Board 8 > All Purpose Wrestling Topic 140: Arrive. WWWYKI. Leave.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Uh, I don't see the problem with The Rock's promo? I thought it was awesome. Guy hasn't lost his touch. Especially since the lack of crowd interaction makes it hard for him to play off of.

I could actually go into my thoughts on the Cena/Rock angle because if the WWE is playing it the way I think it is, it's going very, very well.

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TheRock ~ Death By Misadventure, Not Suicide
"Would've liked to see that." - Ayuyu on my boner

who would be on Team Rock in a potential Team Cena vs Team Bring It SVS match? Even kayfabe wise I can only see heels because they would go against Cena but it doesn't look right as a Team Bring It.

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Growlithe-Tackling Mantine - Go To Meowth - Gardevoir + Mamoswine
Member of the merSHINEsess Nation since 7/15/09

Team Rock:
The Rock
Kane
Alberto Del Rio
Ezekiel Jackson
Cody Rhodes

Team Cena:
Cena
Randy Orton
The Miz
Rey Mysterio
Daniel Bryan

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SmartMuffin - Because anything less would be uncivilized
http://img.imgcake.com/lolkrugmanjpgry.jpg

based on that list I can see Alex Riley on team bring it >_>;

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Growlithe-Tackling Mantine - Go To Meowth - Gardevoir + Mamoswine
Member of the merSHINEsess Nation since 7/15/09

Team Bring It: Guys that were around during Rock's time, and one younger guy.
Big Show
Triple H
Mark Henry
Dolph Ziggler

Team Cena: Guys he's been shown to be friends with.
John Cena
Evan Bourne
Zack Ryder
CM Punk (joins because they have a common enemy in the Rock)

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question lechoke james tell how dose my bleb taste

Also, I'm confused about the whole "Rock sucks because it's all about him." Uh, when Rock was at his best, it WAS all about him. He was the most self-centered jackass in the WWF. That was part of the appeal. Frankly, I started to get tired of Rock when he started getting buddy-buddy with a lot of the faces (Hogan, Kane, Jericho for a while, Mick Foley).

Honestly, the more self-centered and egotistical The Rock is, the more I enjoy him. When he's not, it feels like he's pulling punches and not as snarky as I prefer. I mean, think of all the great moments he had picking on poor, helpless interviewers.

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TheRock ~ Death By Misadventure, Not Suicide
"Would've liked to see that." - Ayuyu on my boner

I suddenly just remembered that christian got his PEEPS from the Rock.

Christian for Team Bring It!

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Growlithe-Tackling Mantine - Go To Meowth - Gardevoir + Mamoswine
Member of the merSHINEsess Nation since 7/15/09

By the way, a great storyline for Team Bring It vs. CeNation would be Rock trying to recruit members and having no idea who half the f*** of them are, only for at the last second a couple of old buddies from the Attitude Era step in.

ESPECIALLY if one of them is The Undertaker.

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TheRock ~ Death By Misadventure, Not Suicide
"Would've liked to see that." - Ayuyu on my boner

It's one thing to be self-centered and egotistical WHILE you're showing up every night, working your ass off, and generally being among the best in-ring and on-mic in the entire company.

It's quite another thing to do it when you walked out on all the fans, made a bunch of crappy movies, came back and said "I'm never leaving again," and then left.

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SmartMuffin - Because anything less would be uncivilized
http://img.imgcake.com/lolkrugmanjpgry.jpg

Team Rock

Foley

who cares about the rest.

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Vote for this guy in every contest: Sess

voltch posted...
Team Rock

Foley

who cares about the rest.

I would mark pretty hard for the Rock n Sock Connection.

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TheRock ~ Death By Misadventure, Not Suicide
"Would've liked to see that." - Ayuyu on my boner

SmartMuffin posted...
It's one thing to be self-centered and egotistical WHILE you're showing up every night, working your ass off, and generally being among the best in-ring and on-mic in the entire company.

It's quite another thing to do it when you walked out on all the fans, made a bunch of crappy movies, came back and said "I'm never leaving again," and then left.

