WWE WrestleMania 27 Review - April 3, 2011

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Rock Addressed the Audience

It isn't ideal to kick off a huge show such as WrestleMania with a talking segment, but if anyone can electrify an audience and get them hyped up for the evening, it's The Rock. He didn't say much of substance here, but the crowd ate up everything he said and did, nevertheless. He went so far as to predict that this would be "the most memorable WrestleMania of all-time." I guess he was partially right, but it wasn't memorable for the right reasons.

World Heavyweight Champion Edge def. Alberto Del Rio

First and foremost, the fact this kicked off the event essentially told viewers the World Heavyweight Championship wasn't important. Then again, that had been the case for years by this point, so I don't remember being too surprised at the time. As a match, though, this was actually very good. Edge and Del Rio worked well together and the interference from Ricardo Rodriguez, Brodus Clay and Christian at ringside didn't take away from the action. I would have put the belt on Del Rio, but Edge had never successfully retained a world title at WrestleMania before, so it was a cool moment for him. Considering no one knew that this would be Edge's last match ever (he officially retired from the ring eight days after this), I'd say he went out on a high note.

Cody Rhodes def. Rey Mysterio

People like to crap all over this WrestleMaina (and rightfully so) and claim everything on it was terrible, but I thoroughly enjoyed this outing between Mysterio and Rhodes. They told a terrific story coming into the event with Mysterio "breaking" Cody's face and forcing Cody to wear a protective mask. It was going to be a fun match either way, but the attention to detail with Mysterio using Cody's mask against him and then Cody hitting Mysterio with his own knee brace before picking up the victory solidified this as an underrated gem in my opinion.

Santino Marella, Big Show, Kane, and Kofi Kingston def. The Corre

What a damn waste this was. They must have had their time cut because I can't imagine it was originally planned to last one minute. Kingston replaced Kozlov the weekend of the show because apparently officials didn't want to leave Kingston off the card. Poor Kozlov. The Corre came away from this looking like the biggest losers in the world, but they had been badly booked prior to this point, anyway. If nothing else, the crowd was happy for Santino picking up the victory for his team.

Randy Orton def. CM Punk

Creative did have anything for these guys to do at WrestleMania, so they were lumped together in a feud, and in order to make sense of it, Punk brought up how Orton cost him the World Heavyweight Championship when he punted him in the head two and a half years earlier. That's something, I suppose. I remember reading that they were mad about being so "low" on the card, but in reality, they were likely just pissed they went on before Jerry Lawler vs. Michael Cole, which is understandable. Similar to Mysterio vs. Rhodes, I feel this match doesn't get the recognition it deserves for being as solid as it was. Punk and Orton always had strong chemistry and both of them delivered excellent performances on the grand stage.

Michael Cole def. Jerry Lawler by Disqualification (Stone Cold Steve Austin Served as Special Guest Referee)

Yes, this was every bit as awful as you remember it being, and it went way longer than it needed to. Stone Cold is awesome and all, but not even he could salvage this mess. WWE did everything they could to make this an "attraction," but aside from the crowd popping when Lawler finally got his hands on Cole, it wasn't worth a WrestleMania match, especially since the feud continued for another two months. Cole not taking a Stunner from Stone Cold was disappointing as well, so in short, there was nothing redeemable about this piece of garbage.

The Undertaker def. Triple H in a No Holds Barred Match

To be completely honest, the build to this bout (aside from their initial interaction when they both returned) bored me, and I also didn't like this match when it originally aired. That said, it's grown on me over time, and I appreciate what they went for with Triple H losing the match yet essentially winning the war. Beating down him with relentless chair shots and then hitting him with three Pedigrees only for 'Taker to kick out was a little much, but they went to great lengths to basically kill each other and had the audience with them the entire time. Of course, the Shawn Michaels matches from WM25 and WM26 were better, but this was far and away the best thing on this show.

John Morrison, Trish Stratus and Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi def. Dolph Ziggler and LayCool

Ugh. I give credit for Morrison and Ziggler for trying to make this something halfway decent, but I felt bad for Stratus more than anyone else. Why bother returning to the ring for...this? Snooki had no business in this bout, but I realize WWE got what they wanted out of it (mainstream attention), so I assume nothing else mattered in their minds. At the very least, it brought the crowd back down following the hot HHH vs. Undertaker match.

WWE Champion The Miz def. John Cena

My biggest criticism of this was that it felt like a glorified Raw main event. Sure, they kicked out of each other's finisher a few times, but that was about it. Nothing else about this match screamed special in the slightest. I give credit to Miz for trying, but this was not a WrestleMania main event caliber matchup. It didn't help that the closing stretch was beyond flat. Did anyone actually buy into the double count-out tease? Everyone knew The Rock was going to resurface and lay out Cena, so this served as the set-up to the WrestleMania 28 main event and the focus was never supposed to be on Miz (he too was laid out by Rock afterward).

Overall Show

WrestleMania 27 will be forever remembered by many as one of the worst WrestleMania installments of all-time. While I tend to agree with that, I thought it was more a letdown than anything else based off how heavily WWE was hyping this show (more than usual). Triple H vs. Undertaker was one of the greatest matches in WWE that year, and there were a few well-wrestled matchups on the undercard, but all things considered, this is a weak WrestleMania and not worth the re-watch.