And that pretty much does it for our Wrestlemania 28 preview, ladies and gentlemen. We hope you've enjoyed our looks at all the matches, and remember that the show gets underway at. . .
Oh, right. . .one more match yet. Alrighty, then.
In a match that has been one year in the making, The Rock will take on John Cena in the main event of Wrestlemania XXVIII in Rock's home town of Miami. This match is being billed as "Once In a Lifetime" and, as such, you may ask yourself, "Well. . .how did we get here?"
The whole shebang started when the Rock came back in early 2011 to serve as the host for Wrestlemania XXVII in Atlanta. Immediately upon his return, the Rock launched into a war of words against Cena, and even getting into physical confrontations with him leading up to the big event. In the night's final match, Rock got what he thought was the last word, planting Cena with a Rock Bottom and allowing The Miz to pin Cena to retain the WWE Championship.
The next night on Monday Night Raw, John Cena and The Rock found themselves face-to-face in the ring once again. This time, however, things ended not with a fight, but with a handshake. The two men agreed, a full year in advance, that they would meet at Wrestlemania XXVIII, and the build-up has been coming ever since. The Rock has only been in the ring once since the announcement was made, and that was when he teamed with Cena at the most recent Survivor Series to take on The Miz and R-Truth. John Cena and the Rock came out victorious, but the celebration was short-lived, as Cena once again found himself on the wrong end of a Rock Bottom after the match had concluded.
Both men have continued to jab at each other since then. . .whether it's face-to-face, via satellite, or even on Twitter (where you can find them at @TheRock and @JohnCena). Finally, on the last Raw before Wrestlemania this past Monday, the two of them cut a promo that distilled the essence of what this entire feud is about.
Cena feels that he needs to win this match in order to define himself not necessarily in the annals of history, but to himself. He has been in the WWE busting his tail day in and day out for years now, and says he'll be damned if he's going to let a "visitor" like The Rock negate what he's accomplished over his career. The Rock, on the other hand, needs to win in order to put himself into the conversation of "greatest superstar of all time." At Wrestlemania, he's beaten Hulk Hogan, he's beaten "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and now he wants to beat Cena to add to that legacy.
To me, there is absolutely, positively no scenario in which it makes sense for WWE to have The Rock win this match. None. Zip. Zero. The only way it would make sense in my mind is if The Rock was coming back to be a full-time wrestler, and with the kind of money that guy is making in Hollywood right now, it wouldn't make any sense for him to do that. Cena, on the other hand, is still going to be the face of WWE, and is still going to be there every night.
Granted, I understand that "common sense" isn't always part of the criteria for WWE booking matches the way that they do, but I would be pretty shocked to see The Rock get his hand raised on Sunday night.
SB Nation Minnesota prediction - John Cena by pinfall