411’s WWE Rivals Report: The Rock vs. John Cena

-Look at WWE counter programming AEW with Rock/Cena. That’s how this works, right? Let’s get to it!

-Joining Freddie Prinze Jr at the table this week: Bayley, JBL, Natalya, and Kevin Nash.

-They immediately get to Cena vs. Rock being a battle of two faces of the company. Bayley notes it’s Icon vs Icon and if you say Cena or Rock people get what wrestling is. JBL sums it up as two alpha males from their respective eras trying to show who was better.

-We start with The Rock and he is put over by Foley and Hogan. Classic Rock clips are shown including the epic Sliding People’s Elbow. Austin talks about how The Rock turned a promo into a work of art.

-They cover that The Rock had a part in The Scorpion King and turns that into becoming a massive Hollywood star. JBL says there was concern in the company because The Rock was leaving. That left a massive hole and they needed someone to step up and take that spot.

-Enter John Cena and we get classic Thuganomics Cena footage. Cena rises to the face of the company and is EVERYWHERE! Cena worked his ass off in the position though the fans took a dump on him. We get years of Cena Sucks chants. Nash says that while the fans booed, every kid has Cena merch and Cena was laughing to the bank.

-Rock says that Cena was the biggest star of the company, but he also started taking shots at him during press runs. We hear Cena’s comments on a radio station and it basically was crushing The Rock for not doing anniversary shows when he talked about how much he loved the business. “Just come do your little eyebrow and leave.” The Rock notes you have to be careful when you say things like that. Cena admits he was just trying to get Rock back on the shows. He says Rock loved the WWE and the fact the shots he was throwing at him got to him showed he loved the WWE.

-The Rock inducts his father and grandfather into The Hall of Fame in 2008. The idea he and Brian Gewirtz came up with was to roast some WWE stars and they made sure to throw in a joke about John Cena and The Marine. Awesome! Cena loved it as he felt it gave him a chance to get the match.

-In Feb 2011 The Rock returns to the WWE and is announced as the guest host of WrestleMania. Massive pop and The Rock promises he will never go away. The Rock then makes sure to get in more jokes at Cena’s expense. “Looking like a big fat bowl of Fruity Pebbles.”

-WrestleMania XXVII: I was there in The Georgia Dome as it was the 3rd and as of now, last Mania I attended. The Rock shows up during Cena/Miz and plants Cena with a Rock Bottom which lets The Miz win and retain. So yes, a WrestleMania closed with The Miz winning the Main Event. Nothing against Miz obviously, but we just didn’t get heels winning in the final match of WrestleMania (outside of HHH). He drops Miz with a Rock Bottom to send the crowd home happy.

-Commercials!

-The next night on RAW (I was there as well as that was the one time I attended RAW after Mania) Rock and Cena agree to face off at WrestleMania XXVIII. It was crazy that they were announcing the Main Event a year in advance and I just kept wondering what is going to happen if either man gets injured.

-We get some cool behind the scenes footage of photo shoots. The next thing is that Rock won’t be around every week and they have to build to this match. That’s where social steps in and Rock tweets at Cena just to piss off Cena’s fans. “Cena + drinking beer on RAW last night = drunk Power Ranger.” Rock laughs at Cena’s fans yelling back at him on twitter. Cena of course has no problems responding: “So if you are keeping score…John Cena has been to 40 WWE events since WM. Dwayne Johnson 1. Hmmmm doesn’t seem like a guy who’s nvr leavin.”

-Rock responds and says he has done everything Cena has already done. Cena calls Rock’s vignettes that he did gold and we see one of them as he addresses a little kid dressed in a purple Cena shirt. Cena notes that Rock is hyper masculine and we hear Rock scream that Cena is a “fruity pebble bitch.” Cena says he has to go his own way and we get soundbites of his first rap against Rock. Stuff is great and it’s even better as you hear Cole and Lawler trying not to laugh. Cena gets a Fruity Pebbles sponsorship out of the insult which is genius.

-The Rock finishes GI Joe and has a window to get back in the ring and it happens that Survivor Series is in MSG. John Cena picks The Rock to be his partner against The Miz and R-Truth.

-Survivor Series: Rock’s mom says she is emotional seeing her son back in The Garden. Nash was in the back and we see footage of him and Rock greeting each other. Nash notes that Rock is the only guy that looks better than his video game form. The Rock paces as Cena’s music hits and you can hear the boos and then The Rock’s music hits and he gets that POP.

