[YoungGun_UK]

I think Rock and Brock could work, I mean honestly if Cena can do it then so can Rock IMO but im 100% certain were getting Brock/Taker, Rock is either facing Cena or Punk or even both.

[murder]

I want Brock vs Rock for the title at Mania. Just because they're the two biggest names in the company.

Only problem with this scenario is that there's no opponenet for Taker other than Cena and Punk. Punk will probably face HHH and nobody would buy him beating Taker anyway.

But with Cena, there may have been a time where he would have been credible enough to end the streak in peoples mind back when he was undefeated at Mania. But since then he lost three out of his last five main events at Mania. Again nobody would except him to end the streak which makes the whole match pointless.

So I'm afraid we get Brock and Taker and Cena vs Rock again, with the wrong guy in both cases going over.

[TheVoiceless]

Originally Posted by murder

I want Brock vs Rock for the title at Mania. Just because they're the two biggest names in the company.

Only problem with this scenario is that there's no opponenet for Taker other than Cena and Punk. Punk will probably face HHH and nobody would buy him beating Taker anyway.

But with Cena, there may have been a time where he would have been credible enough to end the streak in peoples mind back when he was undefeated at Mania. But since then he lost three out of his last five main events at Mania. Again nobody would except him to end the streak which makes the whole match pointless.

So I'm afraid we get Brock and Taker and Cena vs Rock again, with the wrong guy in both cases going over.

I think they save Taker vs Cena for 30. I think we're either getting Cena vs Rock II at Rumble or WM29 which ever happens Punk gets the other. Personally I want Punk to hold the belt til Rumble but if that doesn't happen I'd like to see Cena get the belt now lose it to Rock at Rumble with Punk winning the rumble.

[Choke2Death]

Originally Posted by murder

I want Brock vs Rock for the title at Mania. Just because they're the two biggest names in the company.

Only problem with this scenario is that there's no opponenet for Taker other than Cena and Punk. Punk will probably face HHH and nobody would buy him beating Taker anyway.

But with Cena, there may have been a time where he would have been credible enough to end the streak in peoples mind back when he was undefeated at Mania. But since then he lost three out of his last five main events at Mania. Again nobody would except him to end the streak which makes the whole match pointless.

So I'm afraid we get Brock and Taker and Cena vs Rock again, with the wrong guy in both cases going over.

Actually, if anyone can make fans believe the streak is beatable, it's Cena. Him losing 3 Mania matches is irrelevant, and he still has one of the stronger lengthy WM records.

[NoLeafClover]

Personally at this point, I would like to see John Cena win the belt from Punk later in the year (not at Night of Champions...I think Punk needs that win to prolong this feud). Perhaps Cena can win it at Hell in a Cell or Survivor Series though. I'd like John Cena to then hold the belt until the Rumble, setting up Rock/Cena II in January, putting Rock/Punk on tap for WM29 with the title on the line.

My biggest concern about this approach though, is that it involved Rock going over Cena again. Believe me, Vince wants to make sure Cena gets that win back against Rock from WM28, and I just can't see Rock going 2-0 over Cena...the second time being for the title no less.

I unfortunately think that it will be Punk/Rock at the Rumble, setting up for Rock/Cena II at WM29 for the title. Cena will go over, making his win even bigger because it's for the belt this time. I really don't have much interest in seeing Rock/Cena at Mania for a second time, even if it is for the belt. The only saving grace would be if Cena turned heel on Rock, but even then I don't think the impact is as great if it were to happen at WM28...coming out of the "embrace the hate" angle leading up to the match.

[GillbergReturns]

Originally Posted by DesolationRow

The only thing I want to see less than Rock/Lesnar is Rock/Undertaker. At least with Brock, Rock actually had a damned good match with him ten years ago, while Rock and Undertaker never matched up well with one another, never had a decent, much less memorable feud or program with one another and seem to be a couple of characters that are just better off not entering one another's orbits. These problems are only magnified and exacerbated by their respective statuses today, with Undertaker and his sanctified Streak on the one hand and Rock and his movie star celebrity on the other.

