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Rate The Rock vs. CM Punk Feud

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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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#1,642 ·
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

officially 165 pages on this forum, can we get 200??
 
#1,645 ·
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

I don't want Rock to revert completely back to how he was 10 years ago. Obviously, his character has evolved since then but my only criticism is that, at times, I do feel like we've got Dwayne Johnson the person instead of The Rock the character. It's partially the fault of that stupid ass Cena/Rock, I'm sorry, John/Dwyane, program they gave to us earlier this year that enabled it to happen. I don't want to see Dwayne trying to get shit to trend on twitter for 15 minutes out of a 20 minute promo and then he spends the last 5 minutes being The Rock. I'd much rather he be what he was in his first return promo in 2011. That's the Rock I personally want to see but he doesn't get to be that Rock when they put him in these ridiculous shoot style feuds. I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing Dwayne/Phil by the time the Rumble rolls along instead of a kickass Rock/Punk program over the WWE title. Oh joy.
 
#1,646 ·
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

I don't want Rock to revert completely back to how he was 10 years ago. Obviously, his character has evolved since then but my only criticism is that, at times, I do feel like we've got Dwayne Johnson the person instead of The Rock the character. It's partially the fault of that stupid ass Cena/Rock, I'm sorry, John/Dwyane, program they gave to us earlier this year that enabled it to happen. I don't want to see Dwayne trying to get shit to trend on twitter for 15 minutes out of a 20 minute promo and then he spends the last 5 minutes being The Rock. I'd much rather he be what he was in his first return promo in 2011. That's the Rock I personally want to see but he doesn't get to be that Rock when they put him in these ridiculous shoot style feuds. I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing Dwayne/Phil by the time the Rumble rolls along instead of a kickass Rock/Punk program over the WWE title. Oh joy.
Good point and you too Rock316AE. It has to be this whole shoot style thing thats going on, and the fact that it really blurs that line from reality and what not. It really sucks imo, and it brings me back to the video I posted a few days ago. A fan made video hyping up Rock/Cena years before it actually came about. I know that this is the direction WWE wants to go and that things are more "real" so to speak now but its doing more harm to story lines, characters and angles imo than good. Im a traditional guy who loves the way it used to be done, and Im sure there are those who like it and would tell me to get with the times, but this is one thing that shouldn't be touched. Look at Taker/Trips the actual build to the feud and match was so much better because they kept it from within the WWE reality. It had a true point to it and it was all Taker/Trips and not Paul/Mark.

I guess when you see Rock out there and being free again such as (SS Promo, his return, off air segments, stuff with Bryan etc.) he is still as much as "The Rock" as he ever was. But like you said Starbuck, if Rock is put in a feud where his name is called out, his decision to leave and passion being questioned and stuff like that, its hard to get into. I watch WWE to escape from reality. On a side note, really wished Rock would go back to the sleeveless tees, track pants and glasses again for casual promo work lol

Rock/Punk will be going this direction by the looks of it (hope I am wrong) but like Rock/Cena I wont let the disappointing build ruin my enjoyment from seeing the match.
 
#1,647 ·
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

I noticed in the game they're focusing on the 97-99 part of the Attitude Era only, which is a shame, the 2000-02 stuff had some golden points in terms of characters, storylines, and moments

but it's understandable because that was the controversial half of the attitude era

oh well nothing's perfect I guess, I really wished they used the 1999-01 theme, that to me is the perfect Rock theme
 
#1,686 ·
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

I noticed in the game they're focusing on the 97-99 part of the Attitude Era only, which is a shame, the 2000-02 stuff had some golden points in terms of characters, storylines, and moments

but it's understandable because that was the controversial half of the attitude era

oh well nothing's perfect I guess, I really wished they used the 1999-01 theme, that to me is the perfect Rock theme
If they focused on the 00-01 part of the attitude era alot of guys would be left out dudleys, hardys, angle,etc
 
#1,648 ·
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

'Do You Smell' is my fav theme of his. Just pure coolness.

His face isn't shaped right. Shit THQ.

Why doesn't the WWE games not have career mode anymore? I mean picking a wrestler and going on a full years mode with them?

I picked up WWE 12 last week for ÂŁ10 (seemed cheap enough) and it had wrestlemania mode and all you could use is Fella and HHH.
 
#1,650 ·
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

I don't think he'd have the energy to pull that off that late into the match. They could've worked the kip up into the Rockbottom spot when Cena was doing the people's elbow for an even greater shock factor but it didn't happen. Would've been epic though.
 
#1,651 ·
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

He didn't do the Kip up in the Cena match (im sure it was the planned spot) because he tore his hamstring.

Regarding the WWE 13' entrance, its good, missing the arm shuffle and the big people's eyebrow when he stops at the bottom of the ramp.

Comparison
 
#1,655 ·
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

EA have fucked every sports franchise besides Fifa and NHL so I don't expect much from them

Yeah, those ratings are a joke. It's a game based on the Attitude Era and Cena is the highest rated guy. 3 points higher than Rock, mind you, and 2 more than Attitude Era Rock
 
#1,667 · (Edited)
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

My point was that you said it like he did it in every promo when in reality it was a 5 minutes deal out of 20 promos. That's like saying, I want the real Undertaker, the deadman and not the guy who talked about how he cut his hair. When again, it was 2 minutes out of his entire program. If you didn't like some of his work, fine, your right. But don't see how you can base it on half a promo he did in a 2 years run.

