WrestleMania 22 in 2006 was a packed 11 match card which made use of what was a veteran roster mixed with newer emerging stars. That was interesting for fans to see, it felt like a new era was underway, there was plenty of fan favourites to pick from. This in many ways was the true start of the Cena era, his very first time in the show closing Mania spot, where he retained his WWE championship by making Triple H tap out to the STFU. The other big sell going in was Shawn Michaels taking on Mr McMahon. The build was pretty contrived but effective none the less and on the night they achieved a solid weapon filled brawl which HBK won. The third selling point was Rey Mysterio's journey to the World Title in honour of Eddie Guerrero who died the previous year. It was a great story going in, Rey had won the Royal Rumble and was going to win the title for his friend in a triple threat against Kurt Angle and Randy Orton. The hope was that this would be similar to the Benoit match and victory in 2004, but WWE dropped the ball, giving the title match just 9 minutes and 19 seconds on the midcard. Nevertheless, with the Cena story, Michaels story and Rey's journey, this was a Mania with various attractions and it pulled in 975,000 buys.
