[Starbuck]

Originally Posted by The-Rock-Says

When the hell has Cena ever been a merciless fighter? You're confusing me with this stance on Cena. When I look at Cena and his matches, I never think "Fighter/brawler".

I'm talking about Taker/Cena at Mania 30 when the chances of Cena being a legitimate heel are at their highest. Heel John Cena in 2014 is going to be quite the monster. I'd actually wager that Taker/Cena is a bigger match than Taker/Rock without Cena being heel. Throw that into the mix and it's game, set, match.

When you think of Cena you don't think of a 'wrestler' either though lol. He's much closer associated to being a brawler and a grafter than anything else. He's also renowned for taking some serious beatings and while perhaps not on the scale of others, he's been in quite the number of WWE fights in his career.

[Patrick Bateman]

First blood vs JBL and Last man standing vs Umaga were extremly brutal but I can't think of any thing else that would classify Cena as a Fighter.

[Clique]

THIS is the man that is going to end The Streak!



A legit fighter!

[Starbuck]

HEEL CENA

We don't know what it is yet or what it will look like but I think we all know that it's going to be the biggest thing to hit the WWE in years. There's going to be quite the difference in Cena dishing out a beating as a face where he has all these morals and slogans to live by compared to HEEL CENA which could consist of anything. That's the game changer. Brock is a given. Heel Cena is question mark. Rock is basically a no go.

EDIT - I don't think I'm getting my point across as well as I want to lol. Hopefully you can take something from what I'm trying to say though. In a nuthsell, Rock/Taker is bad and Brock/Taker or Cena/Taker is good. There lol.

[Choke2Death]

Originally Posted by RevolverSnake

First blood vs JBL and Last man standing vs Umaga were extremly brutal but I can't think of any thing else that would classify Cena as a Fighter.

You mean "I Quit" on the former. Their first blood match ended because JBL was coughing up blood which is the most PG they could've made a first blood match.

And yes, heel Cena is the only thing that can give a bright future to the WWE. Until then, they have to think short term with attraction matches and ignore the future.

[DesolationRow]

Starbuck is right.

As I said a couple pages back, even if Rock were willing to go all out and return to his asshole Corporate Rock self who's willing to mercilessly bludgeon a guy with a chair for fifteen minutes like 13-1/2 years ago, neither WWE nor he will want him to go there. He's the ultimate special attraction, the ultimate celebrity, quite plainly, who bridges the worlds of pro wrestling and Hollywood. He's as much the personification of the impact on pop culture pro wrestling strongly helped to make as anyone who's ever existed, and now he's the boomerang megastar whose pop culture accolades are being brought back to WWE to cross-pollinate.

He's not going to go heel the way Cena almost undoubtedly one day will. He's not going to be around to make a heel turn work. Furthermore, turning him heel would be a public relations snafu. He's the perfect ambassador to the entertainment world for WWE at this stage. He's too great a legend to be turned, and discounting that point, he's simply not well-suited to some kind of brawl with The Undertaker.

Rock's Rock Bottom or People's Elbow against Undertaker following the last four Wrestlemanias? No. That's just insulting the viewers' intelligence. Even with Cena, it was largely the element of surprise following Cena's act of hubris that was his undoing. It was the perfect booking for that finish because the Rock Bottom would, you would think, be utilized to knock someone's wind out of them as much as anything else. As such, it was the perfect finisher to catch the self-distracted Cena off guard and with which to get the one, two, three pin.

A Streak match with Undertaker will be entirely different. It's obvious, based on where they have gone with him recently, that Lesnar is the ideal opponent. In short, WWE needs someone in there who will be a threat to Undertaker. For a combination of factors, Rock isn't that guy. He can cut all the promos he wants to about ripping out guys' throats. Lesnar acts like he would have no remorse about doing just that when he's in the middle of a fight.

And let's also be perfectly frank about Rock/Cena as a match. It was good. But it was also a spectacle match, not a match that was intended to blow you away with verisimilitude. When Rock locked in the Sharpshooter and Cena locked in the STF, no one seriously believed anyone was going to tap out. It wasn't like Undertaker snatching Triple H into Hell's Gate at Wrestlemania XXVII or Wrestlemania XXVIII. The Sharpshooter and STF spots were intended to depict the Greek gods' respective strength and endurance. It was meta, as meta and as symbolic as Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan pushing each other down to the mat out of a couple of lock-ups. Which Rock/Cena even emulated at its beginning. That was the kind of match it was. And that is what Rock will, in his present constitution, be best at delivering. I'm sure there will be a spot in any Rock/Punk match in which Punk narrowly survives the Sharpshooter and Rock just barely holds on against the Anaconda Vice.

When Taker latched onto Triple H at Wrestlemanias XXVII and XXVIII, it wasn't atmospheric, and it certainly wasn't done so that both men would look great. It was done with ferocity, to create a genuine sense that one man was on the verge of going unconscious from the pain and pressure applied by a man who was simultaneously wearing himself out, finishing off whatever strength he still possessed, in endeavoring to vanquish his opponent.