Outside of wrestling Shawn Michaels, I really don't see WHY The Rock needed to stick around all these years. He pretty much wrestled all the legends to pass through the WWF/E with a few exceptions. Hell, he faced Ric Flair for Christ Sakes. And considering how many wrestlers end up either A) pretty f***ed up from it via injuries, etc. or B) shells of their former selves parading around in an embarrassing fashion, I'd say I'd take what Rock is currently doing a million times more. Considering the fact that ten years after it already happened, we had to see HHH/Taker again at WM when both are broken shells of their former selfs.

And I don't see how The Rock "walked out" on fans. This has always seemed like bitterness over losing a great wrestler more than The Rock "turning" on the WWE. There's plenty of guys who have turned/walked out on the WWE. Rock's decision was not one of those.

And really, the "never leaving again thing" never made me feel like he meant he was going to be there every night. It just meant that the WWE was going to be a part of his life again.

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TheRock ~ Death By Misadventure, Not Suicide
"Would've liked to see that." - Ayuyu on my boner

Well yeah, people are bitter that The Rock retired while still in his prime, but it's his life, he has every right to.

The real sense of frustration though comes from him not only retiring, but essentially doing everything he could to completely distance himself from us. Dropped "The Rock" name for awhile, only cut a couple pre-taped promos during that entire stretch, and didn't appear live once for 6 1/2 years outside of inducting his father/grandfather into the Hall of Fame.

Did he "owe" anything to us? No. But it still leaves a bitter taste in peoples' mouths to see him just treat the business like an albatross he's trying to get rid of for over half a decade, when that business is the only reason he was able to move to acting in the first place.

And now it kinda feels like he's doing the same thing but trying to pay a bit more lip service to wrestling fans. "Hey guys, I love you, you are my lifeblood, I'll always be a part of you. Now if you'll excuse me I have an action scene to film. See you in November."

I mean, Cena's entire argument is "Rock doesn't care enough to show up" and Rock's counter-argument is "You idiot, I don't show up because I'm not employed, I clearly have other things I'd rather be doing" as if that doesn't prove Cena's point.

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Thank you, Eddie Guerrero.
http://cdn.buzznet.com/assets/imgx/1/5/2/7/4/5/7/1/orig-15274571.jpg

And to that point, if you BELIEVE Rock's argument that Cena is a phony, then I can totally grasp how you would think Rock is winning the war of words.

I just don't think he has a leg to stand on there, at all, but that's just my opinion.

--
Thank you, Eddie Guerrero.
http://cdn.buzznet.com/assets/imgx/1/5/2/7/4/5/7/1/orig-15274571.jpg

Jericho did a better job of leaving wrestling than the Rock did!

Or a worse job, depending on how you look at it.

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Growlithe-Tackling Mantine - Go To Meowth - Gardevoir + Mamoswine
Member of the merSHINEsess Nation since 7/15/09

JaKyL25 posted...
Well yeah, people are bitter that The Rock retired while still in his prime, but it's his life, he has every right to.

The real sense of frustration though comes from him not only retiring, but essentially doing everything he could to completely distance himself from us. Dropped "The Rock" name for awhile, only cut a couple pre-taped promos during that entire stretch, and didn't appear live once for 6 1/2 years outside of inducting his father/grandfather into the Hall of Fame.

Did he "owe" anything to us? No. But it still leaves a bitter taste in peoples' mouths to see him just treat the business like an albatross he's trying to get rid of for over half a decade, when that business is the only reason he was able to move to acting in the first place.

And now it kinda feels like he's doing the same thing but trying to pay a bit more lip service to wrestling fans. "Hey guys, I love you, you are my lifeblood, I'll always be a part of you. Now if you'll excuse me I have an action scene to film. See you in November."

I mean, Cena's entire argument is "Rock doesn't care enough to show up" and Rock's counter-argument is "You idiot, I don't show up because I'm not employed, I clearly have other things I'd rather be doing" as if that doesn't prove Cena's point.

The problem is that I wouldn't WANT The Rock for 6.5 years. The Rock suffered from oversaturation from 99-01 and the fans responded accordingly. Imagine 6.5 more years of Rock appearing regularly in main events or the biggest storylines, with little-to-no interruption between the them (and he managed to stay very healthy in his 6 years with the company, so if he avoids injury he wouldn't have the big injury like Edge/HHH/etc. had). Quite simply put, it would be VERY easy for people to get sick of The Rock. Look how quickly they turned on Cena after less than a year as him champion. The same would happen to Rock. And unfortunately, Rock was in a position where going down to the mid-card for a period of time just wouldn't work.

