WWE officially nixes proposed WrestleMania XXVIII match

What heavily-rumored match is scrapped?

During the WWE Friday Night Smackdown tapings for March 2, Smackdown GM Teddy Long booked Big Show vs. Cody Rhodes for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania XXVIII.

This pretty much puts the nail in the coffin for the heavily-rumored Big Show vs. basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal match on April 1 for WrestleMania. At times, it seemed like Show vs. Shaq was pretty much a done deal, according to F4WOnline.com, but as always in professional wrestling (especially in WWE these days), plans change. WWE may have decided Shaq wasn't worth the money he'd have to be paid to wrestle, considering John Cena vs. The Rock is a big enough draw on its own.

Originally, according to F4WOnline.com's Dave Meltzer, WWE wanted Show vs. Shaq for WrestleMania because the company probably felt that the more eyes on its product, the better before the launch of the ambitious, yet risky WWE Network. However, that was months back and WWE has quietly and unofficially pushed back the network's launch date to the fall. 

Since Rock vs. Cena and Undertaker vs. Triple H will presumably draw very well without Shaq's presence, it'd make more sense to book his proposed angle with Show to lead to an eventual match at SummerSlam in August. After last year's disappointing SummerSlam pay-per-view buyrate, it would only help the event with a major celebrity angle involving Shaq--as long as there's a strong main event (i.e. Rock vs. Cena II) to compliment it. 

What makes this story bizarre is that Shaq even said he'd be at WrestleMania. WWE then came out with a story on WWE.com stating the contrary. Well, we know now that Shaq won't be wrestling on April 1, but there's still a chance he could make an appearance--leading to a big match in the future. 

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