After 14 months and countless bad jokes and high school level insults, the feud between The Rock and John Cena will culminate in a match at tonight's (Sun., April 1, 2012) WrestleMania 28 pay-per-view (PPV) event live from Sun Life Stadium in Miami, Florida.
The issues between these two date back to Feb. 2011 when Rock made his big return to WWE to cut his famous promo on Cena. You know the one; he called Cena a "big fat bowl of Fruity Pebbles," which led to Cena's face plastered all over the popular cereal box across America thanks to a deal WWE cut with Post.
That shows the reach the pro wrestling business sometimes has. At least at the top of the food chain with its biggest stars.
Then again, throughout the next year, ratings didn't exactly soar thanks to The Rock's presence. In fact, they remained stagnant all throughout the build to this match. Even a surprise match at Survivor Series with Rock and Cena teaming together against The Miz and R-Truth did little to up the buyrate for that show.
It would seem the pro wrestling audience is trained at this point to ignore most of the year, save for the hardcore audience that's going to tune in no matter what, and pony up the dough for the big shows.
Which means Rock vs. Cena is still going to draw plenty of interest tonight. But will it deliver the way WWE is hoping?
It should be noted right off the bat that these two don't seem to have the best chemistry with one another. Everything they've done together throughout this past year has felt inauthentic, some of which was by design.
Even the staredown at the WrestleMania 28 press conference was awkward.
That doesn't bode well for the match itself, though there's no way of knowing for sure whether they'll get physical and everything will just click the way it's supposed to.
The hope, of course, is that the two will put on a 35-minute classic match. But how can we expect it to end?
With the news of Brock Lesnar and Batista coming to Miami and getting picked up by WWE officials this weekend, it looks like there's at least a slim possibility that one of the two could be involved in the finish here. If so, it could lead to Brock vs. Rock at WrestleMania 29. While that sounds good in theory, I'm not sure it would work in practice, though Lesnar's appearance alone would be huge.
Then again, there's still the slight possibility that The Miz inserts himself into the situation, though that makes less sense now that he finally managed to get onto a match on the show. Unless the recent rewrites we've been hearing about have something to do with him.
If there's a clean winner with no interference, it's likely to be Cena, who should go over anyway because he's the one who will be sticking around past WrestleMania, while Rock will go off again to do movies. If there's a smoz, it will likely be in Rock's favor, as Cena needs someone to feud with once Rock leaves again.
At this point, with just hours remaining until showtime, I can see both outcomes. Either way, let's hope this "Once in a Lifetime" match lives up to the hype.