Wrestlemania has hosted many "dream matches" over the years. Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior. Shawn Michaels vs. Kurt Angle. Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock. This year was no exception as we got to see perhaps the most anticipated match of this generation: The Rock vs. John Cena. Obviously, this match had a lot going for it: The Rock's long-awaited return to WWE, an opponent that John Cena would finally have to confront rather than simply brush off, not to mention that they are two of the biggest stars the industry has ever seen. However, for everything that felt right about this match, something about it didn't quite click the way it should have, and I think I've figured out exactly what that is.
First, let's go back. 2002. Wrestlemania X8. The Rock vs. "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan. It was perhaps the dream match to end all dream matches. The Rock was at the apex of his career, truly evolving into the most electrifying man in all of entertainment. Hogan, still the leader of the popular nWo, had just made a return to WWE after eight years, having gone down with Ted Turner's recently defunct WCW. It was truly "Icon vs. Icon" in a match that needed little hype beyond the name value of its contestants, but WWE went the extra mile to get fans involved by having the two debate back and forth who was the bigger star until Hogan and his nWo cohorts beat the living hell out of The Rock, and stuffed him in an ambulance which they then ran down with an 18-wheeler...y'know, just in case you couldn't tell who the bad guys were. "Miraculously," Rocky was cleared to compete at Wrestlemania X8, and you would think that given everything that's happened, Rock could easily rest on the idea that he would be the clear face of the match.
Keep in mind, he was beaten to a pulp and then crushed with an 18-wheeler.
Despite having suffered the type of abuse that would have sent any other assailant to prison, The Rock was actually booed vehemently during his match with Hogan. Everything was fine until Rock started to gain some momentum, at which point the crowd decided that Hogan's legacy was more important than his attack on the biggest star of this generation and began to express their disapproval of "The Great One"'s offense by the thousands.
In the end, The Rock would be victorious against the Hulkster, and would suffer greatly for it. Shortly after befriending Hogan following their epic bout, Rock would do a quick heel turn, expressing his disdain for the fans who turned on him so quickly.
Why did fans boo Hogan? Perhaps it was in the vain hope of an unpredictable finish in which Hogan would overcome all odds to beat a man half his age with twice the in-ring ability. Perhaps it was out of respect for Hogan's legacy and the generations of fans who looked up to him, and continue to do so. But I think most fans cheered for Hogan because deep down, we knew that all that garbage about running The Rock down in a tractor trailer was just for show, and that underneath all the nWo black and white was the red and yellow we knew and loved. At the base of all the fabrications, we knew that Hulk Hogan, at least as a character if not as a human being, was not a bad guy.
Flash forward a decade. It's 2012. John Cena has been the face of the WWE for the past eight years. The Rock has virtually disappeared from professional wrestling, save for the infrequent appearance or the slightly more frequent interview "via satellite." Cena has been unstoppable, and to be quite honest, it's getting on a few people's nerves. The guy just never loses, and to make matters worse, WWE can't seem to muster up an opponent that even gives the perception of being powerful enough, smart enough, or charismatic enough, to pose a threat to Cena's reign of dominance.
Several men have come along to test this idea. Chris Jericho claimed he had returned to WWE to "save us" from the weekly monotony. C.M. Punk, despite winning the WWE title from Cena and subsequently, Alberto Del Rio, seems more of an underdog champion than the real face of the industry, as the focal point of every show remains squarely on John Cena.
And then suddenly The Rock makes his triumphant and long-awaited return to wrestling and FINALLY (pun intended) it seems as though John Cena will have a truly worthy opponent.
Now, let me just say right off the bat here, that this match certainly lived up to the hype. The contest itself was as intense as they come, with both men helping to make the other worthy of the accolades that have been lavished upon them. The Rock electrified, and Cena battled. It truly was a "once in a lifetime" experience. The match itself is not what is being questioned here, but rather, the circumstances surrounding it.
