WWE Survivor Series 2011: Is the WWE Hot Shotting the Rock's Return?

I will put this simply–why exactly are we seeing The Rock at Survivor Series 2011? Why so early? The original intention of The Rock vs. John Cena feud appeared to be a major clash at WrestleMania XXVIII. Granted, we are still going to see that but why are we seeing The Rock before WrestleMania? 

Unfortunately, I do not have a ton of answers for you. I am, however, going to attempt to figure out WWE's reasoning and wonder if this is the right time for The Rock's return. 

On Monday, Cena officially announced The Rock as his partner for the Survivor Series 2011 (November 10) showdown against Awesome Truth. This would mark The Rock's first match since March 24, 2004. 

The Rock and Cena had a tumultuous March and April, which saw Cena and Rock get physical with one another and included a Rock Bottom to Cena during the main event of WrestleMania XXVII. 

Before The Rock left WWE television in April, they had appeared to patch things up temporarily as The Rock helped Cena fend off an attack from The Corre.

This leads us to today. 

We are now on the full path to Survivor Series 2011. It was announced on September 15 that The Rock and Cena would team up in a traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series match. According to the WWE, Cena and The Rock will participate in a standard 2-on-2 traditional tag team match. 

The business decision is obvious; the WWE can increase buyrates for the Survivor Series 2011 pay-per-view and alleviate much of the stress that came from a less than stellar Summerslam 2011 buyrate.

However, from a creative standpoint having The Rock return at this point just seems wrong. I cannot speak for everyone but I was very much looking forward to WrestleMania being the big return of The Rock.

The true draw of WrestleMania XXVIII is The Rock vs. John Cena, however I don't believe that The Rock in any main event program would be a huge draw for the WWE.

Do not get me wrong, Cena and The Rock are arguably the WWE’s biggest crossover stars over the past decade and their matchup is of very high interest. However, I wonder if WrestleMania XXVIII will lose some of its lustre and potentially some of its business if The Rock wrestles before.

There is something special about WrestleMania XXVIII being The Rock’s big return. After all, it is the big event for the year and this is one of the biggest WWE returns of all time.

Most of us had locked into the potential for a yearlong build towards The Rock and John Cena. We anticipated and marked our calendars as WrestleMania XXVIII being the day when we see The Rock in the ring.

Now, are we mark our calendars for a largely thrown together Survivor Series match against The Miz and R-Truth?

That does not have nearly the same appeal to me.

Cena vs. The Rock is going to happen at WrestleMania XXVIII and if Cena holds up his end of the deal, he will be the WWE Champion at that point. Rock/Cena is still an interesting matchup and will still be one of the biggest WrestleManias matches of all-time in The Rock’s hometown of Miami.

However, I feel holding off having The Rock enter the ring until WrestleMania XXVIII would add an extra layer of special to that match and give it a great amount of public interest.

I'll hold off most judgement until we see the aftermath of their Survivor Series match because, like most angles in the WWE, we’ll just have to wait and see.