Wrestlemania XXVIII: Why Triple H and The Undertaker Really Did End an Era

Triple H and Undertaker are two superstars who understood and still understand that WrestleMania is special. It is the one time a year where you, as a performer, go to the ring and give the fans something they would not have seen over the course of the last year.

At WrestleMania XXVIII, they gave the fans in Miami and those watching all over the world the show-stealing, epic encounter that most have come to expect from the showcase event.

It was a match that told an emotional story, had several explosive near-falls, was violent, brutal, and made the people believe in the competitors and what each was trying to accomplish.

The fact of the matter is—WrestleMania is now sold on the fact that it is WrestleMania.

The glitz, the glamour, the promotional materials and the hype draws fans in.

The Undertaker and Triple H—not to mention Shawn Michaels—were a part of a different time, when WrestleMania was sold on stories and rivalries. It was a time where fans expected to see career-defining matches and cared less about elaborate entrances and tremendous pyrotechnic displays.

That era saw its conclusion at WrestleMania XXVIII, when three veteran performers who have broken their bodies for the sport they love reminded everyone why they fell in love with professional wrestling in the first place.

Whereas The Rock versus John Cena was made by the crowd response and the atmosphere, The Undertaker, Triple H, and Shawn Michaels created crowd response by the story they were telling inside Hell in a Cell.

There aren't three men on the roster able to remake what Undertaker, Triple H, and Shawn Michaels perfected at WrestleMania XXVIII.

That is less of an insult directed at the current roster than it is a testament to the true "Once in a Lifetime" performers that those three men are.