It’s about that time again, for the next installment of 10 Storylines of the 2010s WWE Ruined On Their Own, this time it’s the year 2013, and this one really hurts me because it lead to the the Wrestlemania that I attended, Wrestlemania 29. We were in the middle of the longest and strongest title reigns of the century and it ended so abruptly for a rematch that nobody wanted. Remember the last entry that was billed as “Once In A Lifetime”, well that was a lie, because we got it again a year later.
2013 – “Twice In A Lifetime”
As I said earlier, we were in the middle of the longest and strongest WWE Title reign, of this Century, never had there been a title reign of 400 plus days since the 80s and CM Punk had the championship for a total of 434 days. Nobody has done it since. The reason it ended however, may be the catalyst for our current landscape of part time champions. In July of 2012, The Rock announced that he wanted a shot at the WWE Championship, he made this declaration almost 10 years after his last championship reign, at the 1000th episode of RAW. CM Punk attacked The Rock at the same night for even hinting that he wanted a shot.
We wouldn’t see The Rock again until January, where he would return to confront Punk before the impending championship match at the Royal Rumble, leading up to the match The Rock would be attacked by The Shield who were rumored to be affiliated with CM Punk to protect Punks title reign. Vince McMahon would declare on the RAW before the Royal Rumble that if the Shield interfered Punk would be stripped of the title. During the match between The Rock and CM Punk, the lights would go out and when they went back on The Rock was down on the announce table, leaving CM Punk with the opportunity to take advantage and win, however and this is where it all went south