Here’s Part 27 of our WrestleMania Retrospective series, looking back at past WrestleMania events as we march towards WrestleMania 29 on April 7th
WrestleMania 27 (2011)
Tagline: “The Biggest WrestleMania Ever”
Date: April 3, 2011
Venue: Georgia Dome, Atlanta Georgia
America the Beautiful: Keri Hilson
Attendance: 71,617
The Undertaker’s Streak: 19-0 (Def. Triple H)
WrestleMania XXVII was the twenty-seventh annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), held on April 3, 2011 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia.The event was the first WrestleMania in the state of Georgia and the second to be held in Southeastern United States, following WrestleMania XXIV. This was the final WrestleMania and the final pay-per-view promoted under the “World Wrestling Entertainment” banner, which was changed to WWE less than four days later.
Tickets for the event commenced sale to the public on November 13, 2010.According to WWE’s second-quarter earnings report, WrestleMania XXVII generated 1,059,000 PPV buys,up roughly 30% domestically and 15% internationally from the previous year. The event grossed US$6.6 million in revenue with 71,617 in attendance, making it the second highest grossing event in WWE behind WrestleMania XXV. It generated $62.1 million in economic impact for Atlanta, a $17 million increase from the previous WrestleMania event, and also generated approximately $7.8 million in local, state and county taxes.
The Rock
WrestleMania XXVII marked the return of The Rock to WrestleMania since 2004. The Rock, who guest hosted the event, walked to the ring at the shows open and cut a promo, mocking John Cena as well as firing up the crowd for WrestleMania. The Rock, the guest host, walked to the ring and cut a promo, mocking John Cena as well as firing up the crowd for WrestleMania XXVII.
Edge’s Last Match
The first televised match was for the World Heavyweight Championship. This match saw Edge defending his title against 2011 Royal Rumble winner Alberto Del Rio. Christian came out to watch the match ringside, as well as Brodus Clay and Ricardo Rodriguez. In the early part of the match, Del Rio focused on Edge’s injured arm and Christian warded off Clay and Ricardo. After some back and forth action, the ending came when Edge and Del Rio locked in their signature maneuvers. Edge locked in the Edgeucator while Del Rio locked in the Cross Armbreaker. When both men got up, Edge hit the Spear for the win. After the match, Edge and Christian destroyed Del Rio’s car. This would end up being Edge’s last match, as he announced his retirement a week later on Raw due to a legitimate neck injury.
On the April 11 Raw, Edge announced his legitimate retirement from the WWE, due to injury and orders by his doctor, making his last match for the company against Del Rio at WrestleMania. Edge vacated the World Heavyweight Championship on the April 15 edition of SmackDown, therefore retiring as world champion. Christian would win the title at Extreme Rules in a ladder match against Del Rio, only to lose it at the hands of Randy Orton, on the May 6 episode of SmackDown.
Michael Cole Vs Jerry “The King” Lawler
Booker T and Jim Ross came out to call this match, which featured Michael Cole accompanied by Jack Swagger against Jerry “The King” Lawler, with the special guest referee being Stone Cold Steve Austin. This match started off with Lawler trying to get Cole out of his cole mine, and after some time, he did so and started pounding on him. Cole managed to counter and had the upper hand on Lawler for most of the match. Swagger tried to help Cole by throwing in the towel when Lawler began to take control but was denied and then got a Stone Cold Stunner. Lawler then forced Cole to tap out with the ankle lock while Stone Cold mocked him. After the match, Stone Cold shared a beer with Lawler and stunned Booker T, who came out to celebrate with Lawler.
After Lawler had seemingly won, the anonymous Raw GM reversed the decision in an email read by Josh Mathews because Stone Cold was a biased referee, making Cole the winner by disqualification. Stone Cold then proceeded to stun Mathews as well in retribution. Lawler then replaced Mathews and Booker T as the color commentator for the rest of the night, with Jim Ross doing the play-by-play.
The Streak
The No Holds Barred match featured two icons in the WWE: The Undertaker and Triple H. Triple H first came out to For Whom The Bell Tolls by Metallica wearing a mask and suit, then removed it for his normal entrance theme.
