Kester's WWE WrestleMania 29 Rundown: John Cena wins the WWE Championship, Undertaker extends The Streak to 21-0, and Triple H saves his wrestling career

By Ryan Kester

The Rock vs. John Cena

I enjoyed the majority of this match. Rock and John Cena worked a great pace and told a good story that ended up getting dragged out too long. There's only so many finishers and reversed finisher spots that occur in one match before the whole sequence becomes ridiculous and loses steam. There were several great near falls in this match that would have ended the contest properly rather than the anticlimactic ending we received.

The biggest issue with this match stems from the place this leaves WWE. It's not a problem that John Cena holds the WWE Championship; John Cena needed to take the belt off of The Rock so he could leave. The issue is that Cena didn't make good on his promise that the face of the WWE would change, and the post-match passing of the torch laid that out clearly.

Who is the same babyface John Cena going to face now? He's been involved with every top star for the past several years and he's remained the one constant with the same character. The issue doesn't even come down to whether or not the Cena character needs to turn; Cena simply needs to evolve in order to keep the product fresh. The most development he's received in the past few years was done retroactively during the build for this match, and the big celebration after this match was centered on the fact that the same old Cena is back.

This move did not make the entire show the worst WrestleMania in existence as many are stating. It did, however, give fans that have become disenfranchised with the product over Cena's stale character little reason to come back over the next few months.

The Undertaker vs. CM Punk

This match was spectacular. It was easily the highlight of the night and the show would have been lesser without it. Undertaker and Punk must be commended for coming up with a unique formula that drew the crowd into the match and created a few believable near falls. They managed to shed the terrible build early and simply produce a memorable and enjoyable wrestling match.

No one truly knows how many big WrestleMania matches Undertaker has left in him, but when he does eventually retire, the big show simply won't be the same. The past several years of matches Undertaker has been involved in have each been the highlights of the event.

It will be interesting to see where Punk goes from here and who WWE will pair him with. It feels far too early to dive back into another Cena vs. Punk feud. Punk could easily work with a younger babyface to give them a few great matches, but it would be in WWE's best interests to keep him near the top of the card.

Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar

This match turned out to be a solid effort with a disappointing ending. Much like the main event, the idea the two men had for the ending sequence was ended ad nauseum and it let the air out of the finish. There was a disconnect between the match and the crowd already, and the extended submission sequence did little to bring them back.

It's disappointing to see WWE put Triple H over. It's understandable that they didn't want to retire him in case he was needed again, but that stipulation never needed to exist in the first place. Lesnar is being hailed as a beast, but he has been stopped more times than he's won since he's returned to the company. After a certain point, talk of dominance fails to mean anything when the dominant force is turned back more often than not.

Overall Show

Unfortunately, the top three matches on the card were really the only efforts that felt like they were occurring on a WrestleMania. There was some solid booking in parts of the undercard, but ultimately, WWE simply failed to make this show feel as special as it should. Was it entertaining? Yes. Was it memorable outside of the main matches? No.

If you have any questions or comments or just wish to chat with a fellow wrestling fan about whatever, then feel free to email me at ryan.kester@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter.