Should The Rock End His WWE Career?By Ben Spindler| May 5, 2013 Wrestling Blogs Previous Page In my opinion, The Rock never hit the same heights as he did that first night back in the company. That night he was magical, engrossing, enchanting and his presence brought a feeling that none of the current roster were able to rival, he was in a different league. Ever since then, he has, with the exception of one or two exchanges on the mic with CM Punk, seemed almost run of the mill. After bringing such electricity on his first appearance back, he started to show rustiness on the mic in one-on-one confrontations with Cena, appearing hesitant and uncertain of himself for perhaps the first ever time in a wrestling ring. Furthermore, some of the old instincts had deserted him. He became isolated from the main roster, and did not mix with them on screen in an attempt to elevate them simply by association. This may have been caused by (and in turn help perpetuate) resentment from some of the other regular stars in the backstage, who were reported to be unhappy about a guy who hadn’t wrestled for 7 years, all of a sudden taking one of the top positions on the biggest show of the year. The Rock has a reputation for always handling himself with class but in this scenario, who could blame The Rock for distancing himself from ‘the boys’ who were unhappy with his presence in the first place. The Rock had returned when the WWE desperately needed him; during the build-up of a Wrestlemania that looked like the most anaemic line up booked for ‘the granddaddy of em all’ in years. It is hard to believe that the event would have sold the number of pay-per-views it did without The Rock being on it, do we really believe that John Cena V The Miz was a match likely to draw over 900,000 pay-per-view buys? The night after Wrestlemania 27 on Raw, WWE did something unprecedented and announced to the world what the main event of the following year’s show would be- The Rock V John Cena. As far as long term planning goes, it was about as extreme as anything WWE had ever attempted, but as The Rock would only be making sporadic appearances between that episode of Raw and Wrestlemania 28, it wasn’t hard to see how the feud could be booked in order to keep things simmering nicely before kicking into gear a month or so out from the match itself. Rather than keep The Rock’s return match for the big show however, they chose to use it in a tag team match at Survivor Series 2011 where he would team up with his Wrestlemania opponent against the team of R-Truth and The Miz in a match that the WWE were hoping would give them an idea of the kind of increase in pay-per-view buys they would see thanks to The Rock’s presence. To that end, the answer they were looking for was not a particularly promising one, when the pay-per-view buy rate came in it showed an increase from the previous year’s show of just 16,000 buys- far below the expected level that WWE were looking for. Did this number demonstrate that The Rock’s drawing power was not what everybody expected it would be, or was this simply the consequence of poor booking decisions in the build up to the event? WWE fans had little reason to believe that the heel team would be able to defeat the two mega stars. R-Truth and The Miz had been treated as jabroni’s in the build-up to the show and the other potential aspect of the Cena/Rock pairing, namely that they would end up coming to blows, was not hinted at enough. Ultimately, fans had little other than the promise of a Rock in-ring return to purchase the pay-per-view for and so gave it a miss. What was concerning is that the WWE didn’t learn their lessons from the event and made similar errors in their booking of the build up to the ‘once in a lifetime’ confrontation between the two men. Their programme in the weeks prior to Wrestlemania 28 consisted mostly of a series of one-upmanship, trying to prove themselves to the boys in the back, rather than actually building a reason for the two to take part in a worked match. This wasn’t about who was the better competitor (which should be at the heart of all wrestling feuds and storylines) but rather about who was the better entertainer and more popular. This made for some awkward promos between the two and a disappointing run in with regards to their highly anticipated feud. Luckily, with the year long build, and the sheer magnitude of The Rock’s presence, the show ended up doing massive numbers as the WWE took over 1.2 million pay-per-view buys- the largest in history, and grossing more money than any event the company had ever put on previously. In other words, from a commercial standpoint at least, the show was a resounding success. Again The Rock appeared on the following night’s episode of Raw, declaring that he was now interested in going after the WWE Title, prompting rumours that a match with CM Punk might be on the cards. After a couple of months away from the WWE, The Rock returned on the special 1000th episode of Raw and reinforced those rumours after announcing that he would have a shot at the title at the following year’s Royal Rumble event against whoever the champion would be at the time and, after coming to the aid of John Cena who was being attacked by The Big Show, was subsequently attacked by the turning heel WWE Champion CM Punk. In order to facilitate such a match, Punk was booked to keep the belt for the rest of 2012 and complete a titanic title reign, the longest in 25 years. It was this that became as big a talking point going into the Rumble earlier this year as The Rock’s attempt at winning it. When the two men finally started setting the wheels in motion for their match, the story that was told was centred around The Rock’s desire to be crowned WWE Champion one more time and CM Punk’s resolve to continue to prove that he truly was ‘the best in the world’. These perspectives made for a far more enjoyable build up, and their confrontation on the January 7th 2013 Raw was one of the finest 25 minute periods of the 3-hour Raw era. At the Rumble itself, The Rock was crowned champion after defeating Punk in an average quality match. There were criticisms following the pay-per-view of how easily Punk was defeated and the manner in which Rock’s pre match promo, where he spoke about his Mother who was ill and how important winning the match was to him, essentially telegraphed the result. Furthermore, with John Cena picking up the win in the Rumble match itself, it seemed clear that WWE was planning to break its ‘once in a lifetime’ pledge and book Rock/Cena II for Wrestlemania 29.
