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Welcome to the debut edition of “Flashback/Fast Forward” where I take a monthly look back at a WWE PPV (and probably TNA when they have a Live PPV) from the same month last year and see how they placed on this year’s card.
With Wrestlemania 29 just completed, I thought I would take a look at Wrestlemania 28 and see how many made it to this year’s card. Counting the pre-show matches, both last year and this year’s show had nine matches in total. Last year had 34 wrestlers (including one non-wrestler) in matches, while this year had 24. Of the 34 from last year, 15 (which, if my math is not bad, is 44%) had a match on this year’s card. On to the matches,
(Pre-Show) Match One - Epico & Primo w/Rosa, The Usos, and Justin Gabriel & Tyson Kidd for the WWE Tag Team Championships - The Good news is the Tag Team Championships made an appearance on the main card this year for the first time in 7 years. The bad news is none of the people involved were seen anywhere on the card this year.
Match Two - Daniel Bryan w/ A.J vs. Sheamus for the World Heavyweight Championship – Well, the World Heavyweight Championship did not open the main card for the third year in a row, moving up to the middle of the card. Sheamus was in the first match for the second year in a row as part of a six-man tag. (Third year, if you count his dark match with Bryan from two years ago, which probably would have opened that year’s WrestleMania). Bryan and A.J moved up a few spots and were in the same match but on opposite sides. Bryan was also in a championship match this year, making him, other than Demolition (The Ax and Smash version), the only person (of those having more than one WM match) to be in a championship match in all his WrestleMania appearances.
Match Three - Kane vs. Randy Orton - Orton moved down a slot this year in the six-man tag, and was pinned for the second year in a row, while Kane moved up one slot and was involved in a Championship match.
Match Four - The Big Show vs. Cody Rhodes for the Intercontinental Championship - The IC title was pushed down to the pre-show this year. The Big Show opened the main card as part of the six-man tag while Cody was scheduled for this year but was cut due to time.
Match Five - Kelly Kelly and Maria Menounos vs. Beth Phoenix and Eve – Maria was a ‘celebrity wrestler’ and all the others have left the company since.
Match Six - The Undertaker vs. Triple H w/ Shawn Michaels as referee – Taker moved up a slot this year, while Triple H (along with Michaels) was in the semi-main event.
Match Seven - Team Laurinitis (David Otunga, Mark Henry, Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, The Miz and Drew McIntyre) w/ Vickie Guerrero and a Bella vs Team Teddy (Santino Marella, R-Truth, Kofi Kingston, Zack Ryder, The Great Khali, and Booker T) w/ Hornswoggle and a Bella - Of the twelve people involved in this match, only four had a match this year:
Henry – Second match on this year’s card.
Ziggler – Third match and challenged for the WWE Tag Team Championship
Swagger – Sixth Match and challenged for the World Heavyweight Championship.
The Miz – In the pre-show and challenged and won the IC Championship.
Booker T made a non-wrestling appearance, while Kofi was giving his expert opinion on WWE.com
Match Eight - CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho for the WWE Championship - The WWE Championship was in the main event this year. Punk moved down a spot this year, while Jericho moved down a few spots to put over Fandango.
Brodus Clay, Naomi, and Cameron – Scheduled for this year’s show but were scrapped for time.
Match Nine - The Rock vs. John Cena – Both closed out this year’s show making it the first match to actually close out WrestleMania two years in a row.
