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Guest Editorial
By OneCountKickout, VIP member (@OneCountKickout)

Talk about your all-time schizophrenic promo battles. The Rock and John Cena angle has been all over the map in recent weeks. Keeping up with what exactly is going on here has led to debate on all sides of the wrestling world about work and shoot, professional and unprofessional, selling and no-selling. All are viable arguments, and it's currently impossible to determine who is right and who is wrong. Ultimately, the answers to all of those questions don't matter. There are two extremely important elements here, and they are what matters: are Cena and Rock selling WrestleMania and will both or either of them have been put into a better position when April 2 comes around?

Things have gotten a little out of alignment here. This past Monday, John Cena gave his empty arena promo all about how this match at WrestleMania means everything to him. He explained that he doesn't just want to win this match, he has to win this match. It means everything to him. Simultaneously, Rock vignettes aired with him making jokes and tearing down Cena, as he always does. Cut to later in the night, John Cena came out and began cutting a silly promo while smirking. The Rock came out, super serious, and cut a promo of his own while Cena no-sold it and acted like the quintessential goofball that he has been for years.

What happened there? Both guys completely flipped their scripts. Rock went from funny, silly vignettes to being serious in the ring while Cena went from saying his entire career is riding on WrestleMania to smirking like a seven-year-old who is trying to annoy the teacher. Meanwhile, a lot of people are trying to figure out if this is all a work, a shoot, or a mix. I love a good promo as much as the next guy, but I do have some problems with worked shoots.

Rock has said he will kick Cena's ass and make him his "bitch." Cena has said Rock will have to kill him to beat him. That's all fine and good, but when wrestlers start mixing work and shoot and start trying to make fans believe everything they're saying is real... it severely undercuts a wrestler's vow to win a predetermined wrestling match.

This has always been my problem with worked shoots. A wrestler can't tell me everything is real, but simultaneously try to convince me he's going to settle the issue in a wrestling ring. There is a lack of balance there, which has always bothered me. Ultimately, sell the match by selling the match, rather than trying to sell who has the better punchlines. What does it matter who is funnier or says the more biting comment when no one is going to be holding a microphone in the middle of that match?

Some argument has been made that John Cena has been unprofessional in this feud while the Rock has been attempting to keep things balanced. No matter which side of that argument you fall on, it does have to be acknowledged that one of the biggest gripes anti-Cena fans have had over the years is John Cena's failure to sell. In this promo battle with the Rock, Cena has sold nothing.

Imagine if "Stone Cold" Steve Austin cut a promo on Vince McMahon and Vince just smirked the entire time. Imagine C.M. Punk going off on Chris Jericho and Jericho just laughing about it. Wrestlers can submarine an angle when they fail to show that it actually matters or is important. It is ironic, because, as John Cena has claimed, this match means everything to him, but Rock doesn't care if WWE closes down. As a result, he is simultaneously undercutting the angle and doing damage to the business aspect of it. If you need proof that fans are getting pushed away, all you have to do is look at the ratings over the past two weeks, as both Raws have involved face-to-face meetings between Rock and Cena.

Was John Cena pointing out the writing on Rock's arm unprofessional, or was it planned? How about this past week where Cena smirked and smiled the entire time Rock was talking and then began interrupting him while he was just finishing his promo? Nobody knows, and nobody will know for a while. Ultimately, none of this is as important as whether or not this program has made viewers want to see this match more or less.

Right now, the only thing that has me interested in this match is... I don't know who will win. That's it. The promos, the threats, the jokes, the undercutting has made me less interested. If I didn't write columns, there's a chance I'd just tune out until April 1 because everything between these two is beginning to frustrate me. Oh, and what are they doing next week? These two want to kill each other so much that on Monday's Raw, Rock will sing and Cena will rap. To quote The Miz: "Really? Really? Really? Really?" That's the WrestleMania 28 build-up - musical battling?

On April 9, Rock will be gone. He will be filming movies until he comes back for the build-up to WrestleMania 29 (in whatever capacity he is participating.) On April 9, will John Cena be in a position where he can ride the wave of excitement, bring PPV buyrates up, and increase ratings. Or, will Cena be back to the John Cena that many fans boo, and the guy who makes silly "poopy" jokes, acts like Superman, and continues to pummel his goodie two-shoes personality into viewers's brains? If Cena doesn't come out of this WrestleMania either glowing and with a rejuvenated fanbase, or edgier and angrier, then this WrestleMania could go down as the year WWE went to the mat for Cena and it didn't work.

Regardless, if John Cena goes back to being the way he was and interest continues to flag while The Rock is doing more movies, Rock's words will prove prophetic, and WrestleMania 28 will be remembered as the time when Rock made Cena his "bitch." You know what should be frightening about that? The Rock doesn't even have to win to make it happen. Just look at Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 18.

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