Wrestlemania 27: Could Miz Really Retain Against Cena? Really?

A month ago, I would never have thought it possible that the Miz could walk out of Wrestlemania with the world title still around his waist. While I believe he has been significantly elevated during his inaugural title run, I couldn’t imagine the kid-friendly WWE writing staff sending John Cena home without the WWE Title. My expectation of the show ending with a Cena-Rock warm embrace and a highlight reel “Wrestlemania Moment” went out the window Monday night.

It began a week or so ago when the rumor mills started churning out reports that Vince McMahon instructed key members of his writing team to begin preparations for a Rock in-ring return. Such speculation has been heard before, but this unsubstantiated grain of salt rumor set off a bombshell of arm-chair bookers across the InterWebz writing their own conclusion to Wrestlemania, most commonly leading to a SummerSlam first-time confrontation.

Needless to say, I didn’t believe it. It’s not until The Rock walks the aisle in his Brahma Bull trunks, music blaring with a referee and an opponent in the ring on PPV that I’ll truly believe that The Great One has returned. That was until Monday night when a heated segment between the Rock, Miz and Cena culminated in Rock not only “whipping the Miz’s candy ass” but also being the recipient of an Attitude Adjustment.

I could have accepted the Rock hitting some haymakers, even the People’s Elbow and tossing the Miz from the ring if it resulted on a Cena-Rock nose-to-nose stare-down. It was the physicality of Cena dominating the Rock that really drove home the possibility that Rock may wrestle again, opening the door for us to be on the verge of The Summer of Miz.

The only shred of hope Miz fans (and Cena haters for that matter) had of the champ retaining at Wrestlemania was if Taker-HHH were to go on last. See, the WWE doesn’t like to end Wrestlemania on a down note. HHH is the only heel to ever close the show with a victory and that was more than a decade ago. We all know that Taker is going to continue his streak Sunday and if it’s in the main event slot, we’ll see the happy send-off.

I was concerned that despite HHH-Taker pitting the two larger superstars against one another than Cena-Miz, the inclusion of The Rock would propel it to the show closer. With Shawn Michaels entering the storyline on Monday, that all changed. It looks like Michaels will be involved in the match in some way, putting three of the biggest superstars of the Attitude Era and fixtures of this perpetual four-year storyline that has included HHH, Michaels, Flair and the Undertaker. This match ending the show seems inevitable at this point.

So that moves Miz and Cena into the third-to-last match of the show, figuring there will be a cool-down match between the two top draws. Much as Orton shockingly escaped with the belt at Wrestlemania XXIV when Edge-Taker closed the show, Miz could pull off the major upset here, giving him a Wrestlemania victory over the biggest star of the era, cementing him as a main event player for years to come. As a cowardly heel character, he doesn’t need to win clean, and the fact that Rock owes Cena a measure of revenge, this could be the perfect platform to happen.

Just because it’s more fun to be an optimistic fan than a more common curmudgeonly IWC member, I’ll jump on the “Rock is back” bandwagon for the moment. In following that line of thinking, a Rock-Cena SummerSlam headliner makes sense.

Vince loves the big summer-long program. That’s when he kicked off the ill-conceived “Guest Host” series and the introduction of The Nexus. Until the Benoit tragedy, we were going to get the “Who Killed Mr. McMahon” storyline. Based on the rating spike and increased mainstream interest the product has seen since The Rock began making even just satellite appearances, it would not be at all shocking if Vince cut a deal with Dwayne Johnson to remain with the company in a more frequent capacity through the summer, including a match at SummerSlam against Cena.

Let’s run with the conspiracy theory for a moment. It may not have been officially reported, but it’s been long speculated that WWE wants to make Los Angeles the permanent home of SummerSlam. It has been at the Staples Center each of the last two years and is booked for the venue this August. Vince wants to build SummerSlam into a “second Wrestlemania” type event, you know, “The Biggest Party of the Summer.” And what is in Los Angeles? Hollywood. Movie star tie-in are inevitable and who would be a better option to begin this tradition than the biggest homegrown movie star in WWE history?

Such potential could mean we get, as I described, the Summer of Miz. WWE is committed to making him one of their biggest stars as evidenced by his involvement in this storyline and longer-than-expected run with the title. With Cena distracted, Miz may get an even lengthier reign to further establish his role as the top company’s top heel. This overly-optimistic Miz fan couldn’t be more excited at that slight glimmer of possibility.