Triple H just tried to fucking murder The Undertaker at consecutive Wrestlemanias. And Triple H could do that because of who he is and what character he boasts coming into the ring. Rock isn't going to revert to his Corporate Rock asshole heel self from a decade and a half ago and start bashing Taker with a chair like he did with Mick Foley once upon a time. He's a completely different Rock, nobody would want to see that, nobody wants to see him turned heel (to what point?), none of it benefits WWE aside from whatever buys they may collect because it's a Big Match. But not every possible Big Match is the correct Big Match.

That's why Lesnar vs. Undertaker makes so much more sense. Triple H was a killer in his matches with Taker at WM27 and WM28. Now that killer was just taken down by an eviler, hungrier, more vicious, more ruthless and sadistic monstrous killer in Lesnar. The Streak at this point requires someone who's willing to attempt to murder Taker to break it. Even John Cena at WM30 could bring that to the table after all the years of battling the Umagas, Sheamuses, Lesnars, et. al., fighting in Last Man Standing matches, Elimination Chamber matches, etceteras. Cena bridges the gap between the Triple H model and The Rock model but he's at least believable in that role, and best of all he's in a different place in his career and we don't know what he'd look like, exactly, as either a heel or at worst a heavily-booed "tweener" (which is what he'd be in any Streak storyline by de facto).

Rock can't really play that role anymore. He can still bring a certain edge to his character and he can even be booed by a segment of Cena diehards throughout the audience but he can't--won't be allowed to--return to that territory.



I think it's unquestionable that Rock either pursuing the championship or eventually wearing it as champion will certainly elevate the championship. This is actually a role which he can fill quite capably and in so doing he can actually elevate something, namely the WWE Championship. As was said by SharpshooterSmith, simply having Rock/Cena II for the WWE Championship ensures that the WWE Championship match will headline Wrestlemania as it logically should.



Don't necessarily agree with the last bit. Theoretically speaking, if Cena were to turn heel, a long reign as a heel overlord of WWE would do the WWE Championship, the John Cena character and the WWE at large a world of good. Of course, even as a babyface he can maintain the status quo... which is not what most of us want but it wouldn't exactly sink WWE, it seems.

Anyway, WM29 is probably going to be, to one extent or another, used to set up WM30... Kind of like how WM27 was used to set up WM28. So while it'll probably be more strictly "predictable" than, say, WM28 (though, really, did anyone think Sheamus, Undertaker or Punk weren't going to win?), much of it will be used as the jumpstart for WM30's big angles (Cena being set up to challenge the Streak, Punk's elevation as a true top tier player after WM29's program, doubtless the snowballing of certain rising stars toward WM30, etceteras).

Rock and Taker have never even been booked to have a meaningful feud between each other. The only high profile 1-1 match they had was Rock v Taker at King of the Ring 99 and that was just a filler match in between Owen dying on the previous PPV and Austin winning the belt the day after King of the Ring.

I wonder why that didn't feel special or memorable?

The selling point of a Taker Rock Wrestlemania match would be you'd have both guys trying to cement their legacy as the greatest Wrestlemania performer of all time. As big as 20-0 is you can make a legitimate argument that Rock's wrestlemania history is better. The guy has had dream feuds and victories over Austin, Hogan, and Cena. The faces of the era. The streak is a big list of average wrestlers and B+ stars.

[DesolationRow]

Originally Posted by GillbergReturns

Rock and Taker have never even booked to have a meaningful feud between each other. The only high profile 1-1 match they ever had was Rock v Taker at King of the Ring 99 and that was just a filler match in between Owen dying on the previous PPV and Austin winning the belt the day after King of the Ring.

I wonder why that didn't feel special or memorable?

There's a reason why they were never booked to have a meaningful feud between each other. Because they sucked together.

Their characters don't mix. It's like seeing Elvis vs. Boris Karloff. Their characters are too far from one another in the universe to create a meaningful feud between them. Even now, if they were to "feud" (i.e., cut a dozen promos with each other, since that's what it would be for Wrestlemania), it would feel awkward and forced. I can think of a few avenues they could take with it--"Team Bring It" vs. "The Creatures of the Night"? Nevertheless, it doesn't excite me any, at all. Let's also be brutally honest: Undertaker was the least among the triumvirate of Taker-Triple H-Michaels this past Road to Wrestlemania when it came to promo work. He received "WHAT?" chants and was even getting boos here and there for some shaky mic work. Seeing him paired up with Rock would probably render the problem altogether more pressing. At least with Lesnar, Heyman can do the heavy lifting and sell the storyline without necessitating too much mic effort from either Taker or Lesnar.

