WWE Elimination Chamber: WWE Championship - The Rock (c) VS CM Punk

[Martin Gabriel]

I just hope they don't overbook the rematch. I feel like the angles they did worked since they tied into the storyline well, but in the rematch I'd prefer just the two of them, one-on-one for 20 to 30 minutes, no run-ins, no restarts, no obviously neglected count-outs, just a good wrestling match. Maybe the last match was booked like that because The Rock can't go in a 20-minute, back-and-forth match. People can say, "Blah, Punk carried Cena in all their big matches," but it takes a lot of skill to even participate in all the great chaining and other early back-and-forth sequences Cena and Punk have had in their matches. Maybe The Rock's not at that level right now, but if he's working off the ring rust down in NXT still, maybe he will be by the time of Elimination Chamber -- or maybe he never lost that ability in the first place and they just chose to gimmick the match like crazy because of the storyline. Regardless, I thought their Royal Rumble match was good, generally entertaining, but I'd like this one to be markedly different, a brand new flavor.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

Rock and Punk didn't suck. Pro wrestling isn't about cramming as many complex sequences into a routine without screwing up, that is gymnastics. Pro wrestling is about stirring emotion and telling a story. This is why Rock is great. This is the real reason Punk is great.

This should be a decent match. I wouldn't mind Rock/Punk/Cena or Cena/Rock and Punk/Taker. So really, I'm just going to sit back and relax.

 

[Chadmw]

After last nights Raw, I think Punk is going to win the belt, by either having the Rock get DQ'ed or counted out (why else would they add that stipulation). Then on Raw the next night Vince will either come out or by Video say that he did not agree to those stipulations and that Heyman had someone fake his voice on the telephone.

He will then strip Punk of the title for his manipulations, but he will make a 3 way match at Wrestlemania between Rock, Cena and Punk for the belt.

 

[rge2010]

At E/C I think it is going to end in a double count out. Rock will lose, Punk wont win. Title will be vacated and a 3 way dance will take place at WM with John Cena.

Alternatively Brock Lesnar could interfear, cost Rock the match and get added it it to make a Fatal 4 way. Then we get Taker vs Triple IV

 

[LoudClearVoice]

At E/C I think it is going to end in a double count out. Rock will lose, Punk wont win. Title will be vacated and a 3 way dance will take place at WM with John Cena.

Alternatively Brock Lesnar could interfear, cost Rock the match and get added it it to make a Fatal 4 way. Then we get Taker vs Triple IV

The double count out scenario would still mean that Punk is the champion according to Vince's stipulation. He said that if Rock gets counted out or disqualified, then Punk wins the belt. He didn't say that Punk had to win the match. So, taking what he said literally, the moment Rock is counted out, Punk is the WWE champion even if he were also to be counted out.

What I think is going to happen is that the lights are going to go out and then come back on and the Shield will be beating up The Rock (with the ref knocked out of course) then when the ref wakes up, the Shield will attack CM Punk to get Rock DQ'd. Then either Punk will win and Vince will come out and overturn it again OR the ref will somehow get knocked out again and "not see" the Shield attacking Punk. Rock of course would then get the pin. I think it's also probable that it will end with Undertaker interfering causing Punk to lose (but again, the ref won't see it). Then Punk can keep up his routine about being screwed and being the real champion and that Rock should have been DQ'd or whatever.

 

[LoudClearVoice]

After last nights Raw, I think Punk is going to win the belt, by either having the Rock get DQ'ed or counted out (why else would they add that stipulation). Then on Raw the next night Vince will either come out or by Video say that he did not agree to those stipulations and that Heyman had someone fake his voice on the telephone.

He will then strip Punk of the title for his manipulations, but he will make a 3 way match at Wrestlemania between Rock, Cena and Punk for the belt.

Actually, if this is what happens, then I think EC will end similar to the Rumble. Punk will win, then Vince will come out and say that he never agreed to that stipulation and that the match has to be restarted. Only, this time after the restart, Punk hits the GTS and it looks like he's going to get a clean win and then the lights will go out and the gong. When the lights come back on, Punk will be laid out in the center of the ring and Rock will hit the people's elbow for the win.

