Booking CM Punk into Cody Rhodes vs. John Cena WWE WrestleMania 41 Main Event Match

If nothing else, the last week has reminded WWE fans that they really can’t know everything in the plans before it happens. 

Now, that same lesson applies in the wake of John Cena’s iconic heel turn to set up the WrestleMania 41 match with Cody Rhodes. 

It sure feels like WWE will go with the cut-and-dry Cody vs. Cena tale and call it a day. But there’s a problem—The Rock, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and CM Punk are still in the same area code of the main event without a defined plan. 

This is an especially pertinent thing to point out after Punk went out and traded in his pipebomb for a tactical nuke on the Raw after Elimination Chamber while addressing all of his enemies: 

That’s an eviseration of the CEO Rock, a fraudulent Cena and more expected jabs at Rollins while invoking the name of Becky Lynch. 

Did anyone mention that there’s still that weird “favor” thing lurking in the background that Paul Heyman owes Punk, likely involving Reigns?

So what happens now?

It feels like we can eliminate Rock from actually partaking in a match. He’ll be at ‘Mania in Cena’s corner, no doubt, but his weird retcon and ending of storylines on the Raw debut on Netflix suggests Hollywood commitments or something else won’t let him have an actual match. 

Perhaps Punk is the lynchpin to the ‘Mania card, then. Since WWE already semi-wasted the huge Punk vs. Rollins payoff match on that Netflix debut, perhaps they reignite serious old wounds and let The Shield narrative play out one more time with a singles match between Rollins and Reigns. 

Fans never really got a good payoff there, either. Just last year as his historic title reign came to an end, Reigns prioritized getting another cheap shot on Rollins and it cost him literally everything. There’s a lot there to still run through leading up to what could be an all-timer of a payoff finale. 

Make no mistake, Punk-Rollins is worth revisiting at a later date again—but perhaps once one or the other has a title around their waist again. 

That way, Punk can slide into that main event with Rhodes and Cena. While the knee-jerk reaction might be to say no thanks and keep it a one-on-one, Punk being there to eat a pin while the other two guys emerge looking good, despite the outcome, might just be the play. 

And let’s not pretend the story isn’t there. Punk is one of Cena’s biggest all-time enemies and the two have shared some of their biggest-ever moments together. Rhodes and the Best in the World go way, way back before even their AEW days and have brushed shoulders in some notable ways since Punk’s WWE return, too. 

There are some interesting narrative vehicles to make it happen, too. Punk could call in that “favor” from Heyman, who gets him inserted into the match. Maybe Heyman has some sort of damaging material on Rock to make it happen. Punk, after all, hates Rock for stealing his ‘Mania main event all those years ago, anyway. 

Notice a theme here, though? WWE really can’t go wrong. For all we know, Rock will have a match and they opt for Punk “forcing” Rock to handle things himself. Maybe they really revisit the Bloodline saga and go Rock-Reigns, freeing up Rollins-Punk.

Point is, nothing feels set in stone. In a good way, too, compared to last year’s messy, fan-backlash heavy main-event scene that Rock clumsily inserted himself into, eventually spawning that Night 1 tag team match before the normalcy of Night 2. 

Overall, though, that Punk promo and all the history sure adds some weight to the idea that he should be getting his WrestleMania main event, after all. If that enables Rollins and Reigns to finally get a conclusion to their own saga, all the better. 

What’s funny is, realistically, this year’s ‘Mania could just be the midway point for lots of these stories, too. There’s a heel Cena who said he only had a year left now, too. But plans change, and when the bulk of these guys not named Cody aren’t full-time anyway, this could easily just be Part 1 of something much, much bigger. 

Again, WWE can’t go wrong—but Punk’s piece of the puzzle feels especially important to the long-form storytelling WWE so loves right now.