What does constitute being back? Rock has already appeared on Raw in person 4 times already and once at WM. He's also hinting at returning to Survivor Series. He will most likely come live to build up the match at the start of next year and he's in a match. Rock did an excellent job of insulting Cena and countering his points. And it was extremely entertaining.

kev is this a promo a real shoot
he seemed mad at cena

RESPONSE FROM KE: I think it's all a work.

Hey Kev,
Not to totally refute your point, BUT

When I grew up in Florida in the 70's and 80's, we would have Gordon Solie talk for MONTHS about Ric Flair, the NWA champion coming to Miami or Tampa or whatever, even thought it was MONTHS away. And it was a big deal. Or that the Fabulous Ones would be coming to TV in 5 months, but in the meantime, here is the music video of them, and trust me, everyone at school was talking about the fabulous ones for those 5 months. EVERYONE.
Sometimes having the anticipation makes it even better. And this promo has made me excited for Wrestlemania for the first time in a LONG time.

wow before mania. Only gives the rock about 8 months to show up....

Forget Cena. Put Dwayne and Punk in the ring together. Give 'em both microphones and $$$$$$$!

WWE Ice Cream Bars 4 Life!

40-year-old, pie-loving male living in his own house really enjoyed this promo. Can I be honest? The Rock gave me goosebumps - literally - near the end when he talked about the millions - and MILLIONS!

Brutal., truly brutal. First Cena gets wildly outclassed on the mic by Punk, then this.

I actually feel bad for Cena. Cena's a good worker and he loves the business. He's capable of good matches and good promos.

but GET YOUR PUNK ASS OFF THE ROCK'S TWITTER!! was hilarious, as was most of video.

I don't care what anyone says, Cena just got completely owned here!! For anyone that says it wasn't brought live in the ring at a Raw, why do you think they'd let him come on the air right now and cut a promo this long on Cena when Cena's in a completely different program right now? On-air, it's currently all about Cena/Punk. They don't want to take away from that by bringing the Rock into the mix and have him cut a scathing promo on him.

So, the next best thing to do was to use the internet to his advantage and do a promo there. Besides, Rock has commitments that may not allow him to be at a lot of Raw tapings. Who really knows? And really, all of that is just trying to take the shine away from the fact that Rock just scored a verbal KO on the "transvestite Wonder Woman". LOL!!

And Cena's response was typical and weak. *smh*

Awesome promo? Really? Nothing new. Nothing fresh. Typical Rock. *YAWN*

Rock's promo was very similar to the technique that ROH employs when they do promos on their website and on their "videowires." No interviewer and no script, just one solitary person in a secluded area venting on an opponent. Their promos and the The Rock's promo have a very real feel to them. They are intense and come from the heart. I hope Rock's promo gives the WWE the idea to do promos similar to The Rock's, even if they only do it on their websites. I think backstage interviews on TV and PPV are a good idea, too, but in the last few years, the performance on the interviews have been 99% awful. Most of the wrestlers sound like they are reading from a script. Getting a script is fine if you aren't the smoothest talker in the world, but at least try to make it sound real. Current events show that guys like Cena and Punk are good at sounding convincing the fans that they're words are real, but that's why they are stars in the business. I don't know. Somewhere down the line the whole promo thing went down the drain. Maybe I'm just being sentimental, but back in the day even guys who weren't the best on the mic didn't sound like bad actors. We need a promo revolution in the WWE or at least better coaching for guys who are shaky on promos.

Kevin, I'm not sure if you've read Cena's response to this video, but he basically argues that The Rock "left for greener pastures" to his acting career. Cena sure must be grasping for straws if thats all he has in his artillery.

Again work or not, I find that comical because If I recall correctly, The Rock left the WWE in pretty good hands when he left. He put over guys like Brock Lesnar and Bill Goldberg among other stars, something Cena has FAILED to do (and is one of his biggest knocks too). Not only that, but The Rock actually had the balls to pull the trigger on his heel turn because most likely even he realized that his character was going stale.

One can also argue that Cena would have never been pushed to the top if The Rock never left either.

What a bunch of hot stinking garbage. The Rock is not back - by any definition. How stupid does the Rock think WWE fans are? Apparently very stupid.

What was funny was the Rock complaining that Cena made his comment when the Rock "wasn't even there". Irony much?

