Cracks fingers
People keep throwing Punk’s name around as the best choice, and while I get the appeal, it feels like retreading old ground. Punk already straddles the line between babyface and heel, and he’s played both roles. It’s the same reason Austin’s heel turn never fully worked—he already carried that edge, so what changes? Plus, from Punk’s perspective, what does Rock even offer him? Since returning, Punk has been on a tear—he took down Drew in a blood feud and hasn’t lost a step the way Cena has. Punk doesn’t need anything from Rock that he can’t earn alone.
But Cena? His justification is far more compelling. Since their feud began in 2011, The Rock has, in many ways, been in the right. Cena swore he’d never stop being a company man—yet he stepped away. He swore he’d never go to Hollywood—yet here we are. He said he’d never become the very part-timer he once resented—yet that’s exactly what happened. Rock won their first match, the one that mattered, taking not just the match but also the moral victory.
So why wouldn’t Cena finally listen to him? Loyalty and Respect have been the core of Cena’s identity for decades. But now? He’s spent years losing singles matches, his star has faded, and the admiration he fought so long to earn from the fans still isn’t getting him the win he needs. The one victory he craves to achieve greatness and immortality - something that makes all the hatred and ridicule he endured from the critics during his run worth something.
And if the only way to get it is to do the one thing he swore he never would? Maybe it’s time to, for once, give up.