WrestleMania XXVIII was a 2012 professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. It was the 28th annual WrestleMania and took place on April 1, 2012, at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. This was the first WrestleMania held following the end of the original brand extension in August 2011 as well as the first WrestleMania held to be promoted under the company's shortened trade name of WWE, as following WrestleMania XXVII the prior year in April 2011, the company ceased using its full name of World Wrestling Entertainment, although that remains the legal name of the company.
There were eight matches on the event's card and one pre-show match that was streamed on YouTube. The main event saw The Rock defeat John Cena and was advertised a year in advance, being set up in the main event of the previous year's WrestleMania XXVII. In other prominent matches, The Undertaker defeated Triple H in a Hell in a Cell match with Shawn Michaels serving as the special guest referee, CM Punk defeated Chris Jericho to retain the WWE Championship, Big Show defeated Cody Rhodes to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship, and in the opening bout, Sheamus defeated Daniel Bryan to win the World Heavyweight Championship in an 18-second match.
The Rock vs. John Cena match was re-broadcast on August 25, 2012, on NBC and later issued on DVD and Blu-ray, collected under the title of The Rock vs John Cena: Once in a Lifetime. The match was later included in WWE Best PPV Matches of 2012 as the "Most Anticipated WrestleMania Match of All Time". Despite the "Once in a Lifetime" tagline, the two would wrestle each other again in the main event of the following year's WrestleMania 29, with Cena emerging victorious and winning the WWE Championship from The Rock.
Production Background
WrestleMania is considered WWE's flagship professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event, having first been held in 1985. It is the longest-running professional wrestling event in history and is held annually between mid-March to mid-April. It was the first of WWE's original four pay-per-views, which includes Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, referred to as the "Big Four".
The city of Miami Gardens, Florida was one of the two major contenders to host WrestleMania XXVII along with Atlanta, Georgia; in February 2010, Atlanta was awarded the right to host the event. According to the Miami-Dade Sports Commission, WWE management felt that Miami's planning for the event would have been too hectic with many other sporting events held in the area around the same time of the planning, such as Super Bowl XLIV. However, the Miami area was reportedly considered for the next event due to its international ties, facilities, airports, and experience of hosting previous major events.
Bidding documents were sent to 17 cities in consideration for hosting a WrestleMania event between 2012 and 2014, with 14 replying in interest. Other cities under consideration for WrestleMania XXVIII included Los Angeles, California, New Orleans, Louisiana, New York City, New York, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Detroit, Michigan, Tampa, Florida, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, St. Louis, Missouri, Jacksonville, Florida, Orlando, Florida, and Houston, Texas. The city of Dallas, Texas also showed interest, but had to withdraw from bidding for the next two years due to hosting events such as the NCAA Final Four.
Miami was revealed as the site of WrestleMania on February 9, 2011, by The Miami Herald and at a WWE press conference at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach. The event was scheduled to be held on April 1, 2012, at Miami Gardens' Sun Life Stadium. WrestleMania XXVIII was the second WrestleMania event that was hosted in the U.S. state of Florida, the fourth open-air event, and the third event to be held entirely outdoors. For hosting the event, WWE received a $250,000 cash incentive from the Miami-Dade Sports Commission, raised through grants and sponsorships. Along with WrestleMania XXVIII, a series of events grouped as "WrestleMania Week" was held in the week preceding the event including WrestleMania's annual WrestleMania Axxess fan convention at the Miami Beach Convention Center, the 2012 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony at the American Airlines Arena, the finals of the WrestleMania Reading Challenge, and a Celebrity Pro-Am Golf tournament.
This was the first WrestleMania to be held following the end of the first brand extension in August 2011. It was also the first WrestleMania held to be promoted under the company's shortened trade name of WWE, as following WrestleMania XXVII the previous year in April 2011, the company ceased using its full name of World Wrestling Entertainment, although that remains the legal name of the company.
Storylines The event included matches that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and SmackDown.
The main event of WrestleMania XXVIII pitted The Rock wrestling against John Cena, billed as a Once in a Lifetime, face of the company generational match. On the February 14, 2011, episode of Raw, The Rock was revealed as the host of WrestleMania XXVII, and upon his return to WWE, began a feud with John Cena (and Cena's opponent at that WrestleMania, then-WWE Champion, The Miz), which continued for weeks in terms of verbal insults, until the March 28 episode of Raw, where Cena delivered the Attitude Adjustment to The Rock after he fended off attacks from The Miz and his protégé, Alex Riley. At WrestleMania XXVII, The Rock got involved in the main event WWE Championship match between The Miz and Cena, which initially ended in a double count-out. After the match was restarted under no disqualifications, no count-outs rules, The Rock delivered a Rock Bottom to Cena as a measure of payback, thus enabling The Miz to win the match. The next night on Raw, Cena challenged The Rock to a one-on-one match; The Rock accepted and proposed that it be held at WrestleMania XXVIII. After winning the championship from The Miz at Extreme Rules, Cena interrupted The Rock's birthday celebrations during the May 2 episode of Raw to announce his intention to defend the WWE Championship against The Rock at WrestleMania XXVIII. Such intentions were however thwarted by Cena losing the title at Money in the Bank in July. At Survivor Series in November, Cena teamed with The Rock (who wrestled his first WWE match in almost eight years, last competing at WrestleMania XX in 2004). Billed as "the most charismatic tag team", they defeated The Miz and R-Truth. After the match, Rock performed a Rock Bottom to Cena.