EDIT: I just thought of something: Punk and Heyman could orchestrate the Shield interfering and beating up Punk so Rock gets DQ'd. Then after the belt is awarded to Punk, Vince McMahon will come out and say that since Paul Heyman and CM Punk have been lying to him, he lied to them about the stipulation and then he'll order Justin to announce CM Punk the winner by DQ but the Rock still as WWE champion. Punk and Heyman could then throw a fit in the ring and that's when the gong can hit. When the lights come on, Undertaker will be in the center of the ring staring down Punk and Heyman.

 

[Wolf Pac]

Then on Raw the next night Vince will either come out or by Video say that he did not agree to those stipulations and that Heyman had someone fake his voice on the telephone.

But Vince was talking to Vickie on her phone, Heyman wouldn't have known that Vince was gonna call Vickie unless it turns out that Vickie and Heyman are working together and they orchestrated that phone call with a fake Vince.

-

I doubt this is going to happen, but I have an interesting idea in mind.

The Shield hit the ring, and the crowd expects them to attack The Rock, but instead they focus their attention on Punk, and Punk has a huge smile on his face cause he thinks they will attack him and cause a DQ, giving him the title as part of Heyman's plan, so he welcomes them to hit him. But The Shield exit the ring instead, and put Heyman through the announce table with a triple powerbomb, leaving Punk confused in the ring before he turns around into a Rock Bottom for the 1-2-3. The next night on RAW, it turns out that Mr. McMahon paid them more than Heyman did to do what they did at the pay-per-view. I don't think Mr. McMahon is dumb enough to agree to the stipulation if he didn't have something up his sleeve. This doesn't mean that The Shield turn babyface though, it just proves that they have no allegiances and it makes them look even more dangerous and destructive.

They could do that, or The Undertaker can help The Rock fend off The Shield, and it's revealed that Taker was recruited by Mr. McMahon to help The Rock out.

Whatever happens though, it should be a good match, and I expect Cena will come out after the match and have an epic staredown with The Rock to sell Wrestlemania.

 

[BearJew13]

Last night on RAW we saw Mr. McMahon accept Paul Heyman's proposed stipulation that if the Rock gets DQ'ed or counted out, he loses the title to CM Punk. Some would see this as a sure-fire win for Rocky or even a way for Heyman to screw Punk over. I suggest the contrary to both.

The Rock winning would be too predictable. However, this does seem like the most logical decision and probably the one that will happen.

But Heyman will NOT screw over Punk. It would suggest that Rock is somehow aligned with Heyman and this is too far fetched.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say CM Punk wins the WWE Championship at Elimination Chamber.

Before you pounce on me, hear me out.

CM Punk comes out for his match (alone or with Heyman) and the match begins. We get another 30-40 minute classic from the two before Heyman gets up on the apron and throws a punch at Punk. Maybe it's not Heyman, maybe its Brock Lesnar! this would cause a DQ and a title change.

It would provide for so many interesting things to happen at Wrestlemania. Punk vs. Rock vs. Cena
Punk vs. Cena
Rock vs. Brock
Punk vs. Rock vs. Cena vs. Brock

But either way, Punk will be champ and Undertaker will be at home.

The stipulation could guarantee a Punk win, another championship reign, and the fact that the Undertaker will not work Wrestlemania.

 

[rge2010]

But either way, Punk will be champ and Undertaker will be at home.

The stipulation could guarantee a Punk win, another championship reign, and the fact that the Undertaker will not work Wrestlemania.

You say this liuke it is fact? How the hell do you know Taker wont work Wrestlemania? Every year the dirt sheets spread rumours he is beat up, The IWC jump on the badwagon and say he is finished and then all of a sudden he appears...

And why are people led to believe it is Punk vs Taker or nothing. What indication is there for a Punk/Taker match? Because Labar reported it?

There is a whole roster out there for Taker if Punk is busy elsewhere. Lesnar, Sheamus, Ryback are just three off the top of my head.

 

[LoudClearVoice]

You say this liuke it is fact? How the hell do you know Taker wont work Wrestlemania? Every year the dirt sheets spread rumours he is beat up, The IWC jump on the badwagon and say he is finished and then all of a sudden he appears...

And why are people led to believe it is Punk vs Taker or nothing. What indication is there for a Punk/Taker match? Because Labar reported it?

There is a whole roster out there for Taker if Punk is busy elsewhere. Lesnar, Sheamus, Ryback are just three off the top of my head.

Well, I think most people are assuming that CM Punk is going to be in one of the WM main events. The way I see it, there are 3 main events at WM. WWE title match, World title match, Undertaker's match.

