The Rock vs John Cena: WWE Must Avoid a Rematch at All Costs

The matchup between The Rock and John Cena at WrestleMania 28 was billed as a "Once in a Lifetime" event between two titans of the industry.

Right now, the emphasis should be on the "Once" part. The match is over. The Rock won. Let's keep it at that.

There's a train of thought out there that a rematch is needed, if for no other reason than to throw Cena a bone after denying him a career-defining victory. And I'll be honest, it's a train of thought that I can sympathize with, as WWE took the safe road by having The Rock win rather than the bold road by having Cena win. The company missed an opportunity to do something delightfully crazy.

There are, however, a couple of problems with the idea of a rematch, chief among them being the simple fact that wrestling is not The Rock's day job. WWE probably could get him to agree to another match a year from now, but all the company would be doing at that point is setting up a running gimmick.

Bringing The Rock back for a "Once in a Lifetime" bout is fun and exciting. Bringing him back for another bout, and perhaps another bout and another bout, is lame. He's a wrestling legend, but wrestling fans are wise to the fact that he's not a wrestler anymore. These same fans will be wise to the fact that inviting The Rock back for a rematch with Cena would be a simple money grab, and nothing else.

As far as Cena's side of things is concerned, the last message WWE wants to send is that The Rock is the only adversary worthy of Cena's attention. This is exactly the message wrestling fans were getting for the last year, and it overshadowed everything Cena did in the meantime. His feud with Kane, for example, could never fully develop because everyone was aware that it was a simple time-filler to keep Cena occupied leading up to WrestleMania.

Instead of having a rematch with The Rock hanging over Cena's head, a better idea would be to move him on to a new high-profile feud that could actually take his character to new and exciting places. WWE doesn't have to (and probably won't) take Cena's character new places, but it could at least tease a character evolution, as it did with Cena's feud with Kane.

The creative team has its work cut out for it now that the match between The Rock and Cena is over and Cena is the loser, that's for sure. That just means the creative team will have to be, you know, creative, as opposed to just scheduling a grudge match.

That would be the easy thing to do—and remember, WWE walked that path when The Rock emerged victorious on Sunday.

It's time for something new.