WrestleMania 28: The Best Moments Leading Up to the Event

It's been a long road to WrestleMania 28. There have been a lot of memorable moments this past year with the WWE.

All of the surprises, amusement and epic pass/fail moments have given the Bleacher Report community loads to speak on. Let's re-live the past months in World Wrestling Entertainment that have brought us to the main event this coming Sunday.

Feel free to add you own favorite moments!

Follow @_voicewretro

The Rock vs. John Cena Match Announcement

What started as a few mouthy moments for John Cena at random house shows escalated to a whole new level, when The Rock responded to Cena's rants about his absence in the WWE by becoming the host of WrestleMania 27.

After costing Cena his WWE championship match against the Miz with a Rock Bottom, it was on. The day after WrestleMania 27, the two set the date.

April 1, 2012 at WrestleMania 28 would be where the once-in-a-lifetime battle comes to a head.

Vince McMahon, "You're Fired!"

Triple H came back to the WWE after his father-in-law decided to go on a rampage.

Not only did Vince try to fire John Cena, but he also tried to pull another screwjob on CM Punk with the help of Executive Vice President of Talent Relations, John Laurinaitis.

Triple H stepped in on behalf of the WWE Board of Directors and said, "The board has appointed someone to take over the day-to-day operations of the WWE. Vince, it's me."

R-Truth Turns Heel

Around the same time, R-Truth had a bit of an epiphany.

After beating up John Morrison, R-Truth turned into one of the funniest heels in a long time.

From smoking a cigarette and drinking a bottle of water, to matching down the Raw ramp in a soldier's uniform, Truth gave the crowd something to laugh about.

He would later join forces with The Miz to form Awesome Truth. They would become the spearheads to the conspiracy-driven storyline that would eventually cause Triple H a world of trouble.

Edge: The Shocking Retirement

The Rated-R Superstar, Edge, was forced to retire due to extensive neck injuries.

He had to give the title up and retire for the safety of his life. He had an awesome career as an 11-time champion and will go down as one of the most entertaining superstars there has ever been. He would later be announced as the first inductee into the 2012 WWE Hall of Fame for his accomplishments.

Christian: Man of a Thousand Re-Matches

Due to his best pal's unfortunate retirement, Christian was given an opportunity to become world heavyweight champion. He did win the belt in a ladder match against Alberto Del Rio.

Unfortunately, that would not last long as Randy Orton stepped up to become the No. 1 contender to the championship.

Teddy Long ordered a match on the next Friday Night SmackDown and the WWE crowned a new champion. Thus began Christian's frequent pleas for "One more match, one more match!"

Christian did win back the title after a spit shine to Orton's face. He soon would live to regret that decision after Orton not only regained the championship, but also put him on the injured list.

Awesome Truth Fired

As previously mentioned, Awesome Truth was the spearhead of the conspiracy theory running through the WWE, as many superstars began to lose their confidence in COO Triple H. 

After a fierce match-up between Awesome Truth, Cena and CM Punk that was to determine if Truth and Miz would stay with the WWE, Triple H dropped a bomb on the tag team. He fired them on the spot.

In the weeks to come, Triple H would be relieved of his general manager duties as superstars, announcers, commentators and other members of the WWE crew staged a walk-out.

This gave way for John Laurinaitis to become Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and Interim General Manager of Monday Night Raw.

CM Punk Shoots on the WWE

CM Punk's promo three weeks before he was scheduled to leave the WWE may have been the best work in years.

Punk legitimately released his grievances to the WWE Universe and regardless if it was planned or scripted, it was definitely a jaw-dropper and opened up a whole new fanbase for the WWE superstar.

Pipebomb!

Punk would later beat John Cena to become the new WWE champion at Money in the Bank. He left the stadium in Chicago and negotiated terms of his contract that brought him back two weeks later, when John Cena was once again crowned champion. 

This left a match to decide the undisputed champion at SummerSlam.

Kevin Nash's Jacknife Powerbomb

Of course, we know CM Punk beat John Cena to become the undisputed WWE champion.

After that match, Kevin Nash ripped Punk a new one by delivering the Jacknife Powerbomb.

That move would give way to Alberto Del Rio cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase to fulfill his destiny and become the new WWE champion.

