Int'l Region, Third Round, Ladder Match: (2) The Rock vs. (7) CM Punk

[klunderbunker]

This is a third round match in the International Region. It is a ladder match, held at the First District Arena in Leeds, England.

Rules: A briefcase is hanging above the ring and the first person to climb a ladder and pull it down wins. There are no other weapons provided to use.

#2. The Rock

Vs.

#7. CM Punk

​

Polls will be open for four days following a one day period for discussion. Voting will be based on who you feel is the greater of the two competitors. Post your reasons for why your pick should win below. Remember that this is non-spam and the most votes in the poll win. Any ties will be broken by the amount of posts of support for each candidate, with one vote per poster.

Also remember that this is a non-spam forum. If you post a response without giving a reason for your selection, it will be penalized for spam and deleted.

 

[zhaff2004]

The Rock is a ten time world champion, has competed in two rather good ladder matches and is one of the all time greats. CM Punk's claim to fame in the WWE is his 434 day reign which was ended by........... The Rock (Not to mention Punk lost the subsequent rematch a month later). Rocky takes this by virtue of being the bigger star, the better draw and one of the greatest of all time.

Also, The Rock beat Punk for the strap twice about 8-10 years after his prime, imagine what the rock would do to punk in Rocky's prime? Do the right thing and vote Rocky.

 

[Bernkastel]

Since this is a ladder match I feel a whole lot better about campaigning Punk over Vader, but even if this was a hardcore match Vader probably still wouldn't have won.

The rundown...

Drawing power - It's the Rock. if it's just straight putting asses to seats. But if you're one of those people that believe that working in the modern era where the WWE name brand is far more popular than any of its stars, and wrestlers appear before a world wide audience every week, then it's Punk.

Rock also had his hand in quite a sizable amount of marketing even before he left for Hollywood. Though I'd argue that he didn't truly become a household name until his acting career really took off.

Accolades - The only Punk reign I and probably most other people recall is his year and half long reign. That Rock ended. Rock's reigns were terribly short, but I still remember his feuds with Austin, and Lesnar, and HHH, and Taker, and Mankind. Punk I mostly remember his feud with Cena. Point Rock.

Longevity - This is Rock's biggest weakness. This point's Punk's. Even if he spent years in Cena's shadow he was still #2.

Consistency - Punk didn't headline PPV's while champion. Point Rock.

Charisma - This is where I'm split. I never really liked Punk's wrestling style, but as a talker I was always enthralled. Rock is probably the greatest actor in wrestling history. But as an actor his lines often didn't sound organic. Like he was always reading off a script. Nowadays that's pretty obvious. The average Rock promo was cheap pop, curse words, talking about somebody's rectum, catchphrase, more curse words, some sexual innuendos, another catchphrase, another cheap pop, more curse words, and then a catchphrase to finish. Punk had great dexterity on the mic and he always felt genuine. Rock may was well be a slogan machine.

As far as saying one connected to audience better than the other, I'd probably go with Rock since he was better at putting butts in seats.

In ring ability - It's subjective but I'd probably say Rock. Though Punk has his fans and that's fine.

Lasting legacy - Punk has likely hurt his legacy after jumping to the UFC. Maybe he didn't. We thought Rock hurt his after jumping to Hollywood a decade ago. But even to this day his still remains one of the WWE's biggest stars and broke down allot of racial barriers in the process. He wasn't the first Black champion, but he was the first to be a big era star.

Ladder be damned. Vote Rock.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

The fact that Punk's big reign was ended by the Superstar Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson is telling. But even if that hadn't happened, I'd still give this to The Rock.

Bigger star, won his set of big profile matches as face although not a good history with ladders still, The Rock

 

[Tastycles]

The ladder match is the leveller here - Punk has won many, Rock hasn't. The Rock is obviously a bigger star than CM Punk, but given that he has had many short comings in gimmick matches over the years, including losing to Mankind, which pretty much no other main eventers have ever done, I'm afraid I'm going to have to side with Punk here.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Punk lost to The Rock on two consecutive PPVs in what I consider his prime. The Rock was a barely mobile, muscle man at the time. This seems cut and dry to me.

 

[Big Sexy]

The ladder match is the leveller here - Punk has won many, Rock hasn't. The Rock is obviously a bigger star than CM Punk, but given that he has had many short comings in gimmick matches over the years, including losing to Mankind, which pretty much no other main eventers have ever done, I'm afraid I'm going to have to side with Punk here.

Punk has won three ladder matches in the WWE but two were MITB, not one on one matches. You can say that makes it tougher to win, but you can also make the argument it's easier to get lucky and wait for everyone else to take themselves out. Either way Punk has won two but also lost two. His third ladder match win was a TLC match against Jeff Hardy. That may seem impressive but Hardy went just 3-4 in his career in one on one ladder matches in the WWE.

The Rock has been in two ladder matches, both one on one, and has a 1-1 record. The ladder match stipulation doesn't do nearly enough to give Punk the victory. The Rock beat him twice when Punk was at his peak and Rock was a decade past his prime. Rock is better in every way imaginable.

