Cena was a lot better. I can't blame Punk for wanting to main event a WrestleMania though.

[Spider2024]

Mar 7, 2015 18:43:12 GMT -5 BRV said:

This is no dig at CM Punk, but nothing was ever going to main event WrestleMania XXVIII over The Rock's first one-on-one match in a decade.

Never mind the fact that John Cena vs. The Rock had been hyped for a full year. You don't invest that sort of time building and hyping the event for it to be the penultimate match.

This is true.

And if anything, it only strengthens the notion that WM29 should have been a three-way with Punk. I mean sorry for making a blanket statement, but was ANYONE looking forward to the Cena-Rock rematch? Like something that they were really super interested in?

[Instant Classic]

Cena and Rock had all the business in main eventing.

[molson5]

I liked Mania 28 at the time (I like most shows I watch, otherwise I wouldn't watch the shows regularly), but I remember thinking that Extreme Rules afterwards was even better. Jericho and Punk was better than their Mania match, and Lesnar/Cena was just a ridiculous and awesome spectacle. And we got the WWE debut of the Aaron Relic and Jay Hatton tag team.

[Saul Goodman]

I still think that it was one of the worst feuds I have ever seen for the title. Back then I did not dislike CM Punk as much as I do now, I thought he was decent but over rated, I was a huge Jericho fan. This feud made CM Punk my most hated wrestler in the WWE and for the first time since 2004, I stared to dislike Jericho. Jericho was mad at CM Punk because of his catch phrase, CM asked Jericho if he invited Canada (just stupid), a very disappointing WM match and then the feud continued. They continued to feud, Jericho accused Punk for not being straight edge and proved that he goes to bars. Punk then did the worse acting job I ever seen by pretending he was drunk. Another disappointing match and then they went their separate ways, Punk made Daniel Bryan his own personal jobber then turned heel so he could be the number one heel in the WWE instead of the number four face. He would do little to nothing with the title but held it for over 400 days, he lost the title to the Rock and became "buried" for wrestling against the Undertaker at Wrestlemania 29. Jericho did even less than Punk because I can not remember anything about him after the feud.

[thelonewolf527]

Punk vs Jericho was a fine match

The problem was that some people developed this ridiculously unrealistic expectation that it was going to be the 2nd coming of Savage vs Steamboat and when it wasn't, were incredibly disappointed

[RIHT]

Punk vs. Jericho was very disappointing, build-wise and match-wise. Jericho should have won the Rumble and the whole drunk feud was stupid. Punk kind of was in a jam with Lesnar and Rock returning at PPVs, so he couldn't main event, but there were a bunch of times that he was screwed (when Big Johnny main evented over him).

[thelonewolf527]

Mar 7, 2015 20:08:05 GMT -5 RIHT said:

Punk vs. Jericho was very disappointing, build-wise and match-wise. Jericho should have won the Rumble and the whole drunk feud was stupid. Punk kind of was in a jam with Lesnar and Rock returning at PPVs, so he couldn't main event, but there were a bunch of times that he was screwed (when Big Johnny main evented over him).

Considering during the build to Punk vs Bryan, they had a segment that was literally the ONLY segment in the history of Raw to lose viewers during the overrun (something that was thought to be virtually impossible) I can't blame them for not wanting to put them on last. No one could have expected the crowd to react as positively as they did to the match.

[Crimson]

Mar 7, 2015 18:43:12 GMT -5 BRV said:

This is no dig at CM Punk, but nothing was ever going to main event WrestleMania XXVIII over The Rock's first one-on-one match in a decade.

Never mind the fact that John Cena vs. The Rock had been hyped for a full year. You don't invest that sort of time building and hyping the event for it to be the penultimate match.

I think also, after making the mistake 10 years earlier with Rock/Hogan, you just don't make that same mistake twice.

[Fearless The Tank]

Mar 7, 2015 18:42:36 GMT -5 gr1990 said:

Cena-Rock was definitely something worth doing from a business standpoint, but why they couldn't have made it a triple threat at 29 with Cena pinning Rock to end Punk's title reign, I'll never know. Well, I know why, but it's a load of crap.

Make it a three-way and you're not making a mockery of the 'Once in a Lifetime' tag, the smarky Mania crowd would have someone to cheer, Punk can't beat you with the 'I never main evented Wrestlemania' stick and is less likely to walk out on you the following year, Punk going into meltdown about losing the title without being pinned would have been awesome, and when Rock mangles his guts a few minutes in then Cena and Punk could carry the match and it wouldn't have ended up the damp squib that it did.

I like the idea, but if that happened then more than likely the Mania 30 moment wouldn't have happened (since they're fighting another triple threat match this year due to one happening last year) and as much as I like Punk, if he wasn't passionate anymore, he was going to leave no matter what. I'd rather what we got with Bryan.

[Mochi Lone Wolf]

The unnecessary last second stipulation they added to the match hurt it.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

18 seconds aside, WM28 was leagues better than 29.

[DiBiase is Good]

I can understand Rock/Cena going on last, I can even understand Cena/Lesnar going on last at the next PPV but the champion not being on last in the next four PPVs after that (including one show when f***ing Laurinaitis was on last) was pathetic.

[Jeff Mangum PI]

28 was terrible. Jerico/Punk was a disappointment, the SmackDown/Raw match was cluster, Cody jobbed to Big Show of all people, Kane/Orton stunk up the joint, and of course you had 18 seconds.

2011-2013 was a rough period for WrestleManias.