The Rock vs The PG Era & John Cena

[jason305]

Hey peeps! Ok so a thread on this article has been done so I'm not going to post the whole article but will provide a link and I have made a new thread as I want to ask a different question.

http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/article/the-rock-discusses-a-wwe-return-facing-john-cena-95139

Ok so in the above article without directly doing so The Rock is basically saying when he comes back he doesn't want to do the whole PG thing. He wants to bring back some attitude into the WWE. Also in my opinion he doesn't consider John Cena as great a Superstar as Austin/Hogan ect.?

He also acknowledges the fact that the Superstars of today have a much tougher job because of scripted promo's and not being able to say what they say want.

He mention that he will only come back if he can bring some of the attitude era with him and "rip things open"

Ok so now I ask you, Do you think The Rock would be a big enough star in Vince's eyes to change his PG product to a more edgier one just to get the Great One back into the ring?

And secondly I believe Vince would give his left nut for Cena Vs Rock so what do you think it would take to get the Rock into the ring with Cena?

 

[Ambiguous Turd]

Well, first of all, I think it's just a work with Rock saying he has no interest in wrestling Cena. I can not imagine in any way that he has no interest in wrestling the top mic worker in the company, best all-around worker, and the face of the company.

I think that is simply a swerve to downplay expectations. On the contrary, I think a Rock vs Cena match is more likely than ever, because of all this talk and buzz as of late. Although it may not be until SummerSlam, which is traditionally a better PPV than Wrestlemania, anyway, to be honest.

As far as whether or not Vince will change his business and creative direction just to bring the Rock back, and go back to an Attitude Era-like product?

Absolutely not.

As much as I hate to admit it, this is Vince's most profitable Era. Although it is disputed that he actually is in a bubble at the moment and that bubble is ready to burst because of his constant raising prices ... but the formula clearly works for the company at the moment, and he is profitable at this garbage he puts on the air these days.

So no, not even The Rock can get Vince to change his Creative direction, especially being he would only be back for a very limited time.

 

[I own a set of balls]

There's one thing that will be enough to change Vince's direction and that one thing is simply the dollar bill. Because Vince feels that by dragging in more kids will be profitable to him since they are usually very loyal to their heroes, which means that they will tune in every week, attend shows and be the largest consumer of WWE merchandise (hey, why else would you think DX is to promote their things every week and when it's not working quite as well, they bring in the midget, which has always been more of a fascination to children?), he won't simply change all of that and hope there'll be better entertainment just for the other fans.

Remember, Vince only deployed the attitude era because Bischoff and Turner's Nitro forced him into action. All along Vince has always promoted the family friendly television in the back of his head (80's). So to me it isn't surprising if he's trying to pull back into that golden era.

 

[Chicago1989]

Well, first of all, I think it's just a work with Rock saying he has no interest in wrestling Cena. I can not imagine in any way that he has no interest in wrestling the top mic worker in the company, best all-around worker, and the face of the company.

I think that is simply a swerve to downplay expectations.

Do you actually think that John Cena is worthy of being in a big time match with someone of the calibur as The Rock? What?!

Not to take anything away from Cena though. I respect him. He works hard and all but that's it. There is no way that Cena's character can mesh with The Rock's, no way. Will a match between the two sell? Somewhat.

You got the little kids supporting Cena while you have the real fans behind The Rock. It'll be a riot when that match happens.

 

[Lucas_Creed22]

I think that Vince could be lenient about the current PG ratings. I believe that the only reason that he is sticking with it is because of Linda's senate spot and its good for business right now. If Vince was desperate, he would change it back to the Attitude Era. As far as the Rock, he is in career limbo with these Disney movies that are doing horrible for his image. If he were to come back to the WWE, I would make him as face and turn John Cena the number one heel on Raw. In order to do that, you need to turn Orton face by doing something great. Have Cena loose the Rumble and have him go monster heel and start destorying jobbers to make him mean. Once you do that, have him cut a promo on the past and bash the Rock.......Once you do that, build it up and have Rock return.