Anyone who has watched wrestling over the past decade or so (or read the first six paragraphs above) will instantly recognize a parallel between The Rock in 2012 and Hulk Hogan in 2002. Both were returning to wrestling after varied success and failure outside the industry. The Rock may be one of the most recognizable faces in entertainment, but to say his movies have "electrified" critics is a gross overstatement. I'd like to cite that the average rating for a major motion picture involving Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson on RottenTomatoes.com is 42%, with the lowest being The Tooth Fairy at 18%. (This is a mean score consisting of all major studio film releases featuring The Rock in a prominent role and do not include documentaries, independent films, or wrestling-related compilations or features.)
To be fair, John Cena's foray into the medium of film did not go quite so smoothly, either, considering 2006's The Marine garnered just 20%, with the average for all Cena-related feature films being a dismal 18.5%.
Despite the less-than-stellar rise to fame of these gentlemen outside the ring, there is one fact that needs to be stated here in differentiating their paths to Hollywood. For John Cena, film was something to do on the side, a curiosity he could afford to indulge, perhaps at the behest of Vince McMahon and his dream of being something more than just a wrestling promoter. For The Rock, however, being a career choice: a conscious decision to say goodbye to professional wrestling and use his star power to make a comfortable future for himself where he wouldn't have to break his back to make a handsome income.
That's not a criticism of The Rock. That is simply fact.
Let's also not forget that WWE decided to announce this match the night after Wrestlemania XXVII, thus making it perhaps the longest-promoted match in the history of contemporary professional wrestling. However, the feud didn't really kick off until November, when The Rock began making regular appearances on Monday Night Raw and actually addressing the barrage of comments launched at him by his Wrestlemania opponent.
The feud started off with a bang, as both men took their respective stances: John Cena would remind everyone that he was the one towing the company line while Dwayne decided to walk away. Meanwhile, The Rock would remind us all why he was "the most electrifying man" of a generation and proved to us all, at least on the microphone, that he still had what it took to be "The People's Champion." Most importantly, he promised us that he was here to save us from the Cena era once and for all.
It was exactly what fans had been waiting almost eight years to see: two of WWE's biggest stars at their best, dueling it out to see who really was the best. Fans who grew up during the "Attitude Era" flocked to The Rock, relieved that there finally was someone who could snuff out the candle the ever-persistent candle that was John Cena. Younger fans, many of whom became wrestling fans because of John Cena, stood by their champion and booed this old has-been for trying to trample the good name of their hero. It was everything a wrestling feud could ever be. I will admit, that I was of the former breed, and stood firmly in The Rock's camp, and I expected to remain there through Wrestlemania. All the logic in the world would dictate that this should have been the case.
But then something changed: things got personal.
It started with a few jokes. The Rock began making comments about Cena's "Fruity Pebble" color scheme and spread rumors about Cena's fictional "lady parts." Meanwhile, Cena began telling people that while he respected "The Rock", he did not respect "Dwayne Johnson", calling the former "The People's Champion," and the latter, "A Champion With People."
Cena would go on to accuse Rock of having a massive ego and turning his back on the WWE Universe. He noted that after making his comeback, "The Great One" promised fans he wouldn't be leaving "for a long, long time," but was nowhere to be found following Wrestlemania XXVII. Meanwhile, Rock would continue to make jokes about Cena, from his clothes to his lifestyle, to his career. Mick Foley even made an appearance and orchestrated a "John Cena: This is Your Life" segment to mirror the classic vignette with The Rock so many years ago.
However, there were two big obstacles facing The Rock: 1.) He had not competed full-time in eight years, 2.) To the fans' eyes, everything John Cena said was true. Whereas Rock took the sarcastic route, John Cena was spitting pure fact in his adversary's face. While this may not have been enough to win over the die-hard Cena-haters, The Rock was definitely losing momentum in a game that everyone thought Cena would never win.
It came to a head one night when Cena interrupted yet another classic tirade from "The Brahma Bull". Cena ran The Rock down for a minute or two, and, in a moment that felt something like a cross between a low blow and a knockout punch, noted that The Rock kept the notes for his promo on his wrist. The high-definition WWE cameras easily caught the flicker of fury on The Rock's face as Cena's words sank in and an audible "oooh" swept through the crowd. After Cena's exit, The Rock attempted to continue his promo as though nothing had happened, trying to get the People's Train rolling again, but all he could do was stammer his way to telling us all that he was going to kick Cena's ass at Wrestlemania, "if you smell what The Rock is cookin'."
