Could they have done Rock vs Orton at Mania 28?

[ChitownKnight]

What if the Rock’s first match back is vs Orton. Orton can do a temporary heel turn, lose to the Rock, and then he beats Punk for the title and loses the title to Cena in a for real “Once in a lifetime”. I think Orton would have been a good choice since he was a top 3 star majority of the time from 2004-2014. Then we can potentially have Cena vs Taker at Mania 28 as well

Edit: damn it I goofed, Mods can you move this?

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Hooray, I wasn't the only one who put a WWE Topic in the AEW Section tonight!

[Nosnorb]

Mar 30, 2024 1:46:09 GMT -5 ChitownKnight said:

What if the Rock’s first match back is vs Orton. Orton can do a temporary heel turn, lose to the Rock, and then he beats Punk for the title and loses the title to Cena in a for real “Once in a lifetime”. I think Orton would have been a good choice since he was a top 3 star majority of the time from 2004-2014. Then we can potentially have Cena vs Taker at Mania 28 as well

Star power goes, Orton isn't on the same level as Cena and in terms of business, Orton/Rock would not have done nearly as well as Cena/Rock.

And WWE actually did Cena vs Orton for the 4554723452345th time in late 2013 and by that stage everyone was sick of it.

[ChitownKnight]

Mar 30, 2024 5:43:20 GMT -5 Nosnorb said:

Mar 30, 2024 1:46:09 GMT -5 ChitownKnight said:

What if the Rock’s first match back is vs Orton. Orton can do a temporary heel turn, lose to the Rock, and then he beats Punk for the title and loses the title to Cena in a for real “Once in a lifetime”. I think Orton would have been a good choice since he was a top 3 star majority of the time from 2004-2014. Then we can potentially have Cena vs Taker at Mania 28 as well

Star power goes, Orton isn't on the same level as Cena and in terms of business, Orton/Rock would not have done nearly as well as Cena/Rock.

And WWE actually did Cena vs Orton for the 4554723452345th time in late 2013 and by that stage everyone was sick of it.

Yeah but they would have done Cena vs Rock the next year anyways, and in my scenario you have two big matches in Taker vs Cena and Rock vs Orton

[Jindrak Mark]

It was Rock's first match in years and they wanted to break all-time PPV/gate records so it would've been weird not to do the biggest match. It would feel kinda like Hogan returning for Wrestlemania 18 and facing Angle or Jericho instead of Rock or Austin. It's a big match but not a mega match.

If Cena got injured though I think Orton may have been the back-up plan. Even announcing the main event in Jan-Feb leaves a good amount of time for it to be disrupted by injury so it's kinda wild that off the top of my head I can't remember any Mania main event being announced then injury forcing a change. I know it came close in 2003 with Angle almost being pulled and replaced by Benoit. Announcing the match a year ahead of time though and with Cena working a full PPV/TV/house schedule it's not unthinkable he could've got hurt and in that situation Orton and Punk were probably the most likely replacements.

[Woo]

No. Orton is not a draw. You might have gotten away with Rock vs Orton at Mania 29 however, although it should have been either Rock vs Punk or Rock vs Cena vs Punk.

[ChitownKnight]

Idk I always feel like Cena vs Rock I was THE big match, and Cena vs Rock II felt like an afterthought even though it was Cena getting his win back. He came back and had 2 matches with Cena and 2 matches with Punk, I felt like there was room for another never before done match. It could of been Orton, Bryan, or hell it could of been HBK