 

[Showtime]

I find the title of this thread silly. Like the WWE's audience, The Rocks target audience for his movies has also gotten progressively younger. The Rock today who stars in The Tooth Fairy and other Disney movies would get chewed out alive by an attiutude era audience. Now, with the WWE's younger audience, the kids are very familar with The Rock and he still has that cred from his earlier days that the older fans of the attitude era would gladly welcome him back with open arms.

Now I wanted to post this in a similar thread, but since I've started writing so far, I might was well write it in this one. Everything that The Rock has said could easily be a work. The Rock knows how to act and knows how to keep a secret. The greatest draw in wrestling in anticipation, whether it comes through or not. The Rock could fight Cena, or he could just be completely pulling out legs. Either way it'll still get us watching and listening. I have no idea what WWE and The Rock have in mind. But here's what I would like to see happen. The Rock is currently working on one movie to be released at the end of 2010 and then has nothing due out till 2012, so he does have a lot of free time this year.

I would love to see WWE have Cena v The Rock at WM. The best idea I have to set that up is with The Rock guest hosting the RAW before WM. Austin I know is hosting the RAW before that so having Austin and The Rock, the 2 biggest draws from the 90's, hosting the 2 RAWS leading up to WM will guarentee the WWE huge ratings going into their biggest PPV. There would be nothing TNA could do that could counter that, which would be a big plus for WWE. Austin could announce on his RAW that The Rock will host RAW next week and tease a possible Cena/Rock match. Rock will confirm that match with Cena with Austin agreeing to serve as special guest ref. A weeks build up of Cena v Rock with special ref Austin is all it would take to get a shit load of fans to order. Cena wins, Austin stunners him after, and Cena very slowly turns heel, as I feel that, dispite his merchandising success, that is the path he needs to go, and eventually has a rematch with The Rock at SummerSlam, who has now had time to get back into ring shape and beats Cena.

This is the idea I would like to see WWE do. It would be the biggest draw they had in a very long time and would give The Rock one last hurrah with the WWE.

 

[layinDown]

Do you actually think that John Cena is worthy of being in a big time match with someone of the calibur as The Rock? What?!

Not to take anything away from Cena though. I respect him. He works hard and all but that's it. There is no way that Cena's character can mesh with The Rock's, no way. Will a match between the two sell? Somewhat.

You got the little kids supporting Cena while you have the real fans behind The Rock. It'll be a riot when that match happens.

Um, exactly. How can you say that "it'll be a riot when that match happens" and "Will a match between the two sell? Somewhat" in the same post?

Not only will it draw, but it could be a perfect opportunity to turn Cena heel, since Rock will be the obvious face (in that matchup). Little kids can only only cheer so loud.

And, yes, as weary as I am of John Cena's stale character, he is quite worthy to be in a match with the Rock. Does he draw as much as Rock used to? Probably not, but I bet the numbers aren't too far off. Vince has an ear-to-ear smile every week becuase he gets to go home and piss in a gold-plated toilet thanks to Cena's ugly orange t-shirts.

 

[Razor]

Hey peeps! Ok so a thread on this article has been done so I'm not going to post the whole article but will provide a link and I have made a new thread as I want to ask a different question.

http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/article/the-rock-discusses-a-wwe-return-facing-john-cena-95139

Oh, yay. Another Wrestlezone article!

Ok so in the above article without directly doing so The Rock is basically saying when he comes back he doesn't want to do the whole PG thing. He wants to bring back some attitude into the WWE.

He said if they could meld them, which they obviously can, he would do the PG Era. That means a little more gay jokes, but no siring hand babies and raping dead bodies.

Also in my opinion he doesn't consider John Cena as great a Superstar as Austin/Hogan ect.?

Cena is awesome, but he's no Hogan.