EA have fucked every sports franchise besides Fifa and NHL so I don't expect much from them

Yeah, those ratings are a joke. It's a game based on the Attitude Era and Cena is the highest rated guy. 3 points higher than Rock, mind you, and 2 more than Attitude Era Rock
Probably, FIFA is quality and that's the only game I'm playing. Still would be interesting to see their version. The EA servers are horrendous BTW, last night I did a few UT games and the servers ruined half of them, then blaming you for "losing the connection" and giving the opponent the victory. You expect better from a company on that level.

The ratings are a joke, especially when a few years ago, I remember them giving Rock a 97 overall(most in the game)and now giving the same character 3 points less. But it's all stupid promotion anyway with no credibility.
 
#1,657 ·
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

There is no career mode, Road to Wrestlemania is the closest thing. In WWE 13, they'll be Rock, Stone Cold, Mankind, Kane, Taker, Bret Hart, DX and I think 2 other fantasy ones I'm forgetting
 
#1,659 ·
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

RTWM fucking sucks. All you have is Fella and HHH.

Ugh.

Well, I hope there is a proper career mode in the new one and you'll actually be able to choose more than fucking 2 people to play with. Sucka.
There's not gonna be a career mode, only the Attitude Era mode. Oh and theres another RTWM where you can use your created guy

 
#1,661 ·
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

Good enough for me. Can you use all the guys from back then?
Austin
DX
Rock
Mankind
Bret
Kane
Taker
Wrestlemania XV
1 other that we don't have details on (I think it's a reversing the outcome of matches during that era)

It's all preset matches and cutscenes though.

 
#1,663 ·
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

Ah, good. Paul Heyman is involved with creating storylines for the AE mode.

The promos in WWE 12 and how the wrestlers speak are funny.

They don't even try and hide the fact that they are reading off a piece of paper.
Heyman is involved with creating storylines for the Universe mode, actually. 200 storylines I think he said

good watch
 
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#1,670 ·
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

Loved the entrance, animation looks money. Though Rock's face looks really off and his sideburns are off. If that's suppose to be corporate Rock then they need to be longer and more visible.

This has to be the best looking Corporate Rock (or any Rock for that matter) model in any game:
 
#1,671 · (Edited)
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

I just counted and Rock did 19 promos, 6 off air segments and 7 backstage/outside the arena skits(like the History Lessons and the backstage segments in the birthday). Twitter was a factor in two of them.

This promo in Philly was tremendous, for some reason is not on the Rock/Cena DVD. Along with the YouTube promo.


Loved the entrance, animation looks money. Though Rock's face looks really off and his sideburns are off. If that's suppose to be corporate Rock then they need to be longer and more visible.

This has to be the best looking Corporate Rock (or any Rock for that matter) model in any game:
I downloaded the demo of this game at that time because the concept looked interesting, the moment I tried the controls system was the moment I gave up on this game. Probably the most ridiculous combinations I have ever seen. Also interesting that they chose this Rock attire, he wore it just one time IIRC in a match with Road Dogg in March 99. But yeah this is the closest Corporate model. Hollywood Rock in HCTP was great.
 
#1,672 ·
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

Yeah and I'm saying that outside of the stuff I already mentioned, nothing else he did really stuck with me and they all felt like a big twitter ball because of how unmemorable they were. His return has definitely come with highs and lows as far as I'm concerned but I understand that he can't be awesome all the time. I'm fine with that. The great stuff he did do was awesome and very memorable.
 
#1,674 · (Edited)
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion



The whole direction of the Feud changed after this massive and i mean MASSIVE burial Rock gave to Cena thats why they have never acknowledged this promo,never talked about it not in DVDs not in the ring and never the content in it has been ever talked about again,this is why Rock was told to keep it simple and to go easy on everyone,He shitted in the face of the company months before their match with ease even Cena said he was sorry and Orton came to his senses after this Billy Gun level burial this promo is the reason Rock is not and cannot bring his full blown character into any feud let alone his heel persona ''Hollywood Rock''

But i got to say the one thing about Punk is that maybe his massive ego and the whole being a mark of himself gets in the way and tells Vince he wants The full blown Rock now that would be money i just hope he can recover from the burial
 
#1,678 · (Edited)
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion



The whole direction of the Feud changed after this massive and i mean MASSIVE burial Rock gave to Cena thats why they have never acknowledged this promo,never talked about it not in DVDs
IIRC it was only EVER used on air when Punk promoted anti-cena stuff during the contract signing for SummerSlam. Even then it was incredibly edited and only featured 2 or so minutes of footage. The full video was never played or acknowledged though.


