25. WRESTLEMANIA XXVII
WrestleMania XXVII is by far the worst of the modern era, sporting not only a lackluster match card, but incredibly questionable booking and a lousy main event.
The return of The Rock just weeks prior – which may be one of the most heart-stopping moments of the past decade – ultimately meant very little. Rock as the guest host of WrestleMania basically added up to an in-ring promo and a late night Rock Bottom to John Cena, setting up their match the following year. He also attacked WWE Champion The Miz, hitting him with the People’s Elbow and sending the show off the air posing on the turnbuckles. Basically this entire show ended up feeling like a giant promo for WrestleMania XXVIII, which is never a great feeling for the tens of thousands of people who spent thousands of dollars (each) being there.
The best match of the event by far was Triple H vs. Undertaker, which may have performed higher than expectations but didn’t quite live up to the hype that Shawn Michaels had created the year before. Edge and Alberto del Rio had a decent match, but after a lengthy build to turn ADR into a top heel on Smackdown, they squandered the push (and the Royal Rumble match) by allowing Edge to retain, just days prior to vacating the belt due to a career-ending prognosis.
What little those matches did to elevate the night was bogged down by a 14-minute train wreck between Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole, Snooki in a wrestling match, and a pointless 8-man tag that lasted less than two minutes. Mysterio and Cody Rhodes under-performed, the crowd didn’t really get into Randy Orton and CM Punk’s match…the whole thing was just a disaster.