 

[Mr. Artistic guy]

Gimmicks absolutely should be considered in the outcome of a match and ladder matches kindof are to Punks forte.

I still find it difficult to justify putting him over The Rock though, for as far as I'm concerned everything Punk was good at, The Rock was better. The most well-rounded star and biggest in many other ways, in short, the greatest wrestler of, at least, 'the modern era'.

Punk doesn't really have any sort of speed or size advantages over The Rock in this kind of matchup, nor does he have any record over The Rock. The Rock ended Punk's 343 day reign as WWE champion despite a litany of other current WWE superstars not being able to do the same. That's pretty compelling when considering form against each other.

I feel that a vote for Punk is too heavily weighted towards consideration of his gimmick when being fair in this match, so I'm voting for The Rock.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

I voted for Punk based on the stipulation. In a straight up 1v1 match I'd give the edge to The Rock, but in a ladder match, where Punk has more victories than Rocky, I give the edge to Punk. We have gimmick matches for a reason, and this is one of them.

 

[SSJPhenom]

To hell with the ladder. Punk shouldn't even be in this match. There is no reason he should've beaten Vader, however, I digress.

The Rock is the bigger star, the bigger name, the better draw, and all that other jazz. Oh yea, I almost forgot; HE BEAT PUNK IN 2 CONSECUTIVE PPV CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHES DURING PUNK'S PRIME!!!!!!

Know your role and vote Rock!!!

 

[L@RISANO]

Something, something.... It's All about Family!

 

[Uncle Sam]

It doesn't particularly bother me who wins this one either way. Both seem feasible victors. I like both quite a lot. I even sort of like The Rock since he transformed into his final form of an incredibly muscular, creepily intense motivational speaker.

However, if there's one thing I know, it's CM Punk trivia. I'm therefore here to correct Big Sexy:

Punk has won three ladder matches in the WWE but two were MITB, not one on one matches. You can say that makes it tougher to win, but you can also make the argument it's easier to get lucky and wait for everyone else to take themselves out. Either way Punk has won two but also lost two. His third ladder match win was a TLC match against Jeff Hardy. That may seem impressive but Hardy went just 3-4 in his career in one on one ladder matches in the WWE.

CM Punk was in a fourth ladder match, in a triple threat against Alberto Del Rio and The Miz for the WWE Championship at TLC 2011, which Punk also won, making him 4-0.

He also had a ladder match of some description with Chris Hero, which people pretend wasn't shit, even though I'm pretty sure it was.

 

[Big Sexy]

CM Punk was in a fourth ladder match, in a triple threat against Alberto Del Rio and The Miz for the WWE Championship at TLC 2011, which Punk also won, making him 4-0.

My mistake. There was also a TLC match he won against Ryback on an episode of RAW. None of it matters much though. Punk won 2 one on one ladder matches against Jeff Hardy and Ryback. The Rock went 1-1 against Triple H and Mick Foley. HHH/Foley >>>>>> Hardy/Ryback. MITB and triple threat ladder matches are different animals from a one on one encounter. The Rock is still better than Punk in every way imaginable. The ladder match may make it closer than normal but Rock still wins.

 

[Dmbfantomas]

Mick Foley loses everything, and Big Show had to murder death kill him for Rock to beat a guy who is awful at winning matches. CM Punk is really good at ladder matches, and he had Rock beat at EC but Rock murdered the ref beforehand.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

Rock music came before Punk music therefore The Rock is better than CM Punk.

 

[Alex]

Rock music came before Punk music therefore The Rock is better than CM Punk.

Lol but I'd argue punk music is more violent I don't think the guys from Journey would want to fight the guys from Black Flag.

Honestly though even though I know Rock is walking out with the victory I'd honestly give the advantage to Punk.

Even though Big Sexy gave the Punk ladder match stats in a previous post I'd still argue Punk has the advantage. He's got more experience than Rock in these kind of matches and he's also beaten guys like Jeff Hardy who the ladder match is their forte. You can go on about Jeff Hardy's ladder match record but if someone beats him clean in a ladder match people give a shit.

Punk is also sadistic. He'll use the ladder in every conceivable way to injure Rock. Rock would use the standard 'hit guy with ladder repeatedly' approach but Punk would put take the 'put ladder between to tables and elbow drop from a different ladder' approach.

Even though Rock is bigger Punk will always have a hardcore following.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

While Punk has more experience and success in ladder matches than The Rock, I still think The Great One will get through in this one.

Rocky was (and still is) a pop culture phenomenon, his charisma and personality is pretty much unmatched in wrestling, although Punk's mic skills are almost as good albeit it in a totally different style to Rock's. Both are extremely good in the ring too, and have countless fantastic matches over the years.

However, we need to look at the fact The Rock beat Punk for the belt after not wrestling a match in years and being past his prime. Coming back and defeating a guy who'd held the WWE title for over a year is the deciding factor in this. If Rock could beat Punk recently, a late 90s/early 2000s Rock would have done the same.