The work of rebuilding WWE continues, obviously. This gives me more optimism about the future of where what Punk started will go, as this feeds into it from a different angle. I will suggest also, although we cannot be ultimtately sure, that while it is almost certainly all a work--I think that real-life issues and emotions are being allowed to be written into the work in order to increase its feeling of reality.
To that end, I want to ask something which ties this into the CM Punk "ratings" article. The 2.9 is not significantly different than the high 2's and getting into mid and upper 3's that WWE has pulled for a few years now, with few exceptions. Obviously, during Rock's tenure it was much higher on average, and the reaction to Punk was reminiscent of the reaction to that last wave of dynamic stars and stories, with people even calling the "shoot" Punk's "Stone Cold moment"
So the question is, the 2.9, as it is relatively around what ratings have been for awhile, is that truly Punk's rating, or is that just what WWE has generally degraded to? In fact if we want to pin a wrestler on the rating, as people have with Punk, naysaying the efficacy of his stunt, are the 2.9's and the 3.5's and the 3.2's, etc, more rightly John Cena's ratings, if they are indeed anyone's? Wasn't the drop in the Punk story after the introduction of Cena and the "you're fired if you don't win" element, thus asserting Cena's dominant presence in the story in the same old way that Punk was actually ranting about? Why, Mr. Eck, are we laying it on disinterest in Punk, even if we were going to mistakenly, (in my opinion), do a RIGHT NOW, shot-by-shot short term analysis of it? Why are we blaming Punk for what is not significantly lower than the average during the tenure of the "transvestite Wonder Woman"?
That is the truth to Rock's "shoot"----John Cena as the "pure" babyface champ will always hear "Cena Sucks". What the hell kind of way is that to run a company, and what kind of logic do you use to defend that? Where's the precedent? Again, it is extremism to assert that one "hates" John Cena the performer or to falsely accuse him, against evidence, that he has no talent. He has talent. He just doesn't have the talent or the character, most importantly, to be the main event face of the biggest company, let alone reign as that face for years upon years. With a different character and a move down the card, Cena is a perfectly credible perfomer. Yet, as he stands now, he is dragging the whole company down with him, and he is never, EVER, going to be as widely accepted or as exciting as performers like the Rock or Jericho who have held that spot, or those who SHOULD be holding that spot in lieu of him like Punk, or whoever else we aren't even aware of the full talent level of because the perfomer has never been afforded the chance to show us.

So let me get this straight. Punk punks Cena and owns him in their exchange basically telling the truth. Now the Rock owns Cena and doesn't even have to be there to do it. Don't you think the WWE is taking an awfully big chance on making their top guy look foolish and weak? Just saying.

Awesome promo? Really? Nothing new. Nothing fresh. Typical Rock. *YAWN*
Posted by: Rich | July 13, 2011 11:20 PM

^ go mark out for Miz saying "AWESOME" or CM punk's super original promos... like "Popsicles" ?
smh....

VKM should offer The Rock $50 million a year to compete at every "Raw," "SmackDown" and PPV.

I've been a long time reader, but this is my first time commenting, Kevin. First of all, great blog! I find your entries to be well-articulated and usually very difficult to argue against.

Second, I just wanted to chime in on this whole Cena vs. The Rock feud. I think Punk hit the nail on the head in Brisbane when he talked about how Cena busts his ass night in and night out for the WWE fans, while The Rock is seldom there. I am personally sick of The Rock. He so often talks about how much he loves WWE, then disappears for months or years at a time.

Sorry, Dwayne! Simply cutting very entertaining promos via satellite will not make me want to see your hypocritical face on my TV. I say, put your money where your mouth is, Dwayne, and show me how much you love WWE by DOING what Cena does! Disappearing for long stretches to make movies is an ACTION that tells me you care much more about movies than you care about WWE, and ACTIONS speak louder than any words you can throw my way via satellite.

I also think it says something kind of sad about fans when the only thing they like to focus on is who can run their mouth better. Yes, The Rock has gotten the better of Cena in their verbal spats at each and every turn. This promo was very entertaining and accurate in its criticisms of Cena. ("Transvestite Wonder Woman" was admitttedly hilarious!) From my perspective, the bottom line is that Cena the man deserves a huge amount of respect because his ACTIONS (showing up every day, going the extra mile) merit that. The Rock just runs his mouth and hardly ever shows up. To be honest, I find him harder to stomach with each of his appearances via satellite.

I like john cena and the Roc, however in this situation I agree with the Roc. He has done it all, in the WWE All the champions from The Rocs day are long gone. Theres nothing left to prove to fans or the new talent.