I'm not saying that it completely submarines Trips and Rock to have Foley win the match, but it does unnecessarily burden them, and it cheapens the title. Absolutely no one deserves to win their final match (which at the time it was presumed to be for Foley, and was for 4 years IIRC). Not Flair, not Hogan, not Austin, not Rock, not Shawn, not Bret, not Cena, not Hunter, not Undertaker, and not Foley. None of them are bigger than the business, and none of them SHOULD be bigger than the Championship (although sadly some of them are).
John Elway won a Super Bowl (two, technically) and promptly retired, as did Jerome Bettis. Michael Jordan twice left basketball after winning an NBA championship.
Floyd Mayweather retired while a champion, as did Lennox Lewis. Rocky Marciano retired undefeated.
None of these instances the championship was cheapened by their decisions. And these are real sports. I'm positive that the championship wouldn't be diminished if Foley had won it that night.
Rock coming out on top WOULD have been an awesome Wrestlemania moment, and it's one he definitely deserved and never really got. That was the time for it, in hindsight. Instead he has on his resume losing at XV (fair), losing at 2000 (dumb move), losing at X-7 while being booed out of the building (bad move regardless of how much I love heel Austin creatively), booed mercilessly at X8 (total dick move by Toronto), booed at XIX (fair since he was the heel), and stuck in a midcard tag match at XX.
Rock has NEVER gotten the "triumphant at Wrestlemania to the adulation of the millions" moment he deserved, and IF he is going to stick around after XXVIII and do some more matches over the next couple years, this might be the time to do it.
I do agree that Rock doesn't have that one shining moment, though that WMXIX crowd was cheering for him pretty good when he won.
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TheRock ~ Slow dramatic zoom-pan. Doesn't phase the hooded man.
"You have issues." - MWC. Pot. Kettle.