First Royal Rumble Privilege To Be Lost (you know, since the last time) Next Week?

[the.ray.]

I don't think this is an Undertaker issue at all. I think WWE is very clear as to whether Taker can go at Wrestlemania or not. This is a John Cena thing.

Punk has played his part valiantly. He is the man whose held the championship over the past year, the anti-Cena if you will... so that eventually Cena can go over him. Like somebody else said in the thread, Cena is VERY MUCH still the face of the company. This match on Raw is about Cena FINALLY going over Punk to enhance the Cena/Rock feud.

Punk already has a top place on the Wrestlemania card. You can tell by the way he's performing right now. He's not reaching for anything. He's confident.

Maybe it'll be a triple threat and I'll be wrong.

I'd put my money on a clean Cena win to enhance the Cena/Rock match. After all, regardless of what we think, that is what WWE views as the money match for Mania.

[SaosiN]

I hated this with a passion. Having the match on RAW to determine who is facing the rock is just plain stupid in my opinion. The royal rumble winner is the challenger for the title at wrestlemania. End of story. That is how it's always been and that's how it should be, otherwise why have the rumble?

[niallf96]

Didn't Mysterio lose his RR privilege to Orton, only for Long to reinstate him, and Rey went on to win the WHC in a Triple Threat? Anyways, I think Taker WILL return next week, cost Punk the match, setting up the Mania match of all matches!

[Jack-Hammer]

It's almost guaranteed that Cena keeps his match against The Rock since The Undertaker returned to team up with Sheamus in a match against Wade Barrett & Damien Sandow in Waco, Texas last night. While that doesn't mean that Taker will be returning for a Mania match with Punk is 100% guaranteed at this point, it might as well be.

That slight bit of doubt will be all that's really needed to help make this match come off like a big deal tomorrow night. At least, that's what I'm hoping. I'm hoping that WWE doesn't pull another Raw 1,000 moment with Punk & Cena in which they only wrestled for about 5 minutes.

[Mustang Sally]

Only in pro wrestling can a person win a hard-fought privilege and get angry enough shortly afterward to gamble away the whole thing. Here, we have John Cena going through PPV hell to win the Royal Rumble and gain the right to face whomever the champion is at Wrestlemania. Then, on Monday, he joyfully agrees to give CM Punk a chance to take his place at the same event.

Of course, as the Dudley Do-Right of WWE, Cena allows this stupid match to take place; it's no less than we'd expect. What surprises me is that sometimes it's the heel who agrees to the provision and sacrifices everything he worked so hard for to give his opponent a chance to take a shortcut. Can you imagine this kind of thing happening in real life? (In my own job, I worked for years to achieve the next level. I can only imagine myself agreeing to give someone who hadn't worked as hard the chance to take my new position.....in a winner-take-all game of chess)

Sometimes, it's even the General Manager who orders the confrontation, which seems so unfair it practically leaves skid marks in the ring. Imagine taking a stipulation that a PPV revolved around and punishing the winner by forcing him to risk it in a single match......for no good reason.

If they do fight on Monday, Cena should win, for one overriding reason: If tons of fans detest the idea of Rock-Cena II, why would they favor Rock-Punk III, especially since Punk lost twice so recently to the same man?

Personally, I want to see Cena fight Rock for the title, take the duke, and witness the display of solidarity between the two as Rock's wrestling career fades into the Hollywood sunset.