When The Rock returned to WWE at Raw 1000, he informed the fans in St. Louis and the - millions and MILLIONS - of fans watching at home he would challenge for the WWE Championship at next year's Royal Rumble.

Immediately, fantasy booking went into effect and the common consensus was CM Punk would hang onto the strap until January 2013, lose it to The Rock while John Cena would go on to win the Royal Rumble itself leading to a WrestleMania 28 rematch next April in New Jersey.

But pump the brakes there, all you Jim Cornettes-in-training.

Word from the latest Figure Four Weekly is the plan may have changed.

Here's what it had to say:

"There is at least some discussion, which will no doubt change countless times, of taking the title off CM Punk [at SummerSlam], doing Rock vs. Cena for the title at Royal Rumble, and then Punk vs. Rock for the title at WrestleMania."

While the skeleton of the plan - The Rock wins at Rumble, goes on to defend at ‘Mania - remains the same, two of the key players may switch spots.

If Cena does beat out Punk - and The Big Show - on August 19 at SummerSlam to win the WWE Championship, it will put him on a collision course with "The Great One" for the second time. But The Rock losing in January simply isn't an option which is the only wrench in the plan. Would Cena drop two in a row to The Rock? Could Cena retain in January? Possibly if The Rock is also booked to win the Rumble itself but that's silly, right?

So The Rock will go on to WrestleMania 29 with the WWE Championship around his waist - or rather, dragging on the ground behind him - and he could be facing Punk?

Punk became the fastest Triple Crown champion and is a two-time Money in the Bank winner. With the King of the Ring gone the way of the buffalo, the only accolade he needs is the Royal Rumble.

And while Bryan Alvarez does note the plan could - and likely will change - the fact WWE is considering supplanting Cena for Punk in next year's WrestleMania main event speaks volumes of their opinion of the "Straight Edge Superstar."

While Cena has said he would fight "tooth and nail" against a rulebreaker turn, Punk, as evidenced by his recent actions, is more open to move back and forth between moral ideologies. This makes his character easier to work with and dare I say, makes Punk more valuable.

The more I think about it, the more I'm liking the idea of The Rock and CM Punk on the grandest stage of all.