But i got to say the one thing about Punk is that maybe his massive ego and the whole being a mark of himself gets in the way and tells Vince he wants The full blown Rock now that would be money i just hope he can recover from the burial
I wouldn't say it would be ego and such that would cause it. Punk is less valuable an asset overall compared to Cena anyway, so it would be less detrimental to allow full-on Rock to go in promos against him. Not to mention Punk is much more free as a heel and better as a heel on the mic and would work well as Rock's antagonist imo, any real harsh burying comments he could brush off a bit easier with an arrogance and in-your-face mic style he is currently working, unlike Cena's complete good-guy style which would leave more ****** in the armour as he would be unable to respond as well due to the "hustle-loyalty-respect" stuff.

I doubt they will do full shoot style though. It is dangerous to characters, especially with someone as gifted as Rock on the mic delivering it.
 
#1,675 ·
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

Definitely sounds like something Punk would do. God I hated that Cena/Rock feud, everything looked and sounded just weird. They should have had a Austin/Rock type feud, instead they did this part work, part shoots, part worked shoots and part half works half shoots that turned into full fledged shoots. And you never knew if someone was asked to hold back or if someone went off script.

With a Punk/Rock feud, especially since it's for the title, this will be a lot easier to watch and enjoy. Even if you're a fan of only one of them.

I agree with Starbuck by the way, Rock was too much Dwayne instead of Rock. Too much smiling, no sunglasses and way too much twitter talk. Not to mention Team Bring It and Boots to Asses, the two dumbest things that Rock ever come up with in my mind.
 
#1,679 ·
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

Rock's return promo, July non-WWE affiliated outside promo, and Survivor Series promo are my favorites since he returned.

For some reason I always felt as if Rock was never supposed to mention Cena during his return promo. Maybe he was supposed to at least mention him but not bury him to the extent that he did. He absolutely ethered John Boy and I remember the WWE.COM version of Rock's promo they published the next day completely edited out the portion of the promo about Cena. I think that was the first time Cena's character was not protected in terms of promo work.
 
#1,680 · (Edited)
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

Team Bring It: Born in 2001. Used as another word for "The Millions" and Rock's mantra in life. Huge success.

Boots To Asses: Sold millions of items worldwide with that slogan, got over huge, was used outside of wrestling and just last week was chanted big all over the Yankees game.

Fruity Pebbles: Created a big campaign, gave mainstream exposure, was chanted everywhere, put Cena on 3 million boxes and his attire will always be known by that name.

Return, YouTube, MSG backstage and after the show, Concert, History Lessons, Cena kid, Philly, Miami after WM, Boston in November and RAW 1000 were all classic and going to Rock's endless archive. Other great promos like Rock/Cena before WM28, Birthday, Rock/Miz Philly and Atlanta, Rock/Austin/Mae at WM27 etc were all money. I guess that people need a few years to really appreciate something, it's still too fresh to really see how great this run was so far, and can be even better if they wouldn't go with the same opponent for WM29.

Rock said in an interview that nobody backstage knew what he was going to say, I don't think there were even specific points for this promo, probably "Mention Cena, Miz and hype WM". This is a year after his return:

https://twitter.com/TheRock/status/169552148445659138
@WWE @JohnCena Happy Valentines Day John. You may not be my girl, but I do consider you my bitch. #BootsToCenasPinkParts
:rocky
 
#1,697 ·
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

Return, YouTube, MSG backstage and after the show, Concert, History Lessons, Cena kid, Philly, Miami after WM, Boston in November and RAW 1000 were all classic and going to Rock's endless archive. Other great promos like Rock/Cena before WM28, Birthday, Rock/Miz Philly and Atlanta, Rock/Austin/Mae at WM27 etc were all money. I guess that people need a few years to really appreciate something, it's still too fresh to really see how great this run was so far, and can be even better if they wouldn't go with the same opponent for WM29.
Dude, I just didn't like absolutely everything he has done in this return run and I'll feel the same 5 years down the line. Sorry but I didn't. Not everything he does is gold. Not everything anybody else I mark for does is gold either, not even HHH lol. They can't be perfect all the time and Rock is no exception to that rule. Imo of course. If you find everything he does gold then more power to you. For me personally, this return has had high points and low points and I'm completely fine with that. I enjoyed a lot of it but I also found some of it pretty crappy tbh and that isn't going to change no matter how many times I watch it.
 
#1,681 · (Edited)
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

My dream is if the rock would return with the same hair style he had in 2002 but also with the long side burns, the gold shaded glasses, the 800 dollar shirts, the 600 dollar shoes/ pants, the cocky as attitude, the immense swagger, the whole am better than you stuff, the slow talking era where he buried everyone, and either Do You Smell it V1, Do You Smell it V2, or Know Your Role V1.
 
#1,707 · (Edited)
Re: Official The Rock WWE Championship Discussion

My dream is if the rock would return with the same hair style he had in 2002 but also with the long side burns, the gold shaded glasses, the 800 dollar shirts, the 600 dollar shoes/ pants, the cocky as attitude, the immense swagger, the whole am better than you stuff, the slow talking era where he buried everyone, and either Do You Smell it V1, Do You Smell it V2, or Know Your Role V1.
Tbh even the Hollywood Rock (the one that fought Hogan, not the pussy/joke that fought Goldberg) would be amazing..
 
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