Cena/Rock was kinda weak..

[Corporate H]

I mean, the match itself was decent I thought, but for a year plus long build that's all they could up with storyline-wise? The Rock's defense didn't even make sense, he should have just gone heel.

[joebob27]

How was he going to turn heel?

[mizerable]

Nothing was on the line for me. No matter who won, it's not like it was going to go anywhere from there. Their one and only match was the "blow off". Cena has had at least 8 other feuds that had much more going for them instead of just 2 guys talking smack.

[BigWill]

Dec 21, 2012 18:19:17 GMT -5 joebob27 said:

How was he going to turn heel?

Insult the local sports teams.

[Corporate H]

Dec 21, 2012 18:19:17 GMT -5 joebob27 said:

How was he going to turn heel?

I guess you're right, in a way they couldn't turn either guy heel. But, at the same time Cena's character was 100% in everything he said yet Rock came out on top. Didn't make much sense to me.

[BiloxiParish]

If it was seen more of a passing of the torch type thing, it would of been loads more awesome. I thought they put on a great match, but there was no title on the line, no hair vs mask, no loser leaves, no three stages of hell.. It was nothing just more of a "Hey I don't like you" type of thing.

What people will remember is the match itself but I think that is about it.

[The Portable Stove]

The only thing I remember IS the build-up.

[Brother Nero....Wolfe]

Dec 21, 2012 18:27:28 GMT -5 Corporate H said:

Dec 21, 2012 18:19:17 GMT -5 joebob27 said:

How was he going to turn heel?

I guess you're right, in a way they couldn't turn either guy heel. But, at the same time Cena's character was 100% in everything he said yet Rock came out on top. Didn't make much sense to me.

I disagree, personally. Rock liked being in the WWE but hey, not a cult, dude went to make movies. He came back because hey, he has time to do both now. Cena went "YOU LEFT" a thousand times like he was a psycho ex-girlfriend. So?

And here's the thing--to Rock's fans, Cena's argument didn't matter at all. Like he left. Rock fans admit that. They don't ive a shit. I'm one of those people.

Meanwhile, to Cena fans, it was all about loyalty to the WWE and the fans and whatever and...I honestly didn't like that. I like Cena, he's one of my favorite wrestlers, but his argument against the Rock basically came down to "You should have spent your entire life with us because you owed your life to the fans!" which...just didn't sit right with me.

[Kev The Omniscient]

I didn't care about this feud from the get-go. But, what pissed me off about the feud was Cena's "I need to win" promo, then the night after he lost was like "Oh well, congratulations on the win Rock. What's next?"

[kidglov3s]

Dec 21, 2012 18:29:58 GMT -5 BiloxiParish said:

What people will remember is the match itself but I think that is about it.

For me the match is kind of a blur but I'll always remember MGK and Flo Rida.

[mizerable]

Dec 21, 2012 18:29:58 GMT -5 BiloxiParish said:

If it was seen more of a passing of the torch type thing

A cold burnt out torch from at least 7 years before? I would think it may have worked if they had Cena do the Shawn Michaels/Hogan turn, where he moans and groans about how Rock doesn't really care about anyone but himself and right after it's over, he's back to doing his normal routine. It wouldn't have really changed how the crowd would have viewed him. But instead, it was nothing but attacks on movies, colors and children's cereal.

[Corporate H]

Dec 21, 2012 18:32:19 GMT -5 Brother Nero....Wolfe said:

Dec 21, 2012 18:27:28 GMT -5 Corporate H said:

I guess you're right, in a way they couldn't turn either guy heel. But, at the same time Cena's character was 100% in everything he said yet Rock came out on top. Didn't make much sense to me.

I disagree, personally. Rock liked being in the WWE but hey, not a cult, dude went to make movies. He came back because hey, he has time to do both now. Cena went "YOU LEFT" a thousand times like he was a psycho ex-girlfriend. So?

And here's the thing--to Rock's fans, Cena's argument didn't matter at all. Like he left. Rock fans admit that. They don't ive a s***. I'm one of those people.