He also acknowledges the fact that the Superstars of today have a much tougher job because of scripted promo's and not being able to say what they say want.

That would be rather hard, I'm sure. But I'd bet half of them couldn't figure out something to say while in character if you gave them an entire 3 months to think about it.

He mention that he will only come back if he can bring some of the attitude era with him and "rip things open"

Wow. The Rock talking up him finally showing up to Raw as a big, once in a lifetime happening. Who would have thunk it?

Ok so now I ask you, Do you think The Rock would be a big enough star in Vince's eyes to change his PG product to a more edgier one just to get the Great One back into the ring?

It's not changing unless Vince wants it to. It'll maybe have a few more questionable jokes, but I sincerely doubt it getting anywhere near the outright craziness that the Attitude Era was.

And secondly I believe Vince would give his left nut for Cena Vs Rock so what do you think it would take to get the Rock into the ring with Cena?

It would take McMahon saying "Hey, Dwayne. I see you're not on schedule to film another movie, and I want you to have a blockbuster feud with the Rock." Then the Rock will say "Oh, that sounds great. Cena and I will have a feud for the ages."

End scene.

I sincerely doubt that the Rock is some how vehemently against feuding with Cena. That's just silly.

 

[simplyry]

hmmmm, The Rock vs Cena!?!?!? The Rock was always the a great heel and the peoples champ at the same time!?!?!? The people love to hate Cena, listen to the crowd when he comes out!!!! We've seen Cena come out and be part of these "real" Promos as of late, the one with carlito calling him out and then the one with mcmahon. So keep that script goin The rock comes in as the peoples choice and tells cena to get a grip on reality, how hes doing all these things for people who dont like him, dont believe in him and would rather not see him on the show. huge crowd pop. but then cena comes back with how the rock left an industry that made him, even dropped his rock name for hollywood and only looked back once he realized that he wasnt going to be making anymore blockbuster movies like he's been.

So how does that make the rock the peoples choice if he is willing to turn away from the fans that cena will gladly put on his back and drag and seat for? With the help of guys like the miz, we dont have to bring it back to the Attitude era, but like everything else in this tv world, we can call it the Reality Check. Bret Hart is back from a real life screw job, the rock blew off the fans, the miz is one of the hottest commodities raw has coming up and he used his reality stardom, Bring some more of the things we only read about to face on tv. Reality sells. Even in music, when you have two hip hop artist going at each other you download or buy the next album to see what the other is going to say in retaliation. These issues that are either coming back or being presented to us is a perfect scenario to make this PG era thing be broken.

 

[mister_b1LL]

The Rock will not be the one to end the PG era, but I do think that Vince will be a little bit open with whatever Rock says on the mic. Like when Rock did his promo on Smackdown in October, normally they would bleep out ass in any version of the word. Yet they never bleeped out candyass the entire promo. That could show that Vince could be a little bit lenient. That amount of edgieness will happen only for the time that Rock is in WWE, then when he leaves again it'll go back to the same product.

And I agree with Sid. The Rock only said that to downplay expectations when he appears. Everybody wants to see that match and if we don't see it by SummerSlam, you're gonna see a lot of guys in their 20s and 30s crying because they didn't get to see the kid's idol get kicked in his rudypoo candyass. I'm still confident it's going to happen.

Oh and Razor, I wish I was Batman right about now.

 

[Chicago1989]

Um, exactly. How can you say that "it'll be a riot when that match happens" and "Will a match between the two sell? Somewhat" in the same post?

Not only will it draw, but it could be a perfect opportunity to turn Cena heel, since Rock will be the obvious face (in that matchup). Little kids can only only cheer so loud.

And, yes, as weary as I am of John Cena's stale character, he is quite worthy to be in a match with the Rock. Does he draw as much as Rock used to? Probably not, but I bet the numbers aren't too far off. Vince has an ear-to-ear smile every week becuase he gets to go home and piss in a gold-plated toilet thanks to Cena's ugly orange t-shirts.