WWE has the perfect man to bring that sense of gritty realism to the Streak right now in Brock Lesnar. It's a no-brainer, and everything they've done with making it evident that Lesnar > Triple H, Lesnar's interactions with Triple H and Shawn Michaels, signposts that Lesnar/Undertaker is on deck.

As for Cena, he's 35 years old and is still the standard-bearer of the product, whatever our feelings for him. You have to look at these men at where they are in life, where they are in their careers. Rock a dozen, even six or seven years ago might have easily been capable of delivering the kind of match against Undertaker at Wrestlemania that would conceivably fit alongside the running episodic narrative WWE's delivered on with the Streak these past 3-1/2 years, but he's no longer fit for that role. There's many things you can do with him but building him up as a sadistic monster or realistic fighter (again, Michaels wrestled Undertaker but that was then--the Streak narrative has pushed forward quite dramatically since) against The Undertaker for the Streak is not one of them.

Then there's the point I first brought up which is that, a few hilarious promos from Rock aside, these two guys never really did have much in the way of chemistry in or out of the ring. You can say that Lesnar/Undertaker inside the Hell in a Cell ten years ago wasn't exactly some kind of fabulous wrestling match, but that sense of dread and almost downright horror it engendered is almost perfectly ideal for the Streak at this point.

Cena can either turn heel before facing Undertaker or slowly find himself turning in the match itself or a dozen different variations of the storyline. Many fans of this era have seen Cena fight through the Elimination Chamber, they've seen him battle the monsters like Umaga, they've seen him tortured by a psychopathic Randy Orton and still survive without quitting. Cena is still a reasonably pliable entity. He can wrestle the spectacle match with The Rock or you can send him into the lion's den against Brock Lesnar and watch as his head is caved in like a watermelon.

Cena can choke a man out with a ring rope, and even in the post-PG time period he's been allowed to knock a man in the head with a chain to turn the tables. As silly as it sort of was, he was permitted to wrap duct tape around Batista's ankles to win a Last Man Standing match. I can't see Rock being given the kind of latitude Cena is permitted, because, for one thing, Rock is the special attraction. As little character development as Cena's had since Extreme Rules, it was the character development he had at his back that drove him to use the chain against Lesnar. The audience is conditioned to seeing Cena placed in dramatic situations in a continuous manner. Thus his defeating The Big Show with a bunch of friendly babyfaces at No Way Out is okayed. Rock doesn't have that luxury. He doesn't work B pay-per-views or have filler feuds. It's just two entirely different cases.

[Clique]

Again, I agree that Brock physically poses the bigger threat to Undertaker than Rock or anyone for that matter at WrestleMania 29. However, I'm going to have to disagree with Cena (heel or face, and it's questionable if he will turn heel at this point) is more of a fighter/brawler/aggressive than Rock. If Cena is suitable for the Streak with his smiles and Five Knuckle Shuffles then Rock is suitable with his catchphrases and People's Elbows. We all would love for Cena to turn heel. We have been clamoring for it for years but I'm not so sure he will be a heel let's say this time next year if he was headed toward a match with Taker at the 30th WrestleMania. Rock's obviously not going heel either and I don't think anyone suggested he should, just present more aggressiveness in his determination to take down The Streak in his quest to solidifying has status as the greatest of all time.

[BrosOfDestruction]

Originally Posted by Rock316AE

"Einstein, the Brahma Bull has been on fire ever since he's come into this son of a bitch."

Damn, that line was EPIC.

[Crusade]

My ideal situation would be to have Punk vs Rock at Mania for the title with Punk going over but lets be honest: whilst Punk is undoubtedly over as champion he isn't close to Cena's level in terms of being a draw. Rock vs Cena II whilst done before would undoubtedly draw more than Punk vs Rock. The twitter poll may say otherwise but who wants to bet that the majority of that poll was voted on by the IWC? Its not a good idea of what casual fans really want to see.

I know this has been said already but I see Rock vs Punk indeed going down at RR with Punk remaining champion for 14 months. Rock will win the title that night with Cena either winning the RR or winning a number one contenders match at EC setting up Rock vs Cena II. The only other option is sticking Lesnar in there, having him win the number one contender's spot and having Rock vs Brock II at Mania. This I believe would draw more than Rock vs Cena II. Why? It hasn't been done in a long time and both men are big draws, Rock being the legend and Hollywood moviestar and Lesnar being one of the most recognisable fighters/sportsmen in the world. The draw could be huge. There is one problem: It is likely both men wont be doing anything after and leaving so we could have the Goldberg/Lesnar effect of them being booed out of the building. Will WWE want to risk that on the main event of the biggest PPV's of the year? I don't know, my gut instinct says no.

Due to their history, its likely Lesnar will face Taker which is another potentially big money match as Lesnar is one of the few people who can be seen as a legitimate threat to the streak. The only question is where does this leave Punk? Stone Cold is said to not be wrestling until WM 30 and he wants the match itself to be the main event, in which the most likely opponent will be Punk because both men want it. Austin is unlikely to face Punk at WM 29 so who does Punk face? Presents a dilemma and its most likely Punk will be forced down the card for the PPV. Which is a shame.

[the fox]

what about a triple threat match ?
Rock vs Cena vs Punk ? at Wm 29?