The 'Once In A Lifetime' meeting between John Cena and The Rock was a long, laboured, lie that saw a year-long build result in an irritatingly ordinary affair.
The Miami crowd were on fire for to their returning hero, but an injury during the match sustained by 'The Great One' was just one of the underlying factors that hamstrung what was WWE's biggest box office main event ever. Drawing buys from 1,217,000 homes, WrestleMania XXVIII was an astronomical success and the most-bought in company history, but the disappointing in-ring response to such enormous anticipation saw the following year's rematch lose nearly 200,000 purchases from that number.
An advert for the wrestler 'Big Match John' hadn't quite become at that point, it was slightly lumbering until all the bombastic finisher trades late on.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett
