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Originally Posted by Fox
And did Cena really get elevated from his programs with The Rock? I don't think so. He's the same as he always was. His "aura" has not changed one bit. If Cena beat Hogan at Mania, that might be another story.
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I don't think so. Regardless of who it was, I don't think the match was about elevating Cena as much as it was giving him something extraordinary on his roster. There was a 2+ year build starting with the back-and-forth before and during the hosting spot at WM27, Cena's loss at WM28, and then his win at WM29. When you're already a top guy there isn't much elevating to be done, the feud was more about "I'm at the top to stay."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fox
And I have to believe that Rock was under a lot of pressure to put on a hell of a show - not just pressure from the millions, but pressure from the locker room. CM Punk was extremely vocal about Rock walking into an "un-earned" WrestleMania main event. He probably felt quite justified when Rock didn't blow the roof off the building with Cena (although the high from that justification was probably quickly nullified when the numbers came in). I bet a lot of the locker room felt the same way. "Rock is coming back and I get why he's got the spot - but he better fucking do something with it!" And he kind of didn't. The matches were mediocre. I can't even rewatch them. I can rewatch Warrior/Hogan and I still love it. Cena/Rock - no.
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I don't necessarily agree with every bit and piece here but it's all pretty valid. I agree about Hogan/Warrior though. In that match it was "the guy we universally love" vs "the new guy that we are coming to universally love." The match was everything it could possibly be and probably a bit more, and Hogan's loss was a shocking ending. Hogan/Rock at WM18 ended up being "The guy we've been loving for the past few years vs HOLY SHIT WE STILL LOVE THIS GUY MORE," which again was all it could be and possesses an emotion that doesn't diminish over time. Cena/Rock was "the guy that the audience is totally divided over" vs "HOLY SHIT NO DOUBT WE STILL TOTALLY LOVE THIS GUY." There was no intrinsic emotion to it. Maybe if Cena's divorce had actually been due to his WM28 loss there may have been something to it.
I'm gonna go watch Hogan/Warrior now.