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Rate The Rock vs. CM Punk Feud

  • Underwhelming :punk3

    Votes: 78 20.6%
  • Decent/Good :rock

    Votes: 171 45.1%
  • Great :punk:rock3

    Votes: 130 34.3%

Official The Rock vs. CM Punk Discussion Thread

823K views 9K replies 1K participants last post by  Nimbus 
#1 · (Edited)
wwe.com said:
Perhaps the parade was premature. Perhaps the celebrating, the humble tweets to The People and the legions of Team Bring It, and the proclamation that FINALLY, The Rock was WWE Champion once again jumped the gun by just a bit. Maybe, just maybe, The Rock put the horse before the cart when he celebrated his latest triumph on Raw Roulette, because CM Punk is not done with The Great One by a long shot.


How could he be, either? When a Superstar holds the WWE Title — Punk’s “life’s work,” in his own words — for 434 days spread across three calendar years, he does not just simply throw up his hands and call it a good run when the prize is taken from his clutches. So it was of no surprise when, during The Rock’s celebratory address to the WWE Universe as its new champion, The Straight Edge Superstar himself declared would be evoking his rematch clause – “granting” Rock a rematch was how he earned it – at Elimination Chamber. It was also of no surprise that The Rock gladly accepted.

But once again, maybe Rock is counting his proverbial chickens too early, because for all CM Punk’s feverish boasting in his final days as champion, he was right about one thing after the Royal Rumble: Hedidpin The Rock. It was one-two-three in the middle of the ring, although it took a sneak attack by who we can only assume was The Shield to weaken The Brahma Bull enough for Punk to make the pin. And it was only after Mr. McMahon restarted the bout that The Great One found enough of a second wind to silence CM Punk and put The Straight Edge Superstar to sleep, claiming his eighth WWE Championship in the process.

So at Elimination Chamber, the most brutal pit stop on The Road to WrestleMania, The Rock will face his own personal demon yet again. And The People’s Champion will have to be very, very careful, because CM Punk does not make the same mistake twice, and he is very, very angry. The very real opinion exists — depending whom you ask — that Punk should still be WWE Champion. And with it, the very real possibility exists — should The Rock think one victory equals winning the war — that The Brahma Bull’s parade could end as soon as it began and that CM Punk will be champion again, with history in his hands for the third time.


Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson said:
Over 100 years of Heavyweight Champions.

3 generations in my blood.

New WWE Champion.

My honor. TEAM BRING IT.


wwe.com said:
Attitude Era original Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will compete in his first World Title match in more than a decade when he challenges WWE Champion CM Punk, the longest-reigning WWE Title holder of the past quarter-century, at Royal Rumble on Jan. 27.

The WWE Universe has anxiously awaited The Great One’s return to the WWE Title picture since he announced his championship opportunity on Raw 1,000 last July. Though there was no guarantee at the time whom The Rock’s opponent would be, the always-confident Punk fired an opening salvo that night, cutting down The Rock with a clothesline before knocking him out with a picture-perfect Go to Sleep. The following week, The Voice of the Voiceless defended his actions by suggesting The Great One, having been “gifted” a WWE Title match, viewed victory at the Royal Rumble as a foregone conclusion.

Whether a real or perceived slight, the implication that The Rock places himself on a higher plane than the current WWE Champion was seemingly all the motivation Punk needed to make sure he would still have the title on Jan. 27.

In the half-year since Raw 1,000, The Second City Saint stunned WWE fans by aligning with Paul Heyman and ratcheting up the vitriol of his speech. More important than either of those details, he has — by hook or by crook — maintained possession of the championship gold. Having turned back challenges by John Cena and Ryback in recent months, The Best in the World now looks ahead to testing himself against the seven-time former WWE Champion who vowed in 2012 to regain the title.

For The Rock, an A-list Hollywood action star and third-generation Superstar who has sports-entertainment coursing through his veins, the Royal Rumble title match represents the start of a potential career renaissance inside the ring. Since March 2004, The Most Electrifying Man in All of Entertainment has competed in only two sanctioned WWE matches, teaming with John Cena to shred The Awesome Truth (The Miz & R-Truth) at Survivor Series 2011 and overcoming the Cenation leader at WrestleMania XXVIII.

But by vying for the most treasured prize in sports-entertainment, The Rock is committing to more than another appearance as a “special attraction.” Rather, he is setting his eyes on again becoming WWE’s gold standard.