As for distancing himself from the product, if I recall a lot of that happened around the same of the Chris Benoit Murder/Suicide. In fact, I believe the first movie to feature him as Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was The Game Plan, a movie that came out 3 months after the incident. That, or it was the last one because it was too late to change the marketing on it. Either way, I think we all agree that it was definitely the best option for The Rock at the time because trying to promote family friendly movies while still being associated with the WWE wasn't going to work.

I think the main difference between prior to his return and now is that the WWE itself is trying to clean up it's image. It's entered the PG Era. And yes, Rock retains all his usual non-PG mannerisms (and we thank him for that) but the WWE is now much easier to tie himself to without it hurting his image. Plus, it helps that Rock is now returning to his action oriented roots with his last few films.

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TheRock ~ Death By Misadventure, Not Suicide
"Would've liked to see that." - Ayuyu on my boner

there... aren't that many guys that just turned away from WWE to do something unrelated. even when they went to another company, they continued to wrestle. the best you've got is Jericho, however when he was away he was away and kept it that way. when he came back, he came back and kept it that way. it's understood that he'll be back, it was understood when he left that he'd come back, and made sure to be clear as possible in saying that if he returns to wrestling, it's WWE. Rock left, and used his influence in the WWE to occasionally promote something. it's great that Rock has done what he's always wanted, even at the expense of something else, but it's wrong that he didn't just abandon - but he abused that star-power when giving nothing back.

Cena even made this distinction clear with Punk (one of the less subtle aspects to the whole thing i love): even though Punk is leaving according to the storyline, Punk will continue. it's his passion, he will move forward with it. if/when he'd come back, Punk would be on top again. Rock was gone. Cena's busted his ass at the top of the card for twice as long as Rock was in WWE, and it's clear that a guy with that kind of work ethic isn't doing it for the money. Cena's made it clear enough in pretty much any way you could ask for to point out that he legit loves the business.

Rock hasn't. he said it, then left to a movie.it doesnt mean "i want you week in week out" - though that certainly is the best proof you can provide - it means that you will be there as part of, and for, the business. he hasn't. the business has bent over backwards to try to bring him in and literally devoted a 2-3 hour show on his birthday, which is the closest thing you'll get to a figurative blow job from Vince. the Rock, in return... has delivered youtube replies to Cena instigating him every couple months. i want a guy who's not a cameo visit. i want a guy who actually is, in fact, involved with the product even if it's only with the community. Stone Cold, JR? these guys are part of WWE. they don't have to be on TV (though Tough Enough definitely proves Austin will), but they'll comment. they'll twitter, they'll blog, they'll interview, they'll do something to make sure that everyone knows and understands that these are people who are a part of this business and follow it.

Rock only follows a loose script which Cena writes. honestly i'm not sure why you'd ever want to cheer for a guy like that. the best you've got is "Rock can cut a better promo!" as a general appeal, but he's just missing everything else.

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The future must protect the clone's past.
"Maybe it's a tentacle, molesting the planet itself. - Aschen Brodel.

he was going in the direction of Dwayne before that anyway. for the most basic reason, his movies were changing and calling a guy The Rock in front of a kids movie just doesn't work as well from a 'family friendly' image. Benoit's death shouldn't have anything to do with that.

however distancing himself during that event doesn't help his cause either. that's one of the simpler topics to see how well people turn their back on the business.

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The future must protect the clone's past.
"Maybe it's a tentacle, molesting the planet itself. - Aschen Brodel.

JaKyL25 posted...
And to that point, if you BELIEVE Rock's argument that Cena is a phony, then I can totally grasp how you would think Rock is winning the war of words.

I just don't think he has a leg to stand on there, at all, but that's just my opinion.

Oh, kayfabe-wise, I believe it. Or at the very least I believe The Rock kayfabe-wise believes it. Obviously, everyone knows Cena is a hard-worker, but I'm working under the assumption that all of this is generally a worked-shoot at best and just another WWE storyline at worst.

But here's the things that The Rock nails from HIS point of view (and this is important here):

Rock is under no obligation to come back, but he chooses to come back for nothing else but the fans. Not the money, not anything else, but the fans.

Cena is contractually obligated to come to each and every show. He has no choice but to show up. And trying to use this as a justification for that he "cares more" falls flat because it's possible Cena wouldn't show up for every show if he wasn't contractually forced to.

Of course, the counter-point from Cena is this:

Rock wants to show love for the fans, he has to show up more and on a regular basis. Right now, it's half-assed because he doesn't show up every night.

I love the business and I would show up whether they pay me or not because I love wrestling and I love the fans.

See, this is why I'm so intrigued by the whole thing. I think BOTH sides bring up great points and I think they're both playing off of each other really well. Rock is attacking John Cena's entertainment value and whether or not he's authentic. Cena is coming back, attacking Rock's non-committal attitude while trumpeting his own.

That's why I like this so much, and honestly I like storylines where it feels like both sides are in the right.

--
TheRock ~ Death By Misadventure, Not Suicide
"Would've liked to see that." - Ayuyu on my boner

Wanglicious posted...
he was going in the direction of Dwayne before that anyway. for the most basic reason, his movies were changing and calling a guy The Rock in front of a kids movie just doesn't work as well from a 'family friendly' image. Benoit's death shouldn't have anything to do with that.

however distancing himself during that event doesn't help his cause either. that's one of the simpler topics to see how well people turn their back on the business.

Actually, I was wrong in that The Game Plan was the first Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson movie. It was Get Smart, which came out June 2008 a full year after Benoit's death.

Either way, Benoit's death was nuclear, and Rock was the only wrestler to ever become a serious Hollywood Actor. If he even dipped his toe in that mess he was going to pay for it big time.

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TheRock ~ Death By Misadventure, Not Suicide
"Would've liked to see that." - Ayuyu on my boner

Rock should just point out that Cena's 'commitment' to wrestling with a completely ****ed up neck is probably going to leave him paralyzed before he's 50. What's he gonna do, come back with 'But I love it, man!'?

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We are thought, and reality, and concept, and the unimaginable

And here's the one thing I don't get:

Rock left, and used his influence in the WWE to occasionally promote something. it's great that Rock has done what he's always wanted, even at the expense of something else, but it's wrong that he didn't just abandon - but he abused that star-power when giving nothing back.

This is complete and utter bulls***. There are few, if any, superstars that were willing (and did) put over younger talent the way Rock did. When HHH was trying to firmly established himself as one of the top in the business, who jobbed to him at the biggest PPV of the year? Rock. When Kurt Angle went on to win his first WWF/E Championship, who did he beat? Rock. Jericho needs his first World Title, who does he beat? Rock. Hell, a couple months later he beats him AGAIN at a PPV to go on and capture the Undisputed Title. Brock Lesnar is getting huge and they need someone well-established that can go toe-to-toe with him and lose CLEAN to make him look like a monster. Who does it? Rock. Rock jobbed 3 Wrestlemanias in a row for the sake of the business. Goldberg needs to take someone big down in his WWE debut. Who is it? Rock. Rock's final match of his career to this point? Jobbing cleanly alongside Mick Foley to Randy Orton, Batista, and Ric Flair, the first two becoming major players for the WWE and multi-time World Champs.

And now, you want to b**** about him coming back to promote a movie every now and then? This guy routinely put over new emerging talent for the sake of the business. Frankly, that was another thing that appealed The Rock to me, was that you never went into a match with The Rock knowing who would win.

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TheRock ~ Death By Misadventure, Not Suicide
"Would've liked to see that." - Ayuyu on my boner

And the man jobbed cleanly to The Hurricane.

The Hurricane!

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TheRock ~ Death By Misadventure, Not Suicide
"Would've liked to see that." - Ayuyu on my boner

Also putting over Hurricane, of all people

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We are thought, and reality, and concept, and the unimaginable

Shoo, ninja, shoo

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We are thought, and reality, and concept, and the unimaginable

I think at the end of the day is what I'm saying is that I don't think we needed 6 more years of Rock. I think The Rock's time in the WWE was long enough. Sure, maybe a couple extra years would have been nice but Rock elevated to ME so quickly that I can't see any scenario where we wouldn't suffer Rock burn-out.

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TheRock ~ Death By Misadventure, Not Suicide
"Would've liked to see that." - Ayuyu on my boner

From: TheRock1525 | #469
Cena is contractually obligated to come to each and every show. He has no choice but to show up. And trying to use this as a justification for that he "cares more" falls flat because it's possible Cena wouldn't show up for every show if he wasn't contractually forced to.