Barring something completely unforeseen and ridiculous, Punk is not going to be in the world title match. So that leaves the WWE title match and the Undertaker match. Many people think the WWE title match will be a triple threat. I don't and here's why: As much as I hate to say it, Cena is winning the belt at WM. He lost to the Rock at WM last year and I believe the plan all along was for Cena to win the rematch. If it's a triple threat, it doesn't really count as "beating" the Rock and it cheapens the title win. WWE won't want to do this. Even if it's a triple threat where Cena pins Rock, it's not the same. Rock would still have the edge in the 1 on 1 matches. SO, I think we're stuck with Twice in a Lifetime. That means that if CM Punk is going to be in a WM main event, he's going to have to fight The Undertaker.

This year's mainia will have one other main event involving Brock Lesnar so I guess it's possible Punk could be involved in that angle.

However, with all this said, if Taker can wrestler, it seems like Punk will be the opponent based on how things are falling into place.


One point re: the stipulation.


It's obvious that they added this stipulation in order for Punk to end up getting screwed by Vince (which might lead to Heyman bringing back Lesnar again to go after Vince and leading to Triple H's return).

In the storyline, Vince McMahon was just brualized by Lesnar and Heyman. Why would he suddenly agree to something that appears to help Punk? That doesn't fit the storyline nor the "Mr. McMahon" character.

Punk's not winning and McMahon is going to screw him in some way with this stipulation.

 

[#hamler]

With the stipulation going into this match, if the Rock gets disqualified or counted out, Punk wins the Championship, I can definitely see some foul play going on here. Who’s to say Shield doesn’t make their presence felt and lightly attacks Punk so The Rock is disqualified. It would certainly make sense. We’ll see Punk force his way into the Main Event and possibly get in between Cena and The Rock come Wrestlemania. I can see it playing out like that, however, I think that’ll be too easy for Punk. I not going to pretend like I can even guess what will happen in the finish of this match but I do know Rock is leaving Elimination Chamber as Champion. Rock/Cena II at Wrestlemania seems impossible to get around and that’s not really a problem for me. It’ll draw a huge crowd response along with a strong pay-per-view buy rate. I’m not saying Punk will take away from that if the match is made into a triple threat, I just don’t see it happening. It’s Rock’s job to drop the belt to Cena at this year’s Wrestlemania. I would expect no less.

Hamler's Prediction -The Rock will retain the WWE Championship.

 

[JBK2008]

There's no way Punk wins. It sucks, but this is what's best for business. Rock vs Cena 2. It's happening and hopefully Rock's match with Punk won't look as sloppy this time around.

 

[LoudClearVoice]

There's no way Punk wins. It sucks, but this is what's best for business. Rock vs Cena 2. It's happening and hopefully Rock's match with Punk won't look as sloppy this time around.

I agree that there's no way Punk wins the belt but I think he could still win the match via DQ. I think that Shield will purposely interfere and attack Punk to get Rock DQ'd and after Punk is awarded the title, yet again, Vince McMahon will say that he lied about the stipulation and that Punk wins the match but Rock is still champion.

 

[gk11973]

Well, Punk is not getting the title back, that is clear. I think the way this match plays out really depends on the Undertakers WM status. Rock loses the belt if he gets DQ'ed or Counted out, so he has to win via pinfall. If it is a relatively clean win, the Taker vs Punk is likely going to happen. If there is a controversial win, or if they shock us with a Punk win, then the WM just became a triple threat match. I'm going with Rock to retain though.

 

[FarFromFine]

Did anyone else find it odd that Vince instantly gave Heyman what he wanted without any negotiating. For a great businessman this was a bad move. I think it would have been more interesting for Vince to counteroffer with giving Heyman the stipulations but with the caviat that if Punk loses Heyman is fired.

What I think will happen is that Heyman will give Punk a chairshot so that Rock is DQ'd making Punk the champion until VKM comes out and restarts the match and Rock wins again. This way Punk can go on saying he is still the real champ and he can keep counting his days as WWE Champion to gain even more heat while Rock holds on to the strap. Kind of a "real world champion" angle for the modern day.

 

[BrianBell]

There's 2 ways I can see this match finishing:

1. The Rock has the upper hand in the match, the lights in the arena go out, everyone assumes it's the Shield, when the lights come back on, CM Punk is face to face with the Undertaker. Undertaker makes no contact with CM Punk (which would cause a DQ in the Rock's favor meaning he'd lose the belt), but he's distracted long enough for the Rock to turn him around and drop him with a Rock Bottom for the pinfall.

