We are very close to getting to see The Rock vs. CM Punk. Or at least we assume that we are very close to getting to see The Rock vs. CM Punk. When it was first announced in July not many were expecting Punk to keep the title until January. Sure, maybe the title might change hands a few times and sure, it might end up back in Punk’s hands by the time the Rumble rolled around but to actually be the champion the entire time? It seemed like quite a stretch. And quite a stretch it was, but now here we are, with just one more PPV to go before Punk will be defending his title against the Rock. But before we get there, a few things must be addressed.
First and foremost, CM Punk still has at least one PPV to defend his title in. We have recently learned that the stipulations for this include Tables, Ladders, Chairs, and Ryback. Punk has beaten Ryback twice now, but each time he has done it with the assistance of some outside interference. And with The Shield interrupting multiple matches in the past few weeks, it is very possible that this trend will happen up to and through TLC. After all, the whole reason for these interruptions is to keep Ryback looking powerful without having him pin Punk. But should this happen at TLC, it could cause a problem, because it would mean that Punk has successfully defended the title at the past three PPVs only because of outside interference. In order to successfully be considered credible threat to the Rock, a guy who has been built up to, and beyond, legend status, Punk needs to get a clean win over Ryback to be considered worthy of challenging the Rock.
(An additional problem is that I’ll be much less likely to care about the Rock returning to the WWE if there’s a fair chance that his championship mach is just going to get interrupted halfway through Nexus style.
When it was first announced that The Rock would be challenging the champion in January, the two major contenders for that champion slot were the current champ, and Cena. We even got a promo from John saying that he wanted one more chance to “Go one on one with The Great One” totally ignoring the definition of “Once in a Lifetime.” But in the past couple of weeks, we’ve heard nary a peep out of Cena about getting a shot at the title. It seems that he’s taken his Survivor Series defeat in stride and has turned to focus on more AJ related things. But once the Rock comes back to cut promos on his eventual opponent (Punk) it will be strange, and perhaps a bit awkward for Cena to not acknowledge the Rock, especially if current rumors persist and Cena gets somehow involved in the Rock’s WrestleMania match. So this means at some point Cena has to acknowledge that he not only failed to defeat the Rock at WrestleMania last year, but this time around he couldn’t even do what it takes to get to the match.
When the Rock returned to WrestleMania we knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt that his match with John Cena would end the show. When the Rock returned to Survivor series before that, we knew then that his match would be the last on the card there as well. But this time the Rock is returning to a PPV where the Rumble is traditionally the last mach on the card. So this is the question. We know that WWE likes to cater to the Rock. From this point forward the Rock will always get the main event slot simply because he is the Rock. But is the Rock going to be bigger than the Royal Rumble itself? What is going to close out the show? Quite possibly, the decision as to the final mach of the show might be a result of storyline. As we head toward the road to WrestleMania it’s quite possible that the winner of the championship match and the winner of the Rumble will affect one another, and with three guys circling around the rumored title scene at WrestleMania, the order of the card may just bow to storytelling, but still. If the Rock, by his very presence is able to unseat the Rumble, it will go a long way to disproving the statement that no one man is bigger than the WWE.
