WWE Cena vs. The Rock: Cena Uses Training Wheels for Live Promos; Is It Working?

The Rock is a polished, legendary WWE wrestler and promo-cutting machine whose star power is as dearly missed by the WWE as it is resented amidst his Hollywood success.

Dwayne Johnson is a wildly charismatic actor with a passion for wrestling and a willingness to occasionally mix it up in the ring.

The Rock can be identified by his signature sunglasses, catch phrases, and of course, eyebrow-raising. 

Dwayne Johnson is the one with the million-dollar smile who can be seen innocently giggling on the Tonight Show. 

The Rock second-guesses nothing, and his self-assured nature is apparent from his body language to his delivery.  Rocky's perpetual cockiness is such a strong personality trait of his that it has become ingrained in his character as a major part of his gimmick, babyface or heel. 

Dwayne Johnson is a rather humble human being, yet one with a confident swagger.  He appreciates where he comes from and knows where he's going.  Notice the use of the words "humble" and "human being." 

It has become quite obvious, from the most recent series of back-and-forth between John Cena and the Rock, that both "Dwayne" and the "Rock" are two different characters being portrayed by Dwayne Johnson. 

Last week the story coming out of RAW was John Cena embarrassing a visibly shaken Rock in a live face off that Cena desperately needed to win in order to gain a whole lot of momentum in the short amount of time left until WrestleMania. 

Cena's verbal victory seemed almost too easy.  According to backstage sources, it pretty much was.

WWE creative deserves immense amounts of praise for scripting such a sophisticated nuance like Cena pointing out to fans that the Rock had written notes for his promo on his wrist, leading to an otherwise polished, promo veteran—and talented actor—appearing humanized before his millions.  

Contrary to what I said last week, it turns out that Cena and Rock's tension—while seemingly legit in many aspects—can be something manufactured in a creative meeting after all.  

This week, the differences between the characters of Dwayne Johnson and the Rock couldn't be more pronounced as fans were privy to this juxtaposition on the same show. 

This was a juxtaposition between the wildly entertaining Rock and uncomfortably human Dwayne Johnson, and the stark contrast helped strengthen the otherwise consistent John Cena character in comparison. 

Rock was back to being Rock though a series of acerbic and smoothly-delivered vignettes designed to give viewing audiences history lessons on Massachusetts while cutting down hometown hero and WrestleMania opponent John Cena. 

The Rock didn't miss a beat.  Singing.  Snarling.  Seething.  Winning.  This is the guy who vaporized John Cena on sight during his first night back in 2011, and even on the strength of a lucid and intimate promo inside an empty stadium, John Cena still doesn't stand a chance against him.

Lucky for Cena, the Rock was left outside next to the statue of Paul Revere as Dwayne Johnson entered the TD Garden sans his Rocky superpowers.

This wasn't the stream-of-conscious Rock loaded with one-liners and crowd-pleasers, but an awkward actor whose pronounced pauses between sentences only increased fan support for John Cena as his live promo seemed to drag on for the second consecutive week. 

The fact that Dwayne Johnson live was nowhere near as electrifying as the Rock via satellite was all the more reason for Boston fans to side with West Newbury's favorite son as Cena and Rock had created a carbon copy of last week's tension-building showdown. 

The dynamic that, make no mistake, has been contrived to afford John Cena some much-needed momentum heading into WrestleMania, is that of epic proportions.  It has even tricked gullible-enough pundits into believing that Rock has actually lost his mojo. 

It was the only way the WWE was going to salvage fan support for Cena, because going against the Rock in previous outings had done nothing but turned Cena into a Fruity Pebble with lady parts.   

Given the uncharacteristic subtlety the WWE is going with to undermine the Rock in his faceoffs with Cena, there will be an overlying doubt as to whether the Rock is willingly assisting Cena by intentionally "not being himself." 

Is this indeed the case, or has Cena has simply become that much better than one of the all-time great mic workers overnight?  

When answering this question, keep in mind that this is the Rock we're talking about.  The Rock, who even as his ego-driven, self-assured character, was never afraid to do the type of jobs that drove Stone Cold Steve Austin to unceremoniously quit simply upon hearing about them. 

You know? The types of jobs that the likes of Triple H, Shawn Michaels and Hulk Hogan became notorious for talking themselves out of?     

The Brock Lesnars, Bill Goldbergs, even the Shane Helmses of the world all went over at the Rock's expense.  While he was in his prime, no less. 

Rocky's willingness to let these WWE superstars shine is a story lost in translation due to the Rock's rise to Hollywood fame and the subsequent animosity and propaganda it has created with many inside the wrestling business. 

Yet it is a story that makes it easier to believe that, by being outperformed on the stick by John Cena, the Rock—who no longer needs the WWE yet returned because of the passion he has for the business and his family name—is playing ball like only he can and will in order to make it easier for fans to continue to side with Cena once he goes back to Hollywood.  

John Cena is being afforded training wheels by virtue of the Rock hanging out backstage, watching Dwayne Johnson lose his footing on live, national television to a guy who one month ago found difficulty in garnering a unanimous babyface reaction against a monster heel in Kane. 

In the grand scheme of things, these training wheels will be for the betterment of the wrestling business when the Rock is gone.  Needless to say, sacrifices for the betterment of business are all part of the Dwayne Johnson character. 

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