For the first time in years, it appeared, at least to those watching, that The Rock was shaken by John Cena. And Cena knew it.
From there on out, The Rock's entire style changed. To fend off Cena's facts, The Rock began to sound like a schoolyard bully, throwing out humorous anecdotes while never really countering the things John Cena said. When given a chance to express their feelings through song, Cena returned to his trademark rap game, weaving his truths into rhyme. Meanwhile, The Rock put on another "Rock Concert" (something we'd seen back in 2003 before facing Steve Austin at Wrestlemania XIX), and continued to make fun of John Cena in every way imaginable, even going so far as to insinuate he had sex with Cena's mother.
It was entertaining, but was it really what the fans wanted?
Rock's promos lacked the intensity that was found in his classic feuds. Rather than reminding us all why he was "The Great One", Rock seemed more concerned with giving us a "Rundown" of his day (see what I did there?) and making sure that his name and catchphrases were "trending worldwide" on Twitter. It certainly seemed as though The Rock, former WWE Champion, had been replaced by Dwayne Johnson, the movie star.
I wanted to get behind The Rock. Growing up in the "Attitude Era", The Rock was my favorite wrestler. Like so many other fans, I'd had enough of John Cena's "Five Moves of Doom" and the monotony of watching the same programs week in and week out. For all intents and purposes, I should be a shoe-in for The Rock's "Team Bring It". But still there was that one inescapable fact:
John Cena was right.
And so instead of being firmly set in one camp or the other, I found myself sitting on the fence thinking I didn't want either of these men to lose. WWE had begun airing video packages documenting Cena's dedication to WWE both in and out of the ring, while similar packages of The Rock consisted of 15 year-old footage and interviews and outtakes from his newest movie.
You see, I think there were two errors made on the part of The Rock that caused him to come up short in the verbal aspect of this feud.
The first is that The Rock became a mark. In wrestling terms, a "mark" is someone who "believes the hype." Someone who is a "mark" for Steve Austin might tell you they truly believe that "Stone Cold" can beat the crap out of any human being on the planet. A "mark" is that fan who is blinded to the "suspension of disbelief" that surrounds the world of wrestling and puts full stock in what they see at face value.
So who did The Rock "mark out" for?
The Rock.
I truly believe that in all the hype, Dwayne Johnson became a mark for himself. And why shouldn't he have been? For all we know, Vince McMahon really was relying on The Rock to "save" the WWE and put the company back on the map. The Rock knows he is a household name: that's why he gets paid extraordinary amounts of money for films that ultimately bomb at the box office. The Rock. He remembers what he did all those years ago, he remembers being "the most electrifying man in all of entertainment."
Unfortunately, that also seemed to mean that The Rock had nothing to prove. Indeed, he said as much in his promos, claiming that John Cena was merely a milestone for him to cement his legacy, and not a legitimate threat to the legacy itself. The Rock just assumed that fans would remember him, that he could still use his past achievements as a bid for greatness in the current generation of wrestling fans, but unfortunately for The Rock, wrestling is notorious for its short-term memory, both in the minds of the fans and the business as a whole. It's all about "What have you done for me lately?" and a simple tag team victory at Survivor Series was not enough to erase the fact that The Rock had not faced a legitimate opponent in more than eight years. Instead he figured he'd stroll in and bask in the glory of his long-anticipated return, try out a few new catchphrases, plug his new movie, get a few more Twitter followers, and let John Cena balk in the face of his "millions (and millions)" of fans.
In The Rock's defense, it had been years since Cena showed the kind of gusto that was on display against The Rock, but once the switch was on, it was a clear reminder of why we all used to cheer for Cena, and why we respect him as a performer.
