Less than a month after winning the Royal Rumble Match and announcing his intention of challenging for the WWE Title at WrestleMania 29, John Cena found out who his championship opposition will be on The Grandest Stage of Them All: The Rock.
The Great One upended CM Punk at Elimination Chamber, the last pay-per-view before The Show of Shows, to retain the cherished WWE Championship and solidify his place in WrestleMania’s main event.
In The Brahma Bull, Cena will be facing a foe who helped set in motion the tailspin of a year that was 2012.
A 10-time former WWE Champion, the Cenation leader has not held the title since October 2011, and the disappointment of his drought was exacerbated last year by his high-profile loss to The Great One at WrestleMania XXVIII. The devastating loss bookended one of Cena’s toughest calendar years, to date. A series of distractions, from dealing with former General Manager John Laurinaitis to falling into an ill-fated romance with AJ Lee, kept Cena away from the WWE Title picture for much of the year. And even once he found himself in title contention, he was unable to pry the WWE Title from Punk, making 2012 a largely unproductive year for one of the most decorated competitors in WWE history.
Fortunately for the Cenation leader, 2013 appears to be off to a markedly better start, thanks to his huge win at Royal Rumble. The larger question facing Cena is whether he will be able to keep the momentum going all the way to April 7, when he faces the Superstar who dealt him one of the biggest losses of his career.
The Rock has shown no signs of ring rust since returning to WWE and winning the WWE Title in January. In fact, The Great One overcame great obstacles — including The Shield and The Second City Saint’s underhanded tactics — en route to dethroning Punk and subsequently turning back his challenge in a rematch.
With The Rock and Cena informed by their epic encounter last year in Miami, both competitors will assuredly come to MetLife Stadium with a more sharpened focus than ever before. Cena is out to avenge last year’s WrestleMania loss to The Great One. The Rock, on the other hand, appears intent on keeping the championship he waited more than a decade to reclaim — the title that represents the sport that not only propelled him to success on the silver screen, but also captured his heart and mind at a young age.
Now, all that separates The Rock and John Cena is time. On April 7, under the brightest lights that sports-entertainment has to offer, who will leave will the top prize: The Rock or John Cena?
After months of speculation and rumors, and after last night's Royal Rumble result, it appears that the WWE is, in fact, shifting into the direction of The Rock vs John Cena for the WWE championship in the main event of Wrestlemania 29.
Sure, last year was supposedly Once in a Lifetime. Yes, the Rock isn't even a full-time superstar. Yet, he still captured the WWE title; ending CM Punk's historic reign as champion. But it looks like the WWE wants a duplicated (or exceeded) payout from last year and put the WWE strap on the line to sweeten the deal a bit.
I'm going to Wrestlemania this year. I paid over $400 for a seat just outside of the ringside grouping of seats at Metlife stadium just to see a repeated main event from last year. Needless to say, I'm quite disappointed. John Cena isn't my favorite superstar and I think that his failures of 2012 were just what the doctor has ordered but he's still not someone that makes me excited to attend the biggest PPV of the year. Sure, I get it... the WWE wants to make money. And they probably will make a shitload of it. But to this longtime fan, I'll be bored to tears unless they find a way to spice this thing up, come Wrestlemania time.
Once again, this is a RUMORED match. But we can discuss it, anyway. Keep it all in here.