The best thing that ever took place between Rock and Taker was Rock kicking Taker back down with the "Rock Stomp" after Taker "sat up" mid-People's Elbow on a random Raw in the fall of 1998. The rest of the match? Nope. Their match at Survivor Series later that fall? Boring Attitude Era "brawl," nothing offensive but unmemorable in the extreme. Their match at King of the Ring 1999 is actually atrocious, a nearly 20-minute snoozefest. Austin winning the title back the next night had nothing to do with it. By that point that night, I had repressed the match between Taker and Rock the night before because it was just so poor.

When I think of Rock and Undertaker, I think of Rock's December 2000 promo in which he mocked Taker's eye-rolling shtick (though Taker was the "American Badass" character at the time). Again, it was hysterical in large part because of how massive the gulf between those characters truly is.

To reiterate a point I made in a thread regarding Shawn Michaels having one last match--and it quickly was dominated by talk of Rock and HBK working together one day--"...Rock wrestling a guy who will be pushing 50 when they could ever conceivably lock it up in the middle of the ring in 2012, with Rock standing in as the Hogan figure from 2002 that he wrestled once upon a time as the young megastar, is just taking a backward step for WWE. And I'm sure Rock himself knows that. Since returning, Rock has been and continues to be working with Cena and Punk and Miz, not with guys who he either worked with a decade ago and don't need any further interaction with him or even legends like Michaels who he somehow missed out on ever working with. He's a lot cagier and wiser than he's given credit for, seems to me."

I think Rock's own fans aren't giving their own hero enough credit for having such a smart, well-rounded view of the business.

This isn't ruling out Lesnar/Rock as a possibility one day as a simple major attraction to boost a Summerslam or a Survivor Series one day, but at least as far as Wrestlemania XXIX is concerned, it seems like both men have entirely different trajectories. They've made it clear that as far as Cena and Rock are concerned, they have unfinished business with one another (their dialogue at Raw 1,000 saying as much), and Rock's locked in to wrestle Punk, almost surely at The Royal Rumble. Rock freeing himself up for Lesnar would require quite a few tricks in booking at this point. Meanwhile, Lesnar is here solely for big money and to work with the biggest possible names, and after Cena and Triple H, and with Rock busy with today's bigger stars, Undertaker would be next in line for Lesnar.

[murder]

They had a singles match at No Way Out 2002 where Rock won. Rock vs Taker for some reason does not sound right. Rock vs Punk, vs Lesnar and even vs Cena again sound good but this one just doesn't for me at least.

[Rock316AE]

Rock and Taker had a few good to great matches 98 to 99. RAW in October 98 IIRC was good, KOTR 99 was great, when Orton and HHH used the early finisher concept in their WM25 match, the first thing that came to my mind was Rock/Taker at KOTR. NWO 2002 was decent and they had more TV matches in 2000. At SVS 98 there's a funny spot where Rock is giving Taker a DDT and then mocking his Deadman sit up, then mocking Bearer for being as he said "a big fat piece of shit!" lol. Good times. Anyway, they never booked for a program together because it was never the right time, always a problem between injuries, babface/heel dynamics or bigger matches. They can definitely work a WM main event, the story is already there from the story of this year's Rock/Cena match with Rock saying that he needs to beat Cena to be the GOAT.

But with that said, Rock/Brock is more attractive than Rock/Taker IMO and that's what it should be, along with Taker/Cena as the co-main event. In the past Vince had a philosophy that at WM, he wants only new and fresh matches, preferably first time ever. Then the Rock/Austin series came out, broke records and worked so well that it meant to happen again. But other than that, I hope Vince goes to what he said in the past and don't give us the same matches at WM every year, especially when both results are the most predictable of all time.

[DesolationRow]

Yes, I did laugh when Rock yelled that Bearer was a big fat piece of shit and I always chuckled when Undertaker said to Rock, "Don't eyeball me, boy."