In kayfabe this point falls flat when you realize that even when Cena's fired he *still* shows up <_< Plus they make a huge point on-air of talking about how much extra effort he puts in ahead of everyone else.

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We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny

I see what you're saying, but at the root of the argument I still think Rock has no substance to his anti-Cena argument.

His whole point seems to be "John Cena is lame and he sucks, he's nowhere near as entertaining as people from my era were."

He's not offering any alternative, though. He hasn't pointed to anyone on the roster who would be better, or (better yet in Cena's eyes) showed Cena up by actually coming out even semi-regularly and being the entertainer he claims to be.

That's the whole crux of Cena's "at least I show up" rebuttal. He's never once denied anything Rock has said about who likes Cena and who hates Cena and why, he just says "Hey, it is what it is, but at least I'm out here doing the best I can."

If you say you care about the fanbase, and you think they deserve better than John Cena, and you have the stroke to do something about it, but you're not willing to do anything about it, you come across as just a big complainer who's just out there sucking up to the anti-Cena fanbase for ****s and giggles.

--
Thank you, Eddie Guerrero.
http://cdn.buzznet.com/assets/imgx/1/5/2/7/4/5/7/1/orig-15274571.jpg

And also, at the end of the day I really don't give a s*** about how hard a worker John Cena is.

He bores me. I don't like his promos, his matches are routinely sloppy and underwhelming, and he generally does nothing for me.

Rock entertains me. I love his promos, I think he does solid ring work, and generally find him much more appealing.

So how can I root for him? Pretty damn easily.

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TheRock ~ Death By Misadventure, Not Suicide
"Would've liked to see that." - Ayuyu on my boner

And that's what makes Cena's attitude towards Punk interesting in the wake of the feud with Rock.

Punk echoes Rock's sentiment that John Cena sucks as a wrestler and on the mic. But Punk plans on actually doing something about it, within the next lunar cycle.

And Cena respects that and encourages it.

--
Thank you, Eddie Guerrero.
http://cdn.buzznet.com/assets/imgx/1/5/2/7/4/5/7/1/orig-15274571.jpg

meaning, you're a Rocky fan and hate Cena. which is all well and good but ruins the entire point of any possible argument as it's akin to cheering for Riley over the Miz because you hate the Miz and dig Riley's theme or something like that. or for the simple version, 'hate that guy, like the other' without any real rhyme or reason to it.

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The future must protect the clone's past.
"Maybe it's a tentacle, molesting the planet itself. - Aschen Brodel.

JaKyL25 posted...
I see what you're saying, but at the root of the argument I still think Rock has no substance to his anti-Cena argument.

His whole point seems to be "John Cena is lame and he sucks, he's nowhere near as entertaining as people from my era were."

He's not offering any alternative, though. He hasn't pointed to anyone on the roster who would be better, or (better yet in Cena's eyes) showed Cena up by actually coming out even semi-regularly and being the entertainer he claims to be.

That's the whole crux of Cena's "at least I show up" rebuttal. He's never once denied anything Rock has said about who likes Cena and who hates Cena and why, he just says "Hey, it is what it is, but at least I'm out here doing the best I can."

If you say you care about the fanbase, and you think they deserve better than John Cena, and you have the stroke to do something about it, but you're not willing to do anything about it, you come across as just a big complainer who's just out there sucking up to the anti-Cena fanbase for ****s and giggles.

That's kinda why I said earlier "I want to see if the WWE is going to take this the right way." You're right that The Rock's argument, while valid, doesn't really have a real alternative to it. It's not like "Cena sucks, you should push so-and-so" because at this point, you don't want to drag a third party into it (Miz being the third wheel when he held the damn championship is pretty bad).

The whole point is that EVENTUALLY, Rock's arguments will be exposed once they meet head-to-head. That for all the personal attacks, all the "this is the reason you suck" speeches, deep down Cena knows that his love for wrestling is all that matters.

See, I feel like The Rock's attacks on Cena are attempts to put dents in the armor. Attempts to put doubts on Cena's part. The more Rock attacks him on how the fans hate him, the more it could creep into Cena's mind as the date approaches. Right now, Cena is boastful and ready to admit to it, but claim his love for the business is too big to hold down. But what if it really does get to him? What if we see moments of doubt from Cena approaching WM?