-Truth and Miz had no chance in this match as it was just a tease for Mania and a way for Rock to get some rust worked off. They also showed that Cena and Rock really didn’t like each other as Rock was disgusted having to tag with Cena. Rock gets the win and then plants Cena for good measure. “I Rock Bottomed that motherfuckers lips through the mat. Tonight was my night!”

-Commercials!

-Back with Cena signing photos backstage and Cena is told he had 20% of merch sold last night at Survivor Series and Rock had 16%. Cena is shocked and says it is weird that he gets booed and yet they buy his stuff. Kids John! It’s called parents having to buy for their kids.

-They discuss how they how to continue to build things with The Rock having his own schedule. It became Cena vs The World. The Rock returned and 90 seconds before Cena had to go out to interrupt, someone (who Cena won’t mention) told him to look at Rock’s wrist. We see he has notes written and Cena says that’s not allowed. The Miz was even shocked that The Rock had to do that. Cena goes out and calls Rock out for it and that kind of pissed The Rock off.

-A few weeks later a pissed off Rock tells Cena to strip everything away and Cena starts to talk over him. “At his core, The Rock is 6’4” 260lbs of man that will rip your throat out. You will always be a little boy that will go down in history always as The Rock’s bitch.” Cena just smiles and is the smart ass that Rock can’t get under the skin of and Cena shows it by pulling down his wrist and writing down what The Rock said. Big Show tells Cena backstage that he has big balls.

-Next up Cena does a rap and Rock does a Rock concert. Prinze asks who won the promo battle and really, Cena I think won because he had the Rock stumbling over his words once. They skip over Rock throwing out allegations that Cena was cheating on his wife with Eve.

-Commercials!

-WrestleMania XXVIII: Most bought WrestleMania of all time and unless WWE goes back to exclusive being on PPV, it will stand as highest PPV buys of any Mania. I just watched this show again last week. Lawler says the hair was standing up on the back of his neck for the match. There was massive pressure on both men to deliver and Cena says for that night it was two of the best in their prime and nobody could predict the outcome. It was a wonderful stadium show match that delivered what everyone wanted. Cena tries a People’s Elbow to be a dick (I’m not hating because why not), but he gets caught with a Rock Bottom and Rock gets the win. The crowd is very happy!

-Cena talks about losing the match and compares it to losing The World Series and how some players just sit in the dugout staring and wondering what went wrong.

-Commercials!

-Backstage The Rock says it was a team effort to put on the biggest match of all time and gives credit to Cena. The hug backstage and have a conversation about how this was all just business. Cena says it was just business and he is sorry he didn’t let Rock in on that, but it was his way of getting the best out of The Rock. The Rock tells Cena he understands. Cena his intentions were good, but his execution was awful. Cena and Rock then found common ground as we see them having fun after shows with the crowd.

-Royal Rumble 2013: Everyone knew we were getting Once In a Lifetime II and there was nothing we could do to stop it. Cena wins The Rumble and The Rock ends CM Punk’s monster reign as WWE Champion. Of course they were doing a rematch as it did massive business the year before, but the issue I had was that you knew Cena was winning. The previous year had drama and this didn’t.

-WrestleMania XXIX: Cena says this time was more fun as they could talk to each other. He puts over Rock for coming back when he didn’t need to and giving back to the business. The match wasn’t as much fun as the previous year.

-Commercials! Next week is HHH/Batista!

-We pick back up with the close of Twice in a Lifetime as John Cena gets the win and becomes WWE Champion. They shake hands after the match and Rock passes the torch so to speak, much like Hogan did it Rock at WrestleMania 18. Funny enough in both instances Rock took the torch and went to Hollywood and Cena has done the same. Cena hasn’t closed a Mania since.

-We get footage of Rock heading back to Gorilla and getting a hug from Vince. He tells Cena and Rock that they made the business proud tonight. Rock calls it the greatest night of his career and that he and Cena have come a long way.

-Cena notes he has learned you don’t jump someone like that and he should have came at Rock a different way. He says The Rock is in his own Universe and says, “my day is like his breakfast.” Cena loves the business but can’t do it at 45. He has to do it less.

-Cena closes by saying if anything else, “it was fun.”

-This was solid, but I enjoyed the previous two weeks more. I loved the build to Rock/Cena I as you could tell Rock was pissed. Once they hashed it out and became friends it lost some steam and Rock/Cena II was just Rock returning the favor, which is tradition, but doesn’t mean it was as enjoyable. The show as rather enjoyable as it is kind of hard to mess this show up as it plays up nostalgia and lets us see classic moments. Thanks for reading!