How the Rock, John Cena's WWE WrestleMania Spot Impacts Future of Wyatt Family

The Rock and John Cena's skirmish with The Wyatt Family at WWE WrestleMania 32 was either the opening of a door or the two megastars smashing Bray Wyatt and company's heads in that door. It depends on how this is all followed up. 

Sharing the stage with Cena and The Rock could easily be a precursor to big things for the fearsome faction. It could create opportunities to move up the WWE food chain, to face top-tier rivals, to be the monsters they have long claimed to be.

But that future is only possible if WWE doesn't end the story with Cena and The Rock's arms raised inside AT&T Stadium at Arlington, Texas. That will leave yet another bruise on Wyatt's wounded flesh.

Half-Hearted Confidence

Wyatt and his cronies shared the same stage as two all-time greats at WrestleMania. Without further context, that sounds like an absolute triumph for the heel stable.

The Rock's over-the-top appearance looked at first to just be a celebration of WrestleMania's bloated spectacle. He sauntered past the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, lit a logo of his name on fire and had a blast with the crowd. Then came The Eater of Worlds, flanked by his loyal titans.

Electricity sparked in the stadium as Wyatt and The Rock traded trash talk.

The unexpected moment seemed to be quite the excellent consolation prize to Wyatt for not actually getting a match on the biggest show of the year. Instead, he received a coveted spot opposite The Great One.

That's been a theme for Wyatt in his young career. As the folks at Busted Open Radio pointed out, Wyatt has been eye to eye with some of the biggest names come WrestleMania time:

WWE choosing such legendary foils for Wyatt speaks to how much the company values him. On the other hand, WWE also only values him enough to fall each time.

The Rock dispatched of Erick Rowan in a six-second match. And then with a returning Cena at this side, The Rock proceeded to steamroll over The Wyatt Family.

Yes, it's beneficial to collide with The Rock, but offering such little resistance severely limits the extent of that benefit. WWE continues to create images of The Wyatt Family failing, of them getting pushed back into their dark lair.

Former WWE writer Andrew Goldstein believes the company seriously damaged The Wyatt Family with that segment:

Goldstein will be spot-on if Wyatt never confronts The Rock again or if he doesn't get a chance to pay Cena back. Remember that Rusev also had a notable showdown with The Brahma Bull, but that has since become a distant memory. That was no precursor; it was simply a self-contained narrative, one where The Rock stood tall.

If WWE does that again, it will be another signal to the audience that the clan is not to be taken seriously.

All The Wyatt Family's threats will ring more hollow afterward. The faction's momentum will be hard to regain. Should Wyatt and company get tossed around like that enough, not much will separate them from The Social Outcasts in terms of positioning.

Or this meeting with future of Hall of Famers could still elevate The Wyatt Family in a major way. That requires giving Wyatt and his crew a chance to strike back.

Possible Rivalries Ahead

With Cena's first act after returning from injury being an attack on The Wyatt Family, the story of The New Face of Fear rekindling his feud with the babyface would require little effort. 

Wyatt, Rowan and Braun Strowman encircle Cena on Raw. They batter him on the mat. Wyatt then demands another crack at the leader of the Cenation. Done.

Feuding with Cena is always a potential career-changer. Last time out, though, Wyatt didn't do enough damage for that rivalry to boost him much. Their collision at WrestleMania 32 sets the stage for a do-over.

Credit: WWE.com

Wyatt could then finally crush the hero of the squared circle, like he had so often threatened to do during their 2014 feud.

The bigger, more enticing option is for the WrestleMania segment to hint at The Rock's next rival. Wyatt feuding with The Rock, complete with promo battles and a robust amount of hype, would be a prime way to announce he's ready for the big time.

The Rock is not only a megastar, but he competes so rarely that getting to tangle with him signifies one's importance.

Wyatt taking on The Rock at WrestleMania 33 would be a ticket to the top tier. A victory over The Great One would only further that journey. That's all a feasible possibility now that Wyatt has bad blood with The Rock, and the two will now share a contentious history from this point on. 

The way The Rock and Cena kicked around The Wyatt Family and how the spotlight pointed solely on them when the fighting was done would seem to indicate it was just a means to a create a WrestleMania moment. This could well have all been WWE trying to make WrestleMania bigger and more fun, with the company having no intention of building on it.

If that's the case, we will look back at this as yet another missed opportunity in the timeline of The Wyatt Family.

Seeing this confrontation as a catalyst, though, will help clear the path for Wyatt to ascend the company ladder, to enter the WWE title picture and be one of the building blocks for the current era. Ric Flair famously said, "To be the man, you got to beat the man."

Wyatt toppling The Rock would be the perfect example of that.

WWE can either keep having The Wyatt Family play the group that has more promises than success or let Wyatt bring about the destruction he has long warned us is coming. The more fans see of him following threats with getting thrashed, the quicker they will just tune out altogether.