Well, no, more of a storytelling exercise, hard mode edition.
There WAS a natural match between Cena and Rock after WM. They legitimately built one, and (had Rock been available and willing) could have easily had their (first?) match happen at Extreme Rules 2011 and it would have been entirely organic.
Instead, they chose to DELAY the encounter until WM 28, and thus had the challenge of finding ways to keep it bubbling on the back burner while Cena was off doing other things in the meantime.
They failed, but still that's not to say that a BETTER creative team couldn't have pulled it off.
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Thank you, Eddie Guerrero.
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