This is all assuming WWE doesn't drop the ball here, because putting some legit dents in Cena's armor would do a whole lot for this angle.

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TheRock ~ Death By Misadventure, Not Suicide
"Would've liked to see that." - Ayuyu on my boner

Wanglicious posted...
meaning, you're a Rocky fan and hate Cena. which is all well and good but ruins the entire point of any possible argument as it's akin to cheering for Riley over the Miz because you hate the Miz and dig Riley's theme or something like that. or for the simple version, 'hate that guy, like the other' without any real rhyme or reason to it.

Except there's plenty of rhyme and reason, as I've pointed out. You can disagree with it but I think I bring up some damn valid points about this whole situation.

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TheRock ~ Death By Misadventure, Not Suicide
"Would've liked to see that." - Ayuyu on my boner

Well, generally speaking, I like Rock a lot more than I like Cena.

But it just so happens that in this particular argument Cena is like, 100% in the right. Unless things change dramatically between now and then, I will be rooting HARD for Cena at WM, for the first time in my life, even though he's facing one of my favorite wrestlers of all time.

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SmartMuffin - Because anything less would be uncivilized
http://img.imgcake.com/lolkrugmanjpgry.jpg

SmartMuffin posted...
Well, generally speaking, I like Rock a lot more than I like Cena.

But it just so happens that in this particular argument Cena is like, 100% in the right. Unless things change dramatically between now and then, I will be rooting HARD for Cena at WM, for the first time in my life, even though he's facing one of my favorite wrestlers of all time.

See, I guess that's the problem. I see both of them in the right here.

But I don't see any possible scenario that doesn't end with Cena winning clean, Rock shaking his hand and saying that he finally respects him blah-blah-blah.

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TheRock ~ Death By Misadventure, Not Suicide
"Would've liked to see that." - Ayuyu on my boner

I don't think doubts about the fanbase can actually put dents into Cena's armor.

We've established for 6 years now that Cena hears the haters and that they don't bother him. This is not a new phenomenon that Rocky is exploiting here. He's stared down Canadian crowds when up against Jericho, Hammerstein crowds when facing RVD, smark crowds in general while fighting Triple H and HBK, and now he faces a Chicago crowd soaking in that CM Punk kool-aid. None of this has ever even begun to bother him. Nothing Rock can say about it should either.

There are ways to change Cena's character, but we're long past the "fans have turned on him and he feels slighted by that" opportunity.

--
Thank you, Eddie Guerrero.
http://cdn.buzznet.com/assets/imgx/1/5/2/7/4/5/7/1/orig-15274571.jpg

putting dents in Cena is best left to those who can actually bang on 'em with a hammer, not to a guy who's no better than a random guy with a youtube account.

as in, Punk slammed Cena harder than everything Rock's done in 10 minutes of promos across two segments. he can back it up and has a match. he can acknowledge Cena, the person, and doesn't try to mock him or his goofy aspects too much but cuts through that to the core problems - Cena the superman, Cena the "underdog", Cena the Champion, Cena the guy who needs to be knocked down a peg. as opposed to Cena, the guy who.... wears colorful shirts and has a fanbase with kids. Punk willingly acknowledges Cena as a character and as a person, but rails him in the spots where there's a problem or a contradiction within both. Rock just goes after the character in a position not much better than an internet troll. he can say what he wants, but if Austin's having a beer with Cena in the ring, there's nothing he can do to try to shatter the guy. let alone with everything he's put up with over the years with the crowds - what's a guy yelling at him gonna do? sorry, it's been years and that ain't working.

but Punk's different. his attacks cut through the merch, the sales, and go to the man. you're looking at the wrong guy if that's what you're after.

--
The future must protect the clone's past.
"Maybe it's a tentacle, molesting the planet itself. - Aschen Brodel.

JaKyL25 posted...
I don't think doubts about the fanbase can actually put dents into Cena's armor.

We've established for 6 years now that Cena hears the haters and that they don't bother him. This is not a new phenomenon that Rocky is exploiting here. He's stared down Canadian crowds when up against Jericho, Hammerstein crowds when facing RVD, smark crowds in general while fighting Triple H and HBK, and now he faces a Chicago crowd soaking in that CM Punk kool-aid. None of this has ever even begun to bother him. Nothing Rock can say about it should either.

There are ways to change Cena's character, but we're long past the "fans have turned on him and he feels slighted by that" opportunity.

