WWE bound and determined for John Cena to get cheers at WrestleMania 28

Dave Meltzer has had some great insight in his last couple of subscriber only radio updates on his website f4wonline.com about the likely direction the John Cena vs. The Rock feud will take in the run up to WrestleMania 28.

WWE are bound and determined for that match to get a split reaction with Cena eliciting at least 50% cheers. They've been concerned for many months that their franchise babyface will be booed out of the building by the predominantly male 18-34 audience come April 1st in Miami and have become increasingly desperate to turn the tide. So desperate that despite Linda McMahon running for Senate again later this year, WWE's creative team decided to appeal to the most base misogynistic instincts in that demographic to make Cena cool once again:

Dave Meltzer: "They're doing everything they can to get people to cheer John Cena and nothing has really worked, so what you do is like what do guys in their twenties hate the most? It's like a manipulative woman, two-faced, you know, who ruins friendships and everything like that, and John Cena called [Eve Torres] on it, and she tried to kiss up to him and he blew it her off. There's nothing cooler than blowing off a really pretty girl.

It worked for this week, but that was when the more charismatic Dwayne Johnson wasn't around. If last year is anything to go by though, then it won't have any legs and these cheers will be fleeting. As you may recall, Cena upped the attitude last March to combat The Rock on the mic by littering his promos with homophobic jokes, which ironically is what led to their hypocritical anti-bullying Be A Star campaign when GLAAD started complaining.

After Cena's brief female distraction was well and truly buried in a tasteless manner, he bounced back with a passionate diatribe about The Rock walked out on WWE for seven years and then rarely being around once he did return. If it sounded like a shoot, maybe because it sort of was, for the benefit of the many boys in the back who resent Rock for sauntering back into the company and stealing another WrestleMania main event spot without putting in the full time and effort to deserve the position. CM Punk is far from the only performer who is upset at Rock's aloof demeanour when he drops by for a cup of coffee, but he's the only one that is a big enough star that he can get away with saying so in public.

Expect the feud to continue to be done in a worked shoot fashion, as apparently Rock wants the WrestleMania build for his match with Cena to mimic the style of a UFC Countdown special with a grudge match between major stars. It's not like people haven't been saying for years that the WWE creative team could learn something from how UFC promotes their pay-per-views.