There was one clear winner last night that was evident from watching the verbal altercation at the end of Raw..................John Cena.
OMG, he can't talk up Cena! Cenaz sux!
Well, if Cena sucks, then that makes Punk the world's greatest prostitute. You see, The Rock is a special attraction. He's a guy that made money money in the WWE and for the WWE than anyone in history not named Austin and Hogan. Heck, he may even be on par with those guys. The difference is that Rock has made a good second career in movies and when he returns, it's not that he returns as simply a past great. He returns as a guy who is actually more famous than when he left and thus, it draws people back to the show. People want to see what this guy will bring and it's intriguing. That said, you wouldn't know it watching last night because the intrigue faded faster than the end scene of the Sopranos. Last year at this time, we were all itching for Rock/Cena interactions and we had plenty by now. We've only had one between Rock and Punk and it's already evident that it's not the same.
See, the internet hypes up Punk as some sort of savior and they eat up his words like Brodus Clay eats dinner. Problem is, everything he's saying is wrong and I'd like to think that people are getting wiser to it. In fact, I know they are because not only did the people in the LD last night have a much more mixed reaction, but the crowd itself died during the final segment. That NEVER happened with Rock and Cena so we have to deduce that Punk is part of the problem. Why?
For starters, doing a "pipe bomb" with no new information and a blatant lie or two is stupid. Using Daniel Bryan's name was the end of it because that dude is a huge star at this point. This "indy guys are held back" crap is just that, crap. It might have been true and even a little edge to say in June of 2011 but now it's not which is why the promo fell flat. But that's not even the real issue.
For me, the biggest issue is that there was almost a half an hour of promo time and not once did I get a sense of why these two don't like each other. Not once. Punk's entire shtick was exactly the same as it is with any other opponent........all about him. With Rock/Cena, it was about playing off of each other and getting people to really buy into the fact that regardless of heel/face alignment, they simply didn't like each other and they valued the idea of beating the other guy. Here that isn't so. Punk is just a guy trying to keep his title and that's it.
The energy that you felt every night of a Rock/Cena interaction simply wasn't there. The crowd knew it and I think Punk and Rock knew it and honestly, I think it's because of Punk's own stupidity. Had he stayed the same guy that won the title, a bucking the trend yet likeable guy, this might feel huge. However, he's just a generic heel taking on a young legend. The dynamic makes the matchup a whole lot worse because it makes Punk generic. "Grrrrr you have catchphrases but screw the people I'm going to kick your ass" For a guy that supposedly can do things differently and have new ideas, he certainly hasn't had any as a heel. The fact that his heel character blows certainly is part of the equation here.
The bottom line is that people, not just wrestling fans, wanted to see Cena and Rock face one another. About the only people left that care to see Punk vs. Rock (which by the way won't be as good a match either) are Punk marks that despite lack of interest, lack of quality, and general boredom will still tell you this is better than Rock/Cena simply out of some sort of inferiority complex that won't let them admit that Cena is the bigger star. It's similar to the TNA fan who can never admit that WWE does anything good simply because they are bigger. Why you can't be a fan of both (Cena and Punk, WWE and TNA) I'll never know, but that's how it is. As such, Punk fans will tell you how this trumps Cena/Rock but it doesn't. All this does is show that Cena is head and shoulders a bigger star and that's evident after one promo.