INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Ryback(c) vs. Big Show
Battle of the titans match up to kick off Wrestlemania 29 with a bang while the sun is still in the sky. Ryback defeats Miz for the Intercontinental Championship at the end of 2011 and remains undefeated. His biggest test to date is facing the Giant Big Show. Ryback hits a number of his big power moves on Big Show showing off his incredible strength on the Grandest Stage of them all, and goes over with a massive Shell Shock. Gets the crowd hot as they go crazy for Ryback slamming Big Show.
Winner: Still Intercontinental Champion, Ryback
GRUDGE MATCH
Randy Orton vs. Alberto Del Rio (w. Ricardo Rodriguez)
Grudge match to give both men a singles match on the card. Del Rio goes over.
Winner: Alberto Del Rio
TAG CHAMPION VS. TAG CHAMPION
Rey Mysterio vs. Sin Cara
Mysterio and Sin Cara form a tag team in late 2011, and win the tag team championships. Rey takes Sin Cara under his wing and is shown coaching him and teaching. Sin Cara is very receptive to the mentor-ship but seems to be excelling and outperforming Mysterio in all of their matches. They are a dominant tag team, but Sin Cara is visibly outshining Rey week in and week out, picking up the wins in their matches as well. Rey starts getting very jealous, and turns heel on Sin Cara - while they are still the tag team champs.
Rey cuts a promo that he is the real masked luchadore in WWE...has been for years...and Sin Cara can't just come in and replace him. Rey brought a distinct style to WWE, and can't be replaced. Rey's new heel character catches a boat load of heat, especially from the younger audience, and really is putting over Sin Cara nicely as the babyface being wronged. They face off in a match at Wrestlmania. Sin Cara goes over in a passing of the torch bout. After the match, Rey puts aside their differences and extends his hand shaking it, and then hugging Sin Cara. Both men hold up their tag team championships, with Rey putting over Sin Cara.
This ends up being Mysterio's final Wrestlemania match.
Winner: Sin Cara
4 VS. 4 TAG TEAM MATCH
Christian, Kofi Kingston, R-Truth, Santino vs. The Miz, Cody Rhodes, Damien Sandow, Jack Swagger
Standard multi man tag match to get guys on the card. Faces win.
Winner: Team Christian
SUBMISSION MATCH
Chris Jericho vs. Daniel Bryan
Jericho returns at the Rumble as the Y2J babyface character he left as after Ziggler beat him in August. He and Bryan start getting into a feud similar to that of Angle and Benoit, trying to prove who is the better technical wrestler, looking to out perform each other in their respective matches on Raw and Smackdown. They set up a submission match at WM, putting on an incredible techincal show down. Gave Jericho the win here as I think he could really use it for his rep as he hasn't won a major match like Ziggler said...in a long ass time. I really don't think a lose for Bryan would hurt Bryan's momentum all that much either.
Winner: Chris Jericho
WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Wade Barrett(RR) vs. Sheamus vs. Dolph Ziggler(c) (w. Ric Flair)
Sheamus continues to hold the World Title until the Rumble. After Sheamus successfully defends his title, Ric Flair appears out of the crowd sneaking up behind Sheamus, hitting him with a low blow. Immediately, Ziggler's music hits and he comes running out cashing in on Sheamus, hitting the Zig Zag and becoming the new World Heavyweight Champion. Ziggler and Flair shake hands, showing the world the new partnership they have formed. Ziggler ditches Vicki the following night on Raw saying that all she did was leach off him and hold him back, but now he's got The Man next to him, one of the greatest of all time.
On the same night, Barrett wins the Rumble match and earns his title shot at WM. Sheamus does not invoke his rematch clause after being cashed in on after successfully defending his title at the Rumble. After Barrett announces that he will choose to face the World Champion, Sheamus comes out and says he still has his rematch clause and still has a bone to pick with Ziggler and Flair. Sheamus will use it at WM setting up a triple threat. Barrett comes out on top, winning his first World Title pinning Sheamus.
Winner: New World Heavyweight Champion, Wade Barrett
NO DISQUALIFICATION
CM Punk vs. Triple H (w. Stephanie McMahon-Helmsely)
Through the end of 2012, Triple H and Punk have been getting back in each other's business similar to where they left off prior to Summerslam 2011…very personal and seemingly very real. They just flat out don’t like each other. During this, Triple H has slowly turned into more of a Corporate suit after "retiring" from ring action, but is still an on screen authoritative figure. H is not exactly the fan favorite babyface that he was when he hung it up, while Punk continues to teater between a heel and tweaner.
Punk's anti-authority persona and continued belief that he is being disrespected and not being given the recognition that the WWE Champion should be becomes focused on Triple H. Triple H and Punk have on going issues for months, all the while Punk continues to successfully defend his WWE Title, extending his reign to over a year.
Punk faces The Rock at the Rumble for the WWE Title as the unanimous underdog, but shocks everyone by pinning The Rock fair and square after an epic match. Triple H is obviously extremely bothered by Punk's victory and continued persistence. Punk rubs his victory in Triple H's face, stating how H is just jealous because he was never able to truly outshine Rock on a major stage, and Punk did.
During the EC match, it is down to Punk and Cena as the final two when Triple H comes out to ringside and is at the chamber door, rattling the chains and taunting Punk. Punk goes over to get in Triple H’s face at the chain wall, when all of a sudden H grabs Punk and yanks him into the steel chain walls repeatedly. Punk slowly stumbles/falls back into the ring where Cena puts him into the STF and Punk passes out, losing the WWE Championship.