Meanwhile, to Cena fans, it was all about loyalty to the WWE and the fans and whatever and...I honestly didn't like that. I like Cena, he's one of my favorite wrestlers, but his argument against the Rock basically came down to "You should have spent your entire life with us because you owed your life to the fans!" which...just didn't sit right with me.

I think the whole idea was that Cena was implying Rock was trying to maintain a certain level of popularity in a business he called "home" yet was never around to be apart of that supposed family of his. Cena having eclipsed The Rock's time put in at the time of their feuding and having done movies and wrestling simultaneously I felt was in the right. Meanwhile The Rock's whole defense was "I will never leave" which he did and that Cena looked like a "Fruity Pebble." From there on I felt Cena outclassed The Rock over and over on the mic. If anything Cena should have gone heel I suppose, but his argument was so much greater than The Rock's I felt.

[Kev The Omniscient]

Dec 21, 2012 18:32:52 GMT -5 kidglov3s said:

Dec 21, 2012 18:29:58 GMT -5 BiloxiParish said:

What people will remember is the match itself but I think that is about it.

For me the match is kind of a blur but I'll always remember MGK and Flo Rida.

Yeah, I don't really remember anything apart from the entrances and the match ending, with Cena being all cocky and whatnot.

[Some Guy]

Rock being gassed five minutes in killed the pay-off, so bah.

[Brother Nero....Wolfe]

Dec 21, 2012 18:38:12 GMT -5 Corporate H said:

Dec 21, 2012 18:32:19 GMT -5 Brother Nero....Wolfe said:

I disagree, personally. Rock liked being in the WWE but hey, not a cult, dude went to make movies. He came back because hey, he has time to do both now. Cena went "YOU LEFT" a thousand times like he was a psycho ex-girlfriend. So?

And here's the thing--to Rock's fans, Cena's argument didn't matter at all. Like he left. Rock fans admit that. They don't ive a s***. I'm one of those people.

Meanwhile, to Cena fans, it was all about loyalty to the WWE and the fans and whatever and...I honestly didn't like that. I like Cena, he's one of my favorite wrestlers, but his argument against the Rock basically came down to "You should have spent your entire life with us because you owed your life to the fans!" which...just didn't sit right with me.

I think the whole idea was that Cena was implying Rock was trying to maintain a certain level of popularity in a business he called "home" yet was never around to be apart of that supposed family of his. Cena having eclipsed The Rock's time put in at the time of their feuding and having done movies and wrestling simultaneously I felt was in the right. Meanwhile The Rock's whole defense was "I will never leave" which he did and that Cena looked like a "Fruity Pebble." From there on I felt Cena outclassed The Rock over and over on the mic. If anything Cena should have gone heel I suppose, but his argument was so much greater than The Rock's I felt.

I get what you mean, but there are two points that make me have a different take on it. The first one is that I think they really kind of butchered the execution here and there, because Cena focused too much on "leaving" as though once you were in the WWE you could never leave again.

The second one is that I don't see an issue with trying to maintain a level of popularity in a business he called home despite not being around. He loves the fans, the fans love him. But being in the business takes a lot out of him so he doesn't want to be there full time. It's something I can honestly understand and I don't really see the "evil" there or anything like that. I mean, Cena can definitely prove he loves the WWE more than Rock. But Rock's argument was basically "Dude, who cares?" and that's how it worked out.

I mean, Rock likes his fans, his fans like him. Rock doesn't want to be there full time, but he has enough free time to make part-time appearances now. He's happy, his fans are happy...Cena isn't happy. And to me it's like, "Eh."

Plus the "I'll never leave" thing...frankly, I didn't take that as "I'll never leave again and be on every show" and I don't think many people did. I just took it as "I won't be gone for 7 years without being here at all again" which was nice.

And here's the thing--Rock said the "I'll never leave" line the first night he was back. Cena took it literally. Rock clarified in a promo that he didn't mean it every night because that wasn't what he meant. Cena still kept going on and on about the literal meaning of what he said despite Rock basically going "Not what I said, let me clarify--alright?"