Easy...ECW One Night Stand 2006: RVD Vs. Cena. The PPV sold and the place was going nuts on Cena. Same would happen with The Rock Vs. John Cena. And it'll somewhat sell because of The Rock. That's my point.

Dude, Vince would have been pissed on a gold-plated toilet a long time ago thanks to Hogan and Austin. Cena's drawing power isn't as good as Hogan's or Austin's. It's not even bigger than Goldberg's. I mean we're talking about a guy who only became a main eventer because Brock Lesnar left. So for those reasons, John Cena is not worthy.

And besides, do you actually think they would turn Cena heel? Hell no. Think about it...You got Mr. "You Sold Out" Vs. Superman. There you go.

 

[layinDown]

Easy...ECW One Night Stand 2006: RVD Vs. Cena. The PPV sold and the place was going nuts on Cena. Same would happen with The Rock Vs. John Cena. And it'll somewhat sell because of The Rock. That's my point.

Dude, Vince would have been pissed on a gold-plated toilet a long time ago thanks to Hogan and Austin. Cena's drawing power isn't as good as Hogan's or Austin's. It's not even bigger than Goldberg's. I mean we're talking about a guy who only became a main eventer because Brock Lesnar left. So for those reasons, John Cena is not worthy.

And besides, do you actually think they would turn Cena heel? Hell no. Think about it...You got Mr. "You Sold Out" Vs. Superman. There you go.

RVD is no Rock. That's simply apples to oranges. Not to mention the fact that is was a pro-ECW crowd at a PPV centered around ECW; of course the crowd was going nuts on Cena.

I absolutely agree with you that the gold-plated pissin' has been going on since the Hogan, Austin, and Rocky. I'm just saying Cena is the new Hogan. The new Austin. The new Rock. He's the golden ticket right now, even though he may not compare to other guys.

When I hear Rock vs Cena, I think "epic". I'm surprised you don't.

I also agree that generally speaking, it would be kinda silly to turn Cena heel, but I suppose it's just wishful thinking on my part. I would simply love to see a fresh Cena and I think alot of other fans would as well.

 

[Chicago1989]

RVD is no Rock. That's simply apples to oranges. Not to mention the fact that is was a pro-ECW crowd at a PPV centered around ECW; of course the crowd was going nuts on Cena.

I absolutely agree with you that the gold-plated pissin' has been going on since the Hogan, Austin, and Rocky. I'm just saying Cena is the new Hogan. The new Austin. The new Rock. He's the golden ticket right now, even though he may not compare to other guys.

When I hear Rock vs Cena, I think "epic". I'm surprised you don't.

I also agree that generally speaking, it would be kinda silly to turn Cena heel, but I suppose it's just wishful thinking on my part. I would simply love to see a fresh Cena and I think alot of other fans would as well.

RVD is no Rock, you're right about that but RVD still drew. As far as the crowd being "Pro-ECW", the crowd is going to be "Pro-Rock" if you ask me.

There's been so many opportunities for Cena to turn heel. Just when you thought that the time was right, "We just can't turn him heel, we just can't". The WWE is paranoid about turning him heel because they think his merchandise won't sell. Austin and Rock's merchandise sold even as a heel so why can't Cena do that? That's their focal point. To make sure the little kids buy Cena shirts at all times.

Cena would put on effort against someone like The Rock, don't get me wrong but do you really want to see him pull off his superman tricks on him and beat him? I know I don't. I would like to see the heel Cena again but that's just isn't going to happen. The fans booed Cena for years now and WWE never gave a damn about what we thought about him.

 

[MizMark]

RVD is no Rock, you're right about that but RVD still drew. As far as the crowd being "Pro-ECW", the crowd is going to be "Pro-Rock" if you ask me.