The following night on Raw, H states that he did what he did because Punk is exactly that: a punk, and has no business representing the WWE as its champion. Punk responds by bringing Stephanie into the issue, stating that she and H are going to end up taking over the company from Vince, and this is the type of operation they run...not giving credit where credit is due, and skewing the landscape of WWE to fit their idea of what the company should be.
Everything comes to a head in the form of a No DQ match at Wrestlemania, which becomes an all out brawl. Punk has turned back face/tweaner during this time and goes over giving him a massive rub on the grandest stage of them all.
Winner: CM Punk
ICON VS. ICON
The Rock vs. Brock Lesnar (w. Paul Heyman)
The Rock faces WWE Champion CM Punk at the Rumble, but ultimately comes up short. Punk shocks everyone, retaining the championship. Following the Rumble, Rock says he really came up short and apologies to The People. Lesnar and Heyman continue to tout (not on fucking Tout...God...) that Lesnar is unstoppable and is bigger than anything in WWE. Rock puts out the challenge to Lesnar, if he thinks he's so big and bad, to go one on one with The Great One.
Heyman says Lesnar has no reason to face Rock, and has nothing to prove against him. Lesnar proved everything he had to to The Rock 10 years ago when he beat Rock for the WWE Undisputed Title. The feud becomes taken to the main stream, with Rock basically going on shows like Jimmy Kimmel, and Jay Leno saying that Lesnar won't accept his challenge for a Wrestlemania showdown because he's afraid of getting embarrassed. Lesnar is eventually backed into a corner of tainting his "baddest man on the planet" image by the media, to accept the match. The two biggest names in WWE that transcend the squared circle and have seen the most success outside of a WWE ring square off.
The match is less of shoot style match that Brock has been recently working, showing Lesnar return more to his in ring style from his initial WWE run. Match is full of near falls, with The Rock pulling out the victory.
Winner: The Rock
WWE CHAMPIONSHIP VS. THE STREAK
John Cena(c) vs. Undertaker
Cena and Lesnar have their rematch from Extreme Rules at Survivor Series. Cena loses, marking the third major blow to his character in 2011; loss to Rock at WM28, first failed MITB briefcase cash in and loss to Lesnar. Obviously very distraught from these loses, the remainder of 2012 sees Cena struggling to be himself and get back to true form.
Fast forwarding to the Rumble, CM Punk faces The Rock for the WWE Championship, retaining the title, shocking everyone. Retaining the title has all things indicating that Punk will be walking into WM as the champ.
Back to Cena, after falling short in winning the Rumble match, Cena vows to get back on track, and earns a spot in the Raw Elimination Chamber match for the Punk's WWE Title.
At Elimination Chamber, during the Raw EC match for the WWE Title, it is down to Punk and Cena as the final two when Triple H comes out to ringside (as explained earlier) and is at the chamber door, rattling the chains and taunting Punk. Punk goes over to get in Triple H’s face at the chain wall, when all of a sudden H grabs Punk and yanks him into the steel chain walls repeatedly. Punk slowly stumbles/falls back into the ring where Cena puts him into the STF and Punk passes out, losing the WWE Championship. Cena's win is greeted with shock and boos from the crowd, which he seems upset about.
Following EC, Cena states that he came back from being in the dumps throughout 2012: losing to The Rock at WM28 in the biggest match of his life, becoming the first man to ever unsuccessfully cash in MITB and losing to Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series. Now that he's gotten himself back on top,he doesn’t understand why the fans aren't happy for him. Cena says that he feels he needs to prove to everyone he truly is the best, and he’s going to set the greatest challenge of his career: to challenge the Undertaker at Wrestlemania for his Streak. He says if he becomes the one man to ever defeat the Deadman at Wrestlemania, he will forever be remembered as the best – as The One – the "One" in 20-1. Cena says to make it even bigger and make an offer the Deadman can not refuse, he wants to put his WWE Championship on the line against The Streak to raise the stakes higher than ever before.
At Wrestlemania, both men have pulled out all of the stops. Taker and Cena are both exhausted lying on the mat while the ref has been knocked out, when all of a sudden, Triple H, still in his ring gear and beaten up from his match earlier with Punk, starts to make his way down the ramp. Taker catches a glimpse of Triple H as he is getting up, and suddenly cannot divert his focus from H, knowing this is not a good sign that the man who failed to end the Streak on three separate occasions is suddenly making his way to ring side. Triple H is standing at ring side on the floor looking into the ring, while Taker is kneeling, leaning on the second rope, looking H directly in the face. H looks incredibly serious, and with his eyes locked dead on Taker's, says, “I told you I’d end it Dead Man”. Taker slowly gets to his feet and turns around, when John Cena hits Taker square in the forehead with Triple H’s patented sledgehammer, knocking him out. Triple H shakes the ref, and tosses him back in the ring where he counts the 1-2-3 while Cena has a big smirk on his face.
The crowd is shocked and furious, throwing garbage in the ring. Triple H and Cena shake hands while standing tall over Taker, having both just shattered the greatest accomplishment in WWE history. Cena takes off his arm and wrist bands throwing them down on Taker and spitting on them. A new era in WWE is anointed with John Cena and Triple H as the top heels, with all of the power, and the WWE Title, in their control. John Cena has become “The One” as Triple H raises his arm holding the WWE Title. Stephanie is shown walking out on the stage and stands proud clapping her hands looking down towards the ring where Triple H and Cena stand tall as Wrestlemania goes off the air.
Winner: Still WWE Champion, John Cena