WrestleMania 28: Why WWE Screwed Itself by Having The Rock vs John Cena in Miami

All of the momentum John Cena has built up in recent weeks will be destroyed at WrestleMania, regardless of his outcome against The Rock. By scheduling the match for a marquee event in Rocky's billed hometown of Miami, Cena is doomed from the start.

It's become clear over the past few weeks that the WWE's ultimate storyline goal is allowing Cena to gain respect back from the fans without having to do a heel turn. That would be a major risk considering how much merchandise he moves—mostly to a young portion of the audience.

So instead, the creative team has been trying to paint a clear contrast between The Rock, who shows up whenever he feels like it, and Cena's outstanding attendance record.

At first, I thought the idea was doomed. After all, The Rock is among the most popular wrestlers of all time and holds an audience in the palm of his hand. I didn't think there was any chance such a simple tactic would actually work.

Much to my surprise, it's accomplished exactly what the company was hoping for all along. The crowd reaction over the past couple weeks, especially in Cena's hometown of Boston, has been a lot more mixed than it was when The Rock first came back.

A portion of WWE Universe has embraced the fact Cena shows up on a weekly basis and started to show him more love. There are fans he'll never win over, but it's been a step in the right direction.

It will all disappear in Miami, though. The crowd will be partisan in favor of the former Miami Hurricanes star and Cena will be greeted with heavy booing, much like he was when facing CM Punk in Chicago last year.

Getting a more positive reaction on Raw is one thing. Matching it at the year's biggest event, on enemy turf when the audience has plenty of people who don't watch on a weekly basis, is another. It's too tall of a task to complete in two weeks.

The reason it's such a major problem is because the week after WrestleMania, The Rock will be heading back to his real job. Vince McMahon and Co. don't want the entire feud to finish and have Cena standing in the same spot he was a year ago.

That's exactly what's shaping up to happen, however. The storyline is going to finish and it's going to feel meaningless since nothing will have changed. Rocky will return to shooting movies and Cena will still be hated—not for who he is personally, but rather because his character remains the same.

Character progression is the most important part of professional wrestling. Cena's has been virtually non-existent for a couple of years now, which is the main reason so many people have turned against him to such an extreme.

Just when it appeared he was finally starting to make some progress, it will be halted abruptly in Miami. And everything will be right back to where it originally started.

In other words, a complete waste of an entire year.