Welcome to the latest edition of The O’Brien Report with me, Alan O Brien. Today on The O’Brien Report I will be looking back at the ‘End of an Era’ match between Triple H and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 28 and how WWE did not keep their word on the match.
The ‘End of an Era’ match at WrestleMania 28 was the third and final WrestleMania match between Triple H and The Undertaker, with the two previously battling at WrestleMania 17 and WrestleMania 27, respectively. The match was set up by the aftermath of the previous year’s bout at WrestleMania 27 between the two, where The Undertaker collapsed and had to be helped to the back due to the brutality that he suffered during his match with Triple H.
The story of the match was simple: The Undertaker was trying to redeem himself after his performance at WrestleMania 27 and Triple H was trying to end The Undertaker’s legendary WrestleMania winning streak (which was at 19-0 at this point). Featuring numerous call-backs to their previous battles throughout the years, Triple H and The Undertaker put their bodies on the line in order to try end each other.
Much like their WrestleMania 27 encounter, the match was brutal. In a 30-minute slugfest, the two men used steel steps, chairs, and Triple H’s trusty sledgehammer in order to brutalize the other. With Shawn Michaels as an emotional wreck during the match, the drama of the match was at an all-time high, especially during the times when both Triple H and The Undertaker told Shawn Michaels to ‘end it’. The drama reached it’s peak during the match when Shawn Michaels, who had been taken out by The Undertaker mid-match, hit The Undertaker with Sweet Chin Music out of nowhere, which Triple H then turned into a Pedigree for one of, if not the closest two count in WWE history.
Eventually, The Undertaker hit Triple H with a final Tombstone Piledriver to end the match, redeem himself and immortalize his WrestleMania streak once more (now 20-0). After the match, Triple H was helped to the back by both Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker, a call back to the aftermath of Undertaker and Triple H’s WrestleMania 27 match. The three men shared a moment at the top of the ramp, ending their feud and the era or so we thought.
The ’End of an Era’ match at WrestleMania 28 was undoubtedly the match of the night and won the 2012 Slammy Award for Match Of The Year and is one of my favourite matches of all time, tying up a four-year storyline between Triple H, The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels respectively.
Six and a half years later, at Super Show-Down 2018, Triple H and The Undertaker would once again compete, defeating the purpose of the ‘End of an Era’ match. The match between the two was a no disqualification match and was billed as the ‘Last Time Ever’. Triple H was accompanied to the ring by Shawn Michaels while Kane accompanied The Undertaker. Triple H would win following a Pedigree in a slow, boring 30-minute match. After the match, Kane and Undertaker would attack the two and put Shawn Michaels through an announce table.
Following Super Show-Down, Triple H and Shawn Michaels reformed as D-Generation X and challenged The Undertaker and Kane (The Brothers of Destruction) to a tag team match at Crown Jewel, which they accepted. This was yet another contradiction, not just of the ‘End of an Era’ match from six and half years earlier but Shawn Michaels Career vs Streak match vs The Undertaker at WrestleMania 26 and even the ‘Last Time Ever’ match between Triple H and Undertaker the previous month.
At Crown Jewel, D-Generation X defeated The Brothers of Destruction in yet another slow 30-minute match which saw Triple H get legitimately injured when he tore his pectoral muscle. The match also saw Kane’s mask fall off during the match and Shawn Michaels nearly missing a moonsault to the outside of the ring onto The Brothers of Destruction. Everyone involved in the match has stated that they were disappointed in the match and its not hard to see why. After this match, Shawn Michaels went back into retirement and Triple H and Undertaker’s renewed rivalry ended (again).
In my opinion, WWE should not have renewed the rivalry between Triple H and The Undertaker, their rivalry ended at WrestleMania 28 in the perfect way with Triple H, Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker sharing a moment at the top of the ramp. Renewing their rivalry six and a half years later to basically sell tickets for Super Show-Down in Australia and Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia was cheap of WWE and was a slap in the face to WrestleMania 28. Now, I understand why WWE would do this, Triple H vs The Undertaker and D-Generation X vs The Brothers of Destruction are big matches which would undoubtably sell tickets for any show but there must come a time where storyline implications are more important than selling a few tickets.
Now this is not the first time WWE has done this (another example of this is John Cena vs The Rock at WrestleMania 28 in a ‘Once in a Lifetime’ match only to face off again at WrestleMania 29 the following year.) and it probably won’t be the last time they do it either but in my opinion if WWE are going to label matches with titles such as the ‘End of an Era’ or the ‘Last Time Ever’ they should keep their word. I think if you are going to build a match as the ‘Last Time Ever’ it should be the last time
that match happens. It might not be a big issue to many, but I believe that WWE (or any wrestling company) should keep their word with matches like these.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article today, I’ve been Alan O Brien and you have been reading The O’Brien Report.
Self-Professed Conversational Wizard.
Admin, Editor and Writer for SLTD Wrestling.
Creator of 'Under the Spotlight'.
Studying Computing in Games Development.
Recent Comments