2. We have a better quality match than the one at Royal Rumble with a clean finish where the Rock retains.

It's real simple, traditionally speaking the WWE Title match at WrestleMania has been a 1-on-1 match with just one exception. Rock/Cena 2 is the route the WWE is going. It may not be the popular choice, but it's the choice that will net the largest buyrate for the PPV and at the end of the day that is what matters the most especially for WrestleMania. There is very little if any chance CM Punk regains the WWE Title this Sunday.

 

[LoudClearVoice]

There's 2 ways I can see this match finishing:

1. The Rock has the upper hand in the match, the lights in the arena go out, everyone assumes it's the Shield, when the lights come back on, CM Punk is face to face with the Undertaker. Undertaker makes no contact with CM Punk (which would cause a DQ in the Rock's favor meaning he'd lose the belt), but he's distracted long enough for the Rock to turn him around and drop him with a Rock Bottom for the pinfall.

I like this scenario but with a twist. Lights go out, Shield comes down and surrounds the ring. They look like they're about to attack Punk for the intentional DQ. Then ref gets knocked out and Rock beats the hell out of the Shield. Heyman then grabs a chair and tries to wake up the ref, as the ref starts to wake up, Heyman goes to nail punk with the chair when the lights go out again and the gong. Lights come back on and Heyman is knocked out, Taker has Punk in either the tombstone or choke slam, he hits it. Then ref miraculously "wakes up" just in time for Rock to hit the people's elbow and retain.

 

[Dagger Dias]

The most likely match to end the show. I feel bad for CM Punk and still disagree with the fact that The Rock won the belt in the first place. The match seems forced and I'm just not as interested in it as I wish I could be. Rather safe to say that The Rock will win so that he and Cena can face each other for the WWE Championship in their rematch at Wrestlemania. I'm not sure where Punk goes from here, I don't see him winning this at all. Even with the stipulation that The Rock cannot get DQ'ed or counted out. Cena & The Rock don't "NEED" the WWE Championship, but it will add more to their rematch which is most likely going to happen no matter what the haters say. Cena already said he will be facing the WWE Champion at Wrestlemania so why do another Cena VS Punk match when he can have a rematch against The Rock to avenge his loss from last year AND win yet another world title at the same time?

Someone like Lesnar or Maddox could cost Rock the belt through interefering in the match to lead to a DQ, that's the only way Punk wins although I still doubt that will happen. Rock as WWE Champion, as much as I disagree with it, can get the WWE publicity during the build up to Wrestlemania where he can promote the likely Cena rematch during appearances he makes between now and then. I hope it will be better than their Royal Rumble match. It goes on last and the show closes with The Rock having retained against CM Punk. They both move on to their Wrestlemania feuds after this match and the feud ends here.

DAGGER'S PREDICTION
The Rock will retain the WWE Championship.

 

[El Rev sXe]

Well I hope this match is going to be better than their first encounter, not that the first one sucked, but it can be better. At first I would've say it was pretty damn obvious that the Rock was going to retain, however I am seriously intrigued if Taker can't make it this year, then what Punk is going to, plus you need to take in count the stipulation. That being said, it could be that Punk wins because, Rock flips out and beats Heyamn and Punk with a chair and something and then making it a triple threat at Mania.

Prediction: Punk regains the WWE championship.

 

[#TheSkipper]

There are four possible scenarios for the outcome of this match...

1) Rock wins clean.

2) Punk wins clean or by DQ.

3) 'Taker returns and costs Punk the Title

4) Lesnar/Heyman cost Punk the title setting up a Lesnar vs Punk fued.

Personally, I see Rock winning clean and heading to WrestleMania to lose to Cena. I'd like to see Punk win somehow and add a little intrigue to WrestleMania; could Rock invoke his rematch clause and set up a Triple Threat?

 

[The Eighties]

I never liked The Rock and he was never a great worker but he was always good at the hot comeback, in fact perhaps the best I've seen, but these days he's jacked up and laboured as well as rusty. Punk is awesome but this is a dead end for him, I just hope he gets the match with Taker at Mania.

The stip of Rock losing the belt if he gets DQ'd I think was added to just to try and create the possibility that Punk might win, nothing more than that. Dwayne wins with the Rock Bottom.