Never Before, Never Again!

During the long build-up to the match between Cena and the Rock, a brief moment of connection took place at Survivor Series when The Rock and Cena teamed up to face Awesome Truth. It became a match that the crowd wanted Cena to disappear from and revolved around the Rock.

The People's Champion gave the people exactly what they wanted and then some. Awesome Truth lost at Survivor Series and John Cena received a Rock Bottom for the trip home.

Big Show: 1 Minute and 53 Seconds

Big Show may have given the WWE Universe the biggest fail on the Road to WrestleMania.

After beating Mark Henry at TLC to become the world heavyweight champion, he lost his championship to Daniel Bryan after what was said to be 45 seconds and then later corrected at 1:53.

That's still pretty bad.

Big Show hasn't been able to get the championship back and has slowly slipped back down into the mid-card realm.

Three Unlikely Champions

The Monday after TLC, 3 unlikely champions stepped in the middle of the ring at the start of the show: Daniel Bryan as the world heavyweight champion, Zack Ryder as the U.S. champion and CM Punk as the WWE champion.

The crowd was ecstatic and finally the WWE Universe's prayers had been heard.

Although, later that month Zack Ryder lost his championship and was taken off television for a short time,  Daniel Bryan became a heel and CM Punk remains the WWE Champion, even though he's not in the forefront at WrestleMania 28.

Masked Kane Returns

The return of Kane was epic, until the WWE Universe figured out his main purpose was to help Cena prepare for the Rock. This became evident when Kane lost to Cena at Elimination Chamber in an ambulance match.

His costume was pretty cool, welders mask and all.

He now is in a feud with Randy Orton to re-establish his dominance after Randy ruined an unmasked Kane in a street fight match last summer.

This match will take place at WrestleMania 28.

Y2J Trolls

Chris Jericho returned to bring "the end of the world...as you know it."

He actually trolled the audience for three weeks. Jericho said nothing but "yeah, yeah, yeah!"

It's pretty interesting how people didn't catch on to his troll.

Y2J eventually revealed that he was coming for CM Punk, but then he lost the Royal Rumble to Sheamus and lost at Elimination Chamber.

The match was finally made after the Elimination Chamber.

As there is only one week left before Mania and Jericho has signed a summer contract, who knows how long the storyline between WWE champion CM Punk and Jericho will last?

Kharma Enters the Royal Rumble Match

For a short while, the WWE Universe was granted a Diva worth getting excited over. Kharma returned after coming off of maternity leave. She dominated the Royal Rumble matchup for a few moments anyway.

She eliminated Michael Cole and Hunico and delivered her finishing move to Dolph Ziggler, who then eliminated her in return.

It was still a good run, filled with pure power. It is going to be amazing when she is finally ready to return to the WWE.

The Undertaker Returns: End of an Era Match Confirmed

With the return of the Undertaker came the cutting of hair, announcing of referees and a change of wardrobe, but none of those things will change the level of epic that this match will bring.

Let's not forget that this entire storyline technically started with Shawn Michaels, so it is only right that the culmination of this saga ends with him.

After the mind games of the Undertaker to get under Triple H's skin, this match has all the makings of one of the greatest matches of all time.

The Rock Disposes of Cenation Waste

The funniest stab from the Rock to John Cena came in Beantown.

The Rock gave a history lesson to Cena, blasting all of his merchandise and all of his notoriety. 

The best part about this whole thing? He threw half of the merchandise in the river.

This promo was hardly the icing on the cake for this epic match-up, but it was one of the most entertaining promos of the entire series.

Check out John Cena's rap vs. his Hoeski promo. Which one do you think was better?

Best Promo Before WrestleMania + Honorable Mentions

It's obvious that last night's promo between the Rock and John Cena was the best promo overall .

Looks like they did save the best for last. I know I made a comment about Cena's lack of intensity this past weekend, but this promo actually made me want to watch the match more than all the other little promos.

Here are some moments that made an impact, but didn't need a slide to explain.

John Morrison received a Skull Crushing Finale and then the best of luck with his future endeavors.

Great Khali returned.

The anonymous Raw GM disappeared...so did the Cole Mine.

Eve turned Hoeski-Heel.

Santinio Marella is now the U.S. champion after beating Jack Swagger.