Which brings me to my final point. In wrestling, the feud is generally between two characters. This is why it's so difficult to get talent outside of wrestling to come and give a good performance. Many of them, particularly athletes from other sports, don't understand the difference between the person, and the character. There is a "fourth wall" that generally remains constant, and breaking through it is referred to as "breaking kayfabe." An example would be CM Punk's promo against Vince McMahon and the WWE for holding him down because he did not "fit the mold" of what they thought a good superstar should be. These are very rare, unless you're someone like Triple H who has complete creative control and can do this at will.
In wrestling, there are good guys and there are bad guys, or, as those in the business will call them: faces and heels. We know the bad guys because they're the ones doing things we don't like, and we know the good guys because they're usually the ones beating up the bad guys. In a perfect world, we root for the good guys and cheer for the bad guys. The purpose of the storyline is to tell us who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. This is why we have things like a heel champion retaining his title by getting intentionally disqualified. That way, when a good guy comes along and he needs to remind us all why we want him to win he can tell us about the time that champion got himself intentionally disqualified.
This is all Wrestling 101, but it's important in the case of Rock vs. Cena because this feud blurred the lines between a "work" (a feud based on a creative thread or storyline), and a "shoot" (a feud based in reality). There is an interesting paradox here, because when it comes to these two men, we must consider not only their values as characters, but their values as people as well.
In the case of The Rock, we have a character that we love. The problem is, Rock isn't playing to his character, he's playing up the aura of what his character used to be, and that's not gonna fly with some people, especially the "Cenation." Still, he's charismatic, entertaining, and can still "Layeth the Smacketh Down" when need be. He can also wrestle circles around John Cena, and as an all-around performer, is largely unmatched. However, as Dwayne Johnson, we begin to see shades of someone who is largely marketing himself to public for the simple sake of movie plugs or Twitter feeds, and you begin to wonder where that passion for the business of professional wrestling has gone.
In the case of John Cena, we have the exact opposite. As a performer, he is despised. The same moves in the same style match every single week. His Pay-Per-View record is a veritable who's-who of today's biggest stars, and he's beaten them all. While that is a feather in the cap of John Cena, it makes for boring storytelling if you're a fan. Audiences are clamouring for something new and fresh from John Cena, but get stuck with the same song and dance night in and night out.
However--and this is the kicker here, so pay close attention--there is one thing the Rock has overlooked in badgering everyone's favorite underdog:
Fans do not dislike John Cena.
Now, I know I just threw a monkey wrench into the machine here, but let's think about this.
As a performer, John Cena may be getting a bit stale. That's all fine and dandy, but as a man, and more importantly as the face of the company, Cena is almost universally respected by both his contemporaries and his peers. Whether you like him or hate him, the love and passion that John Cena the man has for what he does is apparent in every promo, every match, every activity both in and out of the ring.
You see, there are some people out there who really do hate John Cena. Contrary to what television audiences will tell you, those people are in the minority. Fans don't hate John Cena, they're tired of his endless stream of victories. I guarantee you if John Cena left the WWE tomorrow, fans would beg for his return because there is simply no other star with the passion to elicit the kind of reaction that he does when he enters and arena. Cena himself has proven that he gets an emotional response from the fans every time he walks down that ramp, whether it's positive or negative, fans react. Unlike 90% of the roster that has them sitting on their hands, fans want their voices to be heard when it comes to John Cena, and that is very, very important to wrestling.
Fans aren't angry with John Cena. They don't want Cena to "embrace the hate" or turn heel. That won't fix John Cena. Fans are frustrated with WWE's booking of John Cena, and that is what needs to change.
The mistake The Rock made was assuming that he could attack John Cena the man and prove that he is nothing like what he says he is. Instead, he helped John's case by uncovering a man whose devotion to the WWE is unwavering, and in the process, exposed himself as something of a "sellout" in the eyes of the fans. Of course, most fans are so fed up with John's routine they could care less who it is that calls him out, as long as we have a superstar to give a voice to their cries.
In the end, the history books will reflect that on April 1, 2012, The Rock defeated John Cena by pinfall in an epic battle that was truly a "once in a lifetime" event, but it will be up to the fans to decide:
Who won the battle, and who won the war.
