28 Days of 'Mania: The Rock Isn't Selling, so Enter Shawn Michaels

For everything I have read and heard in the last few days, there is enough heat on both sides of the fence when it comes to Shawn Michaels now being part of the "Hell in a Cell" match with HHH and The Undertaker.

Personally, I love the move, love the idea and love the possibility of "The Streak" ending and two friends becoming foes and battling it out. And we all know HHH and HBK can deliver on any given night like a Ric Flair, Randy Savage or Dusty Rhodes.

But has anyone really thought for a second why Michaels, at the last moment (technically it is), was added to a match that could have stood on its own? I see the advantages to the match and the drama it would create and the tension that will be built from the fact that three men who deserve to be on the Mount Rushmore of wrestlers will all have a direct impact on the outcome of the best match of the night at WrestleMania 28 (see, it took me three paragraphs to mention it).

The WWE hierarchy had hoped (and is still hoping) the match between The Rock and John Cena will work. They have built a flimsy arc for 12 months, with the intention of seeing two immortals go at it. The fact is, both men are trying to sell it, maybe over-sell it, and the fanbase that loved The Rock seven years ago is not the same fanbase today. Those 10-year-olds are not graduating high school; they have their new favorites, they have their new interests.

And the catchphrases Dwayne Johnson is using aren't having the same impact as they did when he ruled cable television as the "Brahma Bull."

John Cena is actually in the catbird seat because he just needs to sit back and watch it all unfold. And for everything The Rock says, like it is a cue card of a teleprompter, Cena's words are more genuine and resonates with a universe that has supported him the last decade.

But because we can't "Smell What the Rock is Cooking," WWE brass may have (and this is purely speculation) looked to other avenues or stars to stir the pot and take the heat off the featured match.

Enter "Mr. WrestleMania," in all his wit and glory. And by some accounts, the verbal jousting by Johnson and Cena is not pleasing to the fans.

The message is stale, maybe too old, too long in its preparation, and the fans have been waiting for a match that, in my opinion, should never have happened. CM Punk vs. The Rock is more appealing, the mind games and vocal assaults better and the warfare more deep. Punk accused "Dwayne" of being the company's "biggest suck-up" in that shoot interview that made him a star.

With The Rock and Cena being "old" and uneventful, Shawn Michaels is new and fresh, and he and HHH have a chemistry that cannot be denied since they are the best of friends in and out of the ring. They always come back to the party and make it their own. And if there is anyone who can light up a night on wrestling's biggest stage, it is Michaels. He does for HHH what Arn Anderson did for Ric Flair. He does for Undertaker what Harley Race did for Jack Brisco and Dory Funk Jr.

That said, having Michaels on the card may now be one of necessity instead of being on the card for the sake of being there.