But see, that would be the brilliance of it! Six years we haven't see Cena crack under the anti-Cena pressure. Six years he's gone up against hostile crowds and overcome them. Six years and it hasn't affected him.

Until now.

The difference? The Rock won't let it go. The Rock continuously and relentlessly attacks him about it. The Rock takes every ounce of venom and directs it towards this one aspect of Cena with laser focus. And reason why it matters so much? Cause The Rock is the People's Champ. He is (kayfabe) the living embodiment of the People's Will. It's one thing to shrug off the raging hatred of a nameless crowd. It's another thing when the crowd has a representative, a man long know to represent the people themselves, a man with a name and face, go up to Cena and go after him about this.

This is the one and only time I could picture this getting to Cena, because it's that now the fan hatred of him is no longer just an idea, but has actually taken form of person.

Like I said, it's the WWE's ball to drop here. Of course they can f*** it up real easy (and I expect them, too), but they could have struck solid gold with this one.

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TheRock ~ Death By Misadventure, Not Suicide
"Would've liked to see that." - Ayuyu on my boner

Okay that has two major problems

1. It basically boils down to "he's the Rock so let's just make everyone terrified of him because he's the Rock". There is no reason why Rock could bother Cena at all when guys Cena genuinely respects in some way haven't (guys like Punk and Jericho and Edge), and especially not when the audience themselves can't do it

2. The idea that Cena can just shrug off what the crowd says but when Rock says it, it's suddenly meaningful? No. That is absolute bull****. To have that happen would be to completely and utterly spit in the face of the entire story, because you're now telling us that Cena's established character doesn't matter, they're going to just erode the things he stands for the most solely because Rock's a "legend" and everyone has to look stupid next to him. Cena's whole character is about the fans, you seriously think "oh, now the fans opinions bug me a bit because Rock pointed it out, never mind that I can walk up to my haters and pose for pictures with them because I'm just happy to have them react to me in some way, even if it is negative" makes sense?

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We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny

you... really don't need any of that is just it. anybody can be 'that guy,' you'd just modify it to 'they became the straw that broke the camel's back' and bam, same scenario. it's really nothing that's unique to the guy or what he's said. and frankly for 'not letting it go' he's done a fine job making sure that Cena's busy out there getting fired and hanging with the crowd, drinking with Stone Cold, actively goading on the crowds, etc. it really doesn't work any better for the Rock than it does for anybody else. and quite frankly, it's entirely wasted on the Rock to do something like that.

once again, it comes back to Punk. Punk hit Cena harder than anyone has in terms of design, character, and both what he represents and is. it works for Punk to have Cena end up doubting himself and a change happen there. because he's actually there and can do something about it, which is really the biggest reason that just doesn't work for the Rock.

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The future must protect the clone's past.
"Maybe it's a tentacle, molesting the planet itself. - Aschen Brodel.

Wang, here's what I don't get:

The Rock vs. John Cena is going to happen. And it's the type of match that should happen at Wrestlemania. Do you think Hogan vs. Rock 1 would have been worth a damn at No Way Out?

So, are you pissed that Rock/Cena didn't get wasted at the very next PPV after Wrestlemania? I just don't get it. Rock/Cena HAS to be Wrestlemania. No other PPV would it be acceptable (unless it was a rematch). So they're stuck in a rock and a hard place. You blow your load at a lesser PPV or you do a slow burn and hope it has enough strength to last to WM.

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TheRock ~ Death By Misadventure, Not Suicide
"Would've liked to see that." - Ayuyu on my boner

All Purpose Wrestling Topic 141: Special CeNation vs Team Bring It DEBATE

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Growlithe-Tackling Mantine - Go To Meowth - Gardevoir + Mamoswine
Member of the merSHINEsess Nation since 7/15/09

next topic totally has to be about Punk.

--
The future must protect the clone's past.
"Maybe it's a tentacle, molesting the planet itself. - Aschen Brodel.

I still think they should have booked it for Summerslam.

At least the first matchup, with both guys coming in at peak face strength.

Let whatever twists and turns happen to their characters settle in after that, and then maybe re-visit things at WM.

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Thank you, Eddie Guerrero.
http://cdn.buzznet.com/assets/imgx/1/5/2/7/4/5/7/1/orig-15274571.jpg