WWE WrestleMania XXVII: Cena-Rock Will Go Down as Biggest Tease in Mania History

The Rock's memorable return to WWE was the biggest splash seen on a road to WrestleMania in quite some time. 

The Rock had been absent from WWE arenas for seven years as he looked to create further distance between his legendary wrestling career and a budding acting career.  

Given the Rock's long layoff from wrestling, the novelty of his return to the girl who brought him to the dance was significantly enhanced.

With the Rock suspending his real life Dwayne Johnson persona in favor of reprising his popular role as the People's Champion in WWE, WrestleMania already had added value and the curb appeal necessary to draw a large audience with his name on the Playbill. 

Strong words from the Rock, however, have made an ensuing feud in the current road to WrestleMania somewhat complicated, quite salivating, and more unnecessary than anything else. 

The highlight of the first live promo from the Rock in over seven years came when he called out John Cena who, like it or not, is the biggest thing going in wrestling today. 

The Rock had reached a point of no return in all his entertaining glory when he mocked Cena's colorful wardrobe and comparatively lame catch phrase among other things. 

Rock's comments have now sparked a war of words that has transcended the current social media landscape, and has been very well publicized among wrestling circles. 

An anti-Cena or anti-Rock promo delivered by one of the aforementioned mega stars has now become something of a mini tradition, occurring each week, with one scathing in a poignant promo or rapping to answer the other.

Each week, the promo in question cuts a little deeper.  Hits a little bit closer to home.   Becomes a bit more personal. 

Yet each promo cruelly taunts wrestling fans with a match that will not happen.  

The ongoing  verbal warfare between two of WWE's biggest stars has been booked to heighten the buying temperature for WrestleMania. The two have yet to come face to face, further cultivating some extremely profitable tension.  When Rock and Cena finally meet each other in the ring to settle their differences, it will create the once in a lifetime showdown that WrestleMania was created to pimp.

There's only one problem: That showdown won't happen.  When Cena and Rock finally do come face to face for the first time ever, it will be on a free episode of RAW.  The much anticipated scintillating showdown will feature —more talking.

Little else is expected to transpire physically between Rock and Cena.  The rock has been slated as a non-wrestling guest host and Cena has a main event match with the WWE champion Miz, who has been the Aaron Rodgers (circa 2008) of this whole situation.

Forgetting about the school of thought that Miz is being overlooked, an inherent problem that is hardly solved by WWE infusing this very fact into the current Cena-Miz feud, the Rock and John Cena's ongoing war of words is an ill-advised mistake. 

There is no doubt that the back and forth between Cena and the Rock has been thoroughly entertaining.  But as long as this current feud isn't settled in a WWE ring, in a match that otherwise screams WrestleMania, the payoff will fall short by definition of what pro wrestling (and sports entertainment) is supposed to be. 

The best possible WrestleMania match WWE can put together as a box office draw given its current roster, including the influx of returning stars, is John Cena vs. Rock. 

Having said that, WWE does not have to go in that direction nor will they as the Rock has been adamant about never wrestling again and Cena has already been booked opposite Miz. 

Why, then, is WWE even fooling around with the idea of a Cena-Rock feud?  The lucrative animosity that has already been created by these two will be nothing more than a sunk investment when the end result has nothing to do with them wrestling one another. 

In recent years, the UFC has supplanted WWE as the world wide leader in the art of selling a match.  The promotion's simplistic style of hyping ill-will between two marketable stars through a series of tension-filled incidents, and paying it off with a high profile pay-per-view bout that will determine the better man once and for all, is what WWE used to proficiently hang its hat on. 

Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans could only talk so much before the time came for them to do the talking with hate-filled strikes and takedowns at UFC 114. 

There comes a time in every well-promoted feud where the principles must settle their differences in a competitive atmosphere in front of a large audience willing to pay to see it in some capacity.  Yesterday marked the 40-year anniversary of the fight of the century between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. 

Imagine if the climax of all that vintage boxing trash talk between Ali and Frazier (with Ali building his brand with a talking game almost as excellent as his in ring talent) would have been Ken Norton replacing Ali in the heavily promoted event.  

While Cena v. Rock has brought out the best in both men verbally every week, it is nothing more than a paper feud that will end as a tease not seen in the history of WrestleMania given the star power, hype, and combative booking of the two stars.

The side feud between Steve Austin and Mike Tyson was in danger of running into a similar problem on the road to WrestleMania XIV.  Heading into WWE's hallmark showcase in Boston, the budding feud between former boxing heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and Austin was perilously close to swallowing that of Austin's feud with Shawn Michaels, who was often criticized during his hey day for not being able to draw despite being featured in the prominent position as WWE champion. 

The difference in this particular feud was that Shawn Michaels was the best in the business, back injury or not, and Austin was clearly in the midst of a meteoric rise in WWE.  The vast majority of pro wrestling analysts, pundits and fans alike would much rather have seen a contest between Austin and Michaels than what would have been a clumsy encounter between Austin and Tyson.  

When it comes to Cena and Rock, many would argue that this is a better match than the same Miz vs. Cena match that has already been seen multiple times on free television in the recent past. 

The Rock casting a large shadow over a match for WWE's most important title is a problem that WWE has inexplicably embraced.  Constant mentions of the WWE champion being overlooked will figure to harm WWE's already vulnerable pay-per-view business when potential WrestleMania buyers (i.e. the all-important casual fan) find out that they'll be stuck with the overlooked, under-booked champion from MTV in the main event instead of the Cena vs. Rock match that WWE spent so much time to deceptively promote on television.

God forbid Cena and the Rock ultimately join forces on the otherwise lucrative pay-per-view stage of WrestleMania.  Such a reconciliation would not only have deemed their ongoing feud as an unadulterated tease, but in hindsight, their war of words would also subsequently be branded a shameless sham to boot.  

Big Nasty is an auditor by day.  Follow him on twitter, at twitter.com/ThisIsNasty, or he'll see to it that a lien is placed on your house.