[Arrow]

Match itself was very good, and I think it's become very underrated around here. It wasn't the best on the card, and it's not the kind of thing that we're going to look back on 20 years from now and say, "that was legendary" (those accolades go to 'Taker vs. Trips), but it told a proper story of two equals. People use that to defend mediocre matches so much that it's become a cliche to say that, but in this case it works since that was blatantly the story in the beginning and it carried on through the full 30 minutes. Add an electric Miami audience, and the result is a fine main event. The only critique I've ever had about the match was the pacing, but no match should live or die by whether or not two people are moving at top speed, anyway.

As for as the feud itself... whenever something else matches the constant "Cena vs. Rock: Who Won This Week?" 15+ pages we seemed to have every time one of them cut a promo, then you can tell me it was weak.

[Ryback on a Pole!]

It sucked from start to finish. As soon as Rock started making Fruity Pebbles jokes I realised this is gonna suck.

The climax of the awfulness was Rock's birthday... or the episode of Raw that was essentially giving Twitter a verbal blowjob and featured Rock's god awful twitter promo.

[Corporate H]

Dec 21, 2012 18:46:43 GMT -5 Brother Nero....Wolfe said:

Dec 21, 2012 18:38:12 GMT -5 Corporate H said:

I think the whole idea was that Cena was implying Rock was trying to maintain a certain level of popularity in a business he called "home" yet was never around to be apart of that supposed family of his. Cena having eclipsed The Rock's time put in at the time of their feuding and having done movies and wrestling simultaneously I felt was in the right. Meanwhile The Rock's whole defense was "I will never leave" which he did and that Cena looked like a "Fruity Pebble." From there on I felt Cena outclassed The Rock over and over on the mic. If anything Cena should have gone heel I suppose, but his argument was so much greater than The Rock's I felt.

I get what you mean, but there are two points that make me have a different take on it. The first one is that I think they really kind of butchered the execution here and there, because Cena focused too much on "leaving" as though once you were in the WWE you could never leave again.

The second one is that I don't see an issue with trying to maintain a level of popularity in a business he called home despite not being around. He loves the fans, the fans love him. But being in the business takes a lot out of him so he doesn't want to be there full time. It's something I can honestly understand and I don't really see the "evil" there or anything like that. I mean, Cena can definitely prove he loves the WWE more than Rock. But Rock's argument was basically "Dude, who cares?" and that's how it worked out.

I mean, Rock likes his fans, his fans like him. Rock doesn't want to be there full time, but he has enough free time to make part-time appearances now. He's happy, his fans are happy...Cena isn't happy. And to me it's like, "Eh."

Plus the "I'll never leave" thing...frankly, I didn't take that as "I'll never leave again and be on every show" and I don't think many people did. I just took it as "I won't be gone for 7 years without being here at all again" which was nice.

And here's the thing--Rock said the "I'll never leave" line the first night he was back. Cena took it literally. Rock clarified in a promo that he didn't mean it every night because that wasn't what he meant. Cena still kept going on and on about the literal meaning of what he said despite Rock basically going "Not what I said, let me clarify--alright?"

I think initially, yeah, when he called Rock out back in '08 it was weak, but I started to see where he was coming from as the feud went on. It was evident soon after he made his initial return that he would be making all his appearances on Twitter rather than on television and that seriously hurt The Rock in my eyes as far as the bickering went. Rock didn't win any points with me for his scripted promos either and in the end I surprised myself and sided with Cena. It's hard to imagine Cena not eventually get his win back over Rock because the feud served no purpose besides to entertain. In the end nobody got a rub, not Rock, not Cena, not even Miz and R-Truth.

[Deleted]

What killed the build up was untill the very final confrontation they had before mania , it was always the same damn thing from Cena...atleast The Rock whether good (the boston history lesson) or bad (we will rock you) The Rock had already buried Cenas arguement in that video he did.

But what did Cena keeping doing? whining about The Rock not being there even though the arguement had been put to bed by The Rock.

It got repetitive because Cena had nothing else to go on and thats what killed the build up , it wasn't untill Rock was able to be Rock and actually cut into who Cena is that it actually started to pick back up.

[saintpat]

I personally enjoyed it. I wish the buildup had been a couple weeks shorter, but otherwise I found it and the match entertaining.

Too bad WWE "killed it" or maybe they would have gotten a lot of buys for WM. Oh well, maybe one day they will learn.