Wade Barrett would certainly have been a far greater opponent for Cena in terms of tail of the tape, the only caviat is how do they get Rock involved with Barrett like he was with both Miz and Cena.
Let me flip this on it's head: What connection did Miz have with Rock, exactly, that it warranted Rock's involvement? As Miz stated all along, Rock's beef was with Cena. Miz or the WWE Championship weren't the focal points of the feud; the beef between Cena and Rock was. And that grew out of comments Cena made in a shoot interview regarding the Rock.
So why would Barrett have been different than the Miz?
I don't think long-term planning was ever for Barrett to remain with the Nexus. Rookie heel stables are incredibly risky, and hardly ever work. With a group like the Nexus, after Sheffield(Ryback) was injured, you had Barrett and a bunch of jobbers. Even when Harris and McGuilicutty were brought in, well, you still had Barrett and a bunch of jobbers.
Is that the type of stable you want involved in the Main Event of Wrestlemania? The only way that could have worked would have been if Barrett had won the WWE Title,
then broken away from Nexus. And there would still have been one important difference.
Cena and Miz never really felt personal, did it? If you want to push it, Miz snuck in and eliminated Cena from the Rumble, and Cena retailiated by costing Miz a champion vs. champion match against Edge. But that was the extent of it. Cena won the Elimination Chamber, he got a shot at Miz. It was Rock and Cena that was personal, not Miz and Cena. If you recall, Barrett and Cena was
extremely personal. Even with Rock's charisma and such, how does he fit into what was a personal feud?
The only way Barrett works is
without Rock's involvement, and seeing how the WM 27 Main Event was used to set up Wrestlemania 28's main event, Barrett wouldn't have been the right fit They made the feud between he and Cena far too persona to involve a third party like the Rock. And when it comes down to it, room was going to be made for the Rock rather then Wade Barrett, so The Miz was a far better fit. He took a backseat and simply won the match.
I think CM Punk should have been in the main event against Cena. As for Wade, the Nexus storyline definitely should have been booked better and Wrestlemania should have been the culmination of the storyline where the stable was finally defeated instead of Summerslam. I would move the tag match at Summerslam to Wrestlemania instead.
1. Punk wasn't ready to main-event Wrestlemania yet. He had yet to win his first WWE Title, how was he going to main event the biggest show of the year?
2. If he did, against who? Orton? That's what was left of a thin crop if you put the Summerslam tag match at Wrestlemania. Cena, Edge, and Jericho, three of your top stars at the time, all out of the picture. Heck, Jericho wasn't even involved in Wrestlemania 27.
Summerslam was built around one feud, as a one match show. You can't do the same with Wrestlemania.