Another match billed as the "end of an era", saw The Undertaker face Triple H in a Hell in a Cell match. The previous year at WrestleMania XXVII, in a No Holds Barred match, The Undertaker defeated Triple H via submission, in their second encounter at a WrestleMania (the first being at WrestleMania X-Seven in 2001, where The Undertaker won as well). However, in the post-match events, due to the harsh physicality suffered during the bout, The Undertaker, for the first time in his career, was carted away from the Georgia Dome by the medical staff on a stretcher. After a near ten-month long hiatus, The Undertaker returned on the January 30, 2012, episode of Raw, confronting and challenging Triple H to a rematch at WrestleMania XXVIII. The Undertaker, having been dissatisfied of his post-WrestleMania match scenario the previous year, stated that he "did not want 'that scene' to be a lasting memory" of him and was willing to give Triple H "another chance at immortality". After Triple H refused to accept the challenge the next week, his close friend and WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels appeared on the February 13 episode to instigate him in accepting The Undertaker's challenge, which was in vain as Triple H stated he was willing to put his ego and personal agendas aside for the future of WWE, and viewed The Undertaker's 19–0 undefeated WrestleMania streak as a "brand" to cash-in for the company, finally ending the argument saying he would not be the one to end it. Then, on the February 20 episode, The Undertaker still remained adamant in getting a WrestleMania rematch with Triple H, going so far as to label Triple H as a "coward", and comparing his abilities and career to that of Shawn Michaels. Enraged by these comments, Triple H finally accepted The Undertaker's challenge at WrestleMania XXVIII, saying that if "he [Undertaker] wanted an end, they would go all the way", and proposed that they would compete in a Hell in a Cell match. On the March 5 episode, Michaels confronted Triple H again; Michaels expressed his views on who was better than the other, predicted Triple H's chances of defeating The Undertaker, and revealed himself as the special guest referee in their Hell in a Cell match at WrestleMania.
On July 17, 2011, at the Money in the Bank event, Daniel Bryan won the SmackDown Money in the Bank ladder match. On the July 22 episode of SmackDown, Bryan declared his intentions of cashing-in his Money in the Bank contract at WrestleMania XXVIII. However, he apparently cashed-in his contract briefcase on the November 25 episode of SmackDown and pinned the reigning World Heavyweight Champion Mark Henry to supposedly win the title and began to celebrate, but SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long informed Bryan that Henry was not medically cleared to compete, and declared the match void, thereby returning the briefcase to Bryan and the title back to Henry. The next week on Raw, Bryan acknowledged that he went back on his word, saying that headlining WrestleMania was his dream and that his "plans changed"; that the briefcase "doesn't guarantee [him] anything", since he could be put out of action at any time. WWE continued to maintain the advertisement for WrestleMania, until Bryan successfully cashed in his Money in the Bank contract briefcase on Big Show at the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs event on December 18, 2011, to become the new World Heavyweight Champion. In January 2012, at the twenty-fifth annual Royal Rumble pay-per-view, Sheamus won the thirty-man Royal Rumble match, giving him the right to challenge either the WWE Champion or the World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania XXVIII. At Elimination Chamber in February, Sheamus attacked Bryan, after Bryan successfully retained his World Heavyweight Championship in an Elimination Chamber match, thus challenging Bryan for his title at WrestleMania.
In another match, CM Punk defended the WWE Championship against Chris Jericho. Since regaining the title at Survivor Series in November 2011, Punk had successfully defended the WWE Championship several times, calling himself the "best wrestler in the world". On the January 2, 2012, episode of Raw, after extensive hype through several viral vignettes proclaiming the "end of the world as we know it" on that day, Chris Jericho returned to WWE after over a year, and established a villainous persona over the next several weeks. On the February 13 episode of Raw, Jericho accused Punk in an in-ring segment of being a copycat of him, and that Punk stole his proclamation of being the "best in the world". While competing in the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, Jericho was knocked out by a kick to the head by Punk, rendering him unable to compete any further, and Punk went on to win that match and retain the title. This incident further fueled Jericho's animosity towards Punk. On the February 20 episode of Raw, Jericho won a ten-man battle royal to determine the number-one contender to face Punk for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania XXVIII. In subsequent promos, both wrestlers expressed their desire to prove who is "the best in the world".