The beginning of this match started off with Taker and Triple H going at it outside of the ring, destroying Michael Cole’s “cole mine” in the process. Triple H first gave a spinebuster to Undertaker through the Spanish announce table. This match went back and forth, with Undertaker hitting Triple H with a Chokeslam, Last Ride, but still Triple H kicked out of both. After that, Triple H answered back with a Pedigree, but Undertaker kicked out. Undertaker then hit the Tombstone Piledriver, but Triple H kicked out. The Game then nailed Undertaker with a chair shot to the head and a DDT on the chair, but after some more back and forth action Triple H was able to execute a second Pedigree, but Taker kicked out. Triple H immediately nailed him with a devastating third Pedigree, but The Undertaker still kicked out. After numerous steel chair shots, and telling Taker to stay down, Triple H seemingly had the match won when he executed Undertaker’s Tombstone Piledriver, but Undertaker once again kicked out. Triple H then grabbed a sledgehammer, but Undertaker locked the Hell’s Gate on Triple H. He tried to fight out of it, but Triple H tapped out.
The Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak thus continued to 19-0. After the match, the Undertaker had to be helped to the locker room by WWE staff after he collapsed outside the ring and could not walk under his own power.
WWE Championship
The last match was for the WWE Championship. It featured John Cena facing off against current champion The Miz (accompanied by Alex Riley). The first highlight of the match occurred when Cena hit the Five Knuckle Shuffle on The Miz. Cena then went for the Attitude Adjustment, but Miz countered with a DDT. There was a lot of back and forth action until The Miz hit the Skull Crushing Finale. That didn’t keep Cena down as he managed to hit the Attitude Adjustment; however, that didn’t keep Miz down either. Both men fought outside of the ring, but knocked each other out in the process. The match ended in a double countout, meaning The Miz would retain his title.
The Rock came out to intervene, but the Raw GM made an announcement. The Rock went to read it, but then disregarded it. He called for a restart to the match with a no disqualification, no countout, no time limit stipulation. The match restarted and, with Cena dragging Miz back inside the ring and attempting to execute an Attitude Adjustment, wasn’t successful. In retaliation for the Attitude Adjustment that Cena gave him on the Raw episode prior to WrestleMania, The Rock stalked Cena from behind and hit a Rock Bottom on him. Taking advantage, The Miz then covered a fallen Cena for the win.
After the match, The Rock had a staredown with Miz until Rock commenced an attack on him, ending the ambush with his signature spinebuster and his finisher, The People’s Elbow. WrestleMania XXVII went off air with The Rock posing on top of the turnbuckles for the fans.
Raw After WrestleMania XXVII
The following night on Raw, John Cena and The Rock agreed to face each other in a match at WrestleMania XXVIII, marking the first time a match had been announced almost a year in advance for any WrestleMania.
WrestleMania XXVII Results
Dark King Sheamus (c) wrestled Daniel Bryan to a no-contest Lumberjack match for the WWE United Dark The Great Khali won by last eliminating Sheamus 23-Man Battle Royal 08:34
• Edge (c) (with Christian) defeated Alberto Del Rio (with Ricardo Rodriguez and Brodus Clay) Singles match for the World Heavyweight Championship
• Cody Rhodes defeated Rey Mysterio Singles match 11:59
• Kane, Big Show, Santino Marella, and Kofi Kingston defeated The Corre (Wade Barrett, Ezekiel Jackson, Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater) 8-Man Tag Team match 01:34
• Randy Orton defeated CM Punk Singles match 14:46
• Michael Cole (with Jack Swagger) defeated Jerry Lawler by Disqualification Singles match with Stone Cold Steve Austin as Special Guest Referee 13:36
• The Undertaker defeated Triple H by submission No Holds Barred match 29:33
• John Morrison, Trish Stratus and Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi defeated Dolph Ziggler and LayCool (Layla and Michelle McCool) (with Vickie Guerrero) 6-Person Mixed Tag Team match 03:17
• The Miz (c) (with Alex Riley) defeated John Cena Singles match for the WWE Championship