There's been so many opportunities for Cena to turn heel. Just when you thought that the time was right, "We just can't turn him heel, we just can't". The WWE is paranoid about turning him heel because they think his merchandise won't sell. Austin and Rock's merchandise sold even as a heel so why can't Cena do that? That's their focal point. To make sure the little kids buy Cena shirts at all times.

Cena would put on effort against someone like The Rock, don't get me wrong but do you really want to see him pull off his superman tricks on him and beat him? I know I don't. I would like to see the heel Cena again but that's just isn't going to happen. The fans booed Cena for years now and WWE never gave a damn about what we thought about him.

There is a huge difference between pro RVD, on an ECW PPV in their own backyard than a pro Rock crowd in a neutral venue. Cena won't get booed out of the building like that, but he will still have Rock fans on his back. I'd imagine something like a 70/30 split in favour of the Rock. It depends where the match is held, if it's NYC then Cena will get more heel heat than if it was, for example, Ohio.

 

[SickJames]

There was never any question as to whether he would return and still isnt. I dont even see how people ever thought against it, as if his last match wouldve really been that 3 on 2 handicap match at WrestleMania XX. oh no. that's no way for The Rock to go out.

And I never once doubted it. I also think it's good that he didnt rush right back in the ring like others do every damn year or so. His return will be perfect. The thing is I actually do see a way he could come back for a short run, but either way it's a definate fact that he will come back for a match, but that would mean he'd have to run a program short or fairly lengthy, no way it wont have build to it.

The Rock vs John Cena is what everyone's talking about and it's not a bad choice, but I'd rather see The Rock vs Shawn Michaels

Unless Cena goes back to the gimmick that made him it wont be that interesting on Cena's part top star or not. HBK would be better as that is the more entertaining feud mic wise & in the ring. Cena couldnt go like HBK would in a feud with The Rock, especially HBK as a heel.


It would actually be awesome for The Rock to bring back some attitude, I'd like to see a stipulation where he beats Cena and the next night on Raw it's TV-14 again. I dont care how much profit Vince is making The Attitude Era which came out of The Monday Night Wars was the biggest period in wrestling, the most exciting time. Wrestling was at its peak then. After it was over the ratings went down and some fans lost interest but nowadays is nowhere near how it was back then

The atmosphere in the arena was different. It was definately better back then



I dont think Vince would like to keep WWE PG for an extended time, he had to be having more fun in The Monday Night Wars & The Attitude Era

And really, Vince & The Rock were never gonna rush into this, and that's good. The last thing we need is for every big name wrestler to return until it gets old

Bret's return is being handled nicely and it seems perfect the way it came about
The Rock was smart to do his movie thing and come back to wrestling later letting the anticipation for his return build. Making an appearance each year (except one or two) since he left, keeping his face fresh in the minds of the WWE fans

And each year we argue will he come back this year or not, then ppl say he never will and it goes back & forth the same way ppl swear up & down that Taker & HBK will retire each year.

The Rock & Vince, imo have been building this for years now. Along with Cena. I even wonder if Cena's couple of promos werent just for this specific feud because it's obvious that this feud is having constant build to those who pay attention so that there's always an opening whenever, The Rock is free, to come right in and get on that feud.

And the only two logical options for an opponent would be HBK or Cena. Which means even if he doesnt wrestle Cena he could fight Michaels, have it be better and it'll still be fresh, undone and draw huge. That's been a dream match people have wanted to see longer than Rock/Cena

just like Austin/Hogan has been a dream match longer than Cena/Hogan and Austin/Hogan would draw bigger.

So yeah I could see Rock's comments on Cena being a work, but then again maybe not in one way because Cena did change for the worse and isnt as good as he wouldve been, a bigger star, had he stayed with his original gimmick

And I could really see Rock not bashing WWE as a work being that it really does suck being watered down in PG. That's not the environment he worked in and changing it would be best.

Also the reason Austin shouldnt come back a lot, no one should be seeing Austin edited either. bleeping of middle fingers and he's limited to what he can do or say, it's not the same