WWE Survivor Series: Which Duo Will Break Up First, Rock/Cena or Awesome Truth?

As we head into Survivor Series, one of WWE’s biggest pay-per-view events of the year, there are several questions surrounding the strongly promoted main event of Awesome Truth versus the newly announced team of John Cena and The Rock.

Will The Rock be able to live up to the hype after a seven-year absence from in-ring competition?  Has WWE made John Cena look too dominant in the run up to the show? And, how strong is the alliance between The Rock and John Cena compared to the one that exists between Miz and R-Truth?

Well, we probably will not know the answer to the first two questions until the buyrate for the show comes in and tell us how successful the main event was as a marketing tool. However, we can safely say the answer to the last question about the partnership between Cena and Rock is: not a very strong alliance at all.

Indeed, far from having an established friendship, The Rock and John Cena have an incredibly shaky alliance that can seemingly collapse at any minute. This uneasiness was hinted at by Rock when he announced several weeks ago on Raw he initially wanted to reject Cena’s offer to come to the pay-per-view and be his tag partner against Awesome Truth. Rock then revealed he had only changed his mind because all his Twitter followers pleaded for him to take Cena up on his offer. Intentionally or otherwise, WWE got over the power of Twitter far more here than they got over the new alliance between Rock and Cena.

Notably, the two stars butted heads earlier this year in the run of to Wrestlemania, with the storyline being that movie star The Rock was returning to WWE one last time to guest host the special occasion. Rock also wanted the opportunity to deal with some of Cena’s criticism towards him over the past few years face-to- face (Cena has strongly hinted in interviews he feels The Rock has not been as loyal to WWE as he claims and abandoned wrestling fans for Hollywood.).

After weeks of brewing tension between the two in the run up to Wrestlemania, Cena finally snapped and delivered a brutal attitude adjustment to Rock on the go-home show before the event, sending huge shockwaves throughout WWE.

At the show itself, a vengeful Rock got even with Cena by rock bottoming him in the main event, costing him the WWE Title and allowing Miz to retain. Although Miz got a beating directly after from "The Great One” as well, so it was not like Rock turned heel on us or anything.

The following evening, Rock and Cena had a tense confrontation in the middle of the ring and tentatively agreed to a match at next year’s Wrestlemania, which promises to be one of the biggest pay-per-views of all time. While the two men reluctantly shook hands after the match was settled, there remains a great deal of doubt over just how much things have truly been smoothed over between them.

Contrast this, then, with the strong friendship between The Miz and R-Truth. The two heels formed an alliance back in August, stemming from their mutual frustration about the disappointing direction their careers where going in. They both also fiercely believed there was some sort of vast wrestling conspiracy afoot in WWE, aimed at sabotaging them and holding them down.

And ever since then, they have stuck firmly together. Even when they were fired on Raw in late September by new COO Triple H for assaulting several referees at the Night of Champions pay-per-view, they did not turn on each other and argue over whose fault it was. Instead, they worked together to figure out a way to get back into the company, eventually succeeding in their goal and getting rehired. Whatever they babyface side has thrown at them, they have stood united.

Contrast this with the distrust and jealous that has been brewing between the Rock and Cena, and the chances of Awesome Truth emerging from Madison Square Garden triumphant increase significantly. 

Of course, this is WWE and anything can happen. But at Survivor Series, if any teammate is turning on the other, just don’t expect it to be Awesome Truth.