Hell-bent though The Rock may be on introducing a new generation of WWE fans to The People’s Champion, there is no discounting Punk’s deftness once the bell rings. Controversial endings to several high-profile title defenses may have tarnished The Second City Saint’s reputation in the eyes of some critics, but they have done nothing to change the fact the WWE Championship still sits around his waist. Before his seedier side came into focus in late summer, Punk spent much of 2012 disposing of WWE’s best and brightest, ranging from Chris Jericho and Daniel Bryan to Dolph Ziggler and Kane. How will the WWE Champion match up against one of the pillars of The Attitude Era?

As the WWE Universe excitedly counts down the days until Jan. 27, the back-and-forth between two of WWE’s most compelling talkers is bound to pick up steam. It will not be until the Royal Rumble, however, that the trash talk gives way to the gravity of a game-changing WWE Championship bout, the likes of which hasn’t seen in years. Will Royal Rumble mark the rebirth of a championship Brahma Bull, or will it only underscore what Punk has claimed all along, that he is untouchable and in a class by himself?
The Rock explains why he wants WWE Title

WWE part-time star The Rock revealed why re-capturing the WWE Title is important to him in a new interview with WWE Magazine. It's a statement that has been missing from WWE television leading up to the Royal Rumble PPV.

"It starts with recognizing what the WWE Championship represents to me," Rock said in the February 2013 issue. "Every time I hold that title over my head in victory, it not only signifies the fact that I have delivered the absolute best entertainment that I could to the WWE Universe, but that I'm taking a moment to live an experience that all the generations of wrestlers in my family strived to achieve.

Rock continued, "There is no other award that I could receive that's as deeply ingrained in my blood and history as the WWE Championship - and that's why it means so much to me."

At the same time, Rock said that after his first WWE Title reign - which came in 1998 - he decided that he would never allow his possession of or lack of the WWE Title define his career.

"After my first WWE Championship run came to an end, I made a conscious decision that night that I would work harder than any other Superstar in the locker room to become the type of WWE entertainer who, if I never had another championship run again, it would not define my career. I never wanted to rely on a title run for success."

Rock's next statement reflects his recent approach to mixing "entertainment" with "seriousness." Rock concluded, "My goal was to get to a place where I relied only on what I could bring to the table in terms of being entertaining and having a one-of-a-kind - and electrifying - connection with all of the WWE Universe."

[ FYI: Rock's interview is part of a cover-feature on Rock in the latest WWE Magazine. ]

Link - http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/WWE_News_3/article_68014.shtml














 
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#9,397 ·
Re: How would you grade Rock vs Punk feud?

Can't rate it any more than average because they protected Punk in it way too much. Rock was barely allowed to damage or harrass him in promos while Punk got to say pretty much whatever he wanted unchecked. Even in the matches, it seemed like it was booked 80/20 in favor of CM Punk just like the promos.

Punk lost, but it was completely unsatisfying because of how strong they made him look. The only things good were the outcome and the fact that The Rock was there. Punk getting forcefully put over again even after the super long reign made it difficult to enjoy. I expected him to get his ass kicked thorougly to end the reign, not look like a beast with barely any retort in matches or on the mic besides for Rock to be forced to put him over by saying how great Punk is.

Very disappointing end to Punk's reign. WWE booking Punk's side too strongly dragged down the fued a lot for me. They should have continued to book him like they did against Ryback. Then at least it would've been a satisfying end. Instead, Punk looks strong, gets a rematch, continues to look strong, then gets to fight Cena for another potential rematch. . .I mean shit, it's over a month later and it still doesn't seem like Punk's out of the WWE title picture yet.

I'm looking forward to Rock/Cena more, because Cena at least wasn't protected in his fued with Rock last year like Punk was with Rock this year. Their fued was much more enjoyable since it was booked 50/50. Outcome is meaningless if it's booked too one-sided beforehand.
 
#9,430 · (Edited)
Re: How would you grade Rock vs Punk feud?

Can't rate it any more than average because they protected Punk in it way too much. Rock was barely allowed to damage or harrass him in promos while Punk got to say pretty much whatever he wanted unchecked. Even in the matches, it seemed like it was booked 80/20 in favor of CM Punk just like the promos.

Punk lost, but it was completely unsatisfying because of how strong they made him look. The only things good were the outcome and the fact that The Rock was there. Punk getting forcefully put over again even after the super long reign made it difficult to enjoy. I expected him to get his ass kicked thorougly to end the reign, not look like a beast with barely any retort in matches or on the mic besides for Rock to be forced to put him over by saying how great Punk is.

Very disappointing end to Punk's reign. WWE booking Punk's side too strongly dragged down the fued a lot for me. They should have continued to book him like they did against Ryback. Then at least it would've been a satisfying end. Instead, Punk looks strong, gets a rematch, continues to look strong, then gets to fight Cena for another potential rematch. . .I mean shit, it's over a month later and it still doesn't seem like Punk's out of the WWE title picture yet.

I'm looking forward to Rock/Cena more, because Cena at least wasn't protected in his fued with Rock last year like Punk was with Rock this year. Their fued was much more enjoyable since it was booked 50/50. Outcome is meaningless if it's booked too one-sided beforehand.
I don't agree with their storytelling that The Rock was the underdog despite beeing bigger, stronger and taller but I don't get your logic at all. What other purpose for the feud was there for Punk to even be there if it was not to make him look strong? Rock made him look like a bigtime player and now he's starting to draw serious numbers on his own, mission accomplished. With Rock winning both matches and CM Punk looking like a bitch, he would have lost all his credentials and would be curtain jerking/midcarding at WM and have the most forgetable long reing in the history of the WWE. This way, Punk still lost both of his matches but had a long reing with the purpose of making him a star and comes out looking like a boss. Sounds like blind hate to me tbh.

And LOL at Cena not beeing protected more than Punk. If WWE gave The Rock the greenlight to say whatever he wants on one single show he would bury Cena beyond belief and make him look like a midcard jobber. At least Punk had some legit arguments, Cena sounds like some low class pleb that has not done a single counterargument to any of Rocks points when he was serious. He'd eat Cena alive if he was allowed to go into 1999 mode, even if Cena was allowed to shoot back.
 
#9,400 ·
Re: How would you grade Rock vs Punk feud?

Average at best.

The promo's were sometimes good, sometimes mediocre. The first Punk promo (the "pipebomb") was a bunch of rambling nonsense that made no sense. Than the Rock came out and told Punk to "strip naked."

The matches though, weren't really that good at all. The first one was a big mess. Rock's gassed, Punk's on the offense 90 percent of the time, the table breaking, the shenanigans. Sure, the second one was better, but not by much. I understand people only like the matches just because who's involved, but I wasn't really a fan of either match.
 
#9,401 ·
Re: How would you grade Rock vs Punk feud?

I thought it was good, not awesome but good. I voted average because I felt it was closer to it. It had an awesome start but then didn't really live up to it. The matches were disappointing too because of how overbooked they were.
 
#9,404 ·
Re: How would you grade Rock vs Punk feud?

If the action in last 8 minutes of the Chamber match could've been added to their RR match then the feud would've been great, instead we barely got any interaction between them whereas Rock/Cena had numerous F2F promos which were never that great. If they had given Rock/Punk that much freedom then this could've been a great, but there was no way they were going to let Rock/Punk outshine the Cena/Rock rematch.
 
#9,410 ·
Re: How would you grade Rock vs Punk feud?

Matches were horrendous. Promos from Punk were GOD like.

MEH.
 
#9,412 ·
Re: How would you grade Rock vs Punk feud?

Pretty much the ultimate 'meh' feud. Matches sucked, though at least the EC one was at least passable. But Punk's promos were fan-fucking-tastic. Rock's not so much but he had one or two solid ones. I expected more though. Remember how hyped everyone was for their Rumble match? Then the HUGE disappointment after just showed how high everyone's hopes were for that match and the feud in general.
 
#9,413 ·
Re: How would you grade Rock vs Punk feud?

Was ok, nothing special, but decent.
 
#9,416 ·
Re: How would you grade Rock vs Punk feud?

Stale was the first thought that came to my mind seeing this thread. I was a big fan of the Rock, and felt that seeing him back again would be wonderfully nostalgic, but if I'm honest, he's been somewhat underwhelming to me since he came back. I have enjoyed some of his promos, but others have been old and predictable. Punk has tried hard to keep it interesting, but he's working with a part timer who can barely say the WWE is even a priority - vs Punk whose life right now is the WWE. This feud was always going to be difficult to work. In the same way HHH vs Lesnar part 1 was last year.
I'm looking forward to it ending, and seeing I hate to say it, the back of The Rock for a while. He's good, but he's only great in small quantities now, in my view.
 
#9,417 ·
I enjoyed it. Punk was amazing and outshines Rock tremendously man... Punk was killing Rock out there. I give it a C. If Rock was on his A game and didn't miss any weeks it wouldn't been better IMO


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#9,424 ·
Re: How would you grade Rock vs Punk feud?

It was short, and only had one really good promo between the two (you can't box with God or something). I didn't watch the matches though so I can't comment on them.
 
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