By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

The Associated Press published a detailed report on the WrestleMania 28 hype that will be reaching news outlets this weekend and into next week. The report mainly focuses on "The Rock" Dwayne Johnson returning to WWE and how it's affected himself, John Cena, WWE's business, and the locker room. The following are highlights.

-- Rock, who was interviewed in Philadelphia prior to Monday's Raw TV taping, repeated his recent description of John Cena as The Guy in WWE to come back to have a match against. He added that Cena is not at the level of Hulk Hogan or "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, but he is this era's top star.

"There's no one I can do that with right now other than John. He's far and above everyone else in terms of popularity. He's the guy," Rock said. "Is he Stone Cold? No. Is he Hogan? No. But he is John Cena and he's been on top for a long time now." Rock added that he didn't return to WWE for money or being on the road, but because he's passionate about wrestling.

Cena inserted a jab when asked about this aspect of Rock's return. "I was a fan in '99. I'm not a fan now," Cena said. "I don't know what he's got going on upstairs."

Cena acknowledged they have been bickering like children during the build-up, and he expressed confidence that people will spend money to see them finally compete.

"We've been griping like two little kids now for about a year," Cena said. "Now, everybody wants to see us fight."

-- Rock ignored reports of locker room resentment among WWE wrestlers. The AP report noted Rock and Sheamus had a mid-interview conversation about Sheamus's match with Chris Jericho last week on Smackdown before Rock talked about locker room response to his return.

"The best part of me coming back is hearing them say, 'You've inspired me, thank you,'" Rock said. "That's the greatest compliment that I can get. It's so cool man. They don't talk about movies. They don't talk about other matches. It's just, 'You've inspired me.'"

-- Rock noted he will be appear at WrestleMania 29 next year. The idea of Brock Lesnar being a potential WM29 opponent was brought up to Rock, who responded, "I'm not saying a thing," before laughing and grinning. "I didn't say anything."

-- Regarding the business aspect, the report notes WWE is hoping to achieve one million PPV buys after last year's event with Rock as guest-host drew over one million buys.

The report also notes one decent week of Raw TV ratings during Mania Season to classify the overall build-up a success despite the weekly ratings coming in below expectations. "Fans have tuned in, though not quite in the monster numbers of Johnson's "Attitude Era" heyday. The March 12 Raw averaged 4.82 million viewers (4.97 million watched the second hour of the show) which bested the highest-rated NCAA tournament cable game, Kansas vs. Purdue (4.43 million viewers)," reads the report.

The March 12 Raw was on the high-end of this year's Mania Season ratings and would have been well below the low-end of the 2011 Mania build-up. From Elimination Chamber to WrestleMania 27 last year, Raw averaged a 3.73 rating and 5.64 million viewers. From the Chamber to this week's Raw in 2012, Raw has averaged a 3.20 rating and 4.62 million viewers, more than one million fewer viewers.

Link: The full report can be read at WashingtonExaminer.com and AZCentral.com .

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