That's one of the worst decisions in history when you factor in the fact that no active wrestler benefited from it. At least most of the burials over the years had somebody go over.
Cena/Punk could and should have been career rivals. They definitely needed a Mania match.
Not arguably, definitely on your last point. There are more great moments and classics between Punk/Cena in their 3-4 matches than Orton/Cena had in 25 matches over 10+ years.
It's like on paper cena and orton make sense as wwe rivals
But the wrestling fukkery and career arcs make punk and cena so much better
As a matter of a fact most or ortons best rivals weren't his peers per say
Orton and taker/Benoit/foley or even the McMahon family feud are better gen him vs cena, punk, shyt pretty much anyone he was supposed to be on par with
Meanwhile cena and punk have feuds with guys older younger or close to age no mater their styles clashing or status and it can work well
But yeah, punk vs cena could have been so much more with just some patience and better decision making on management because neither guy was going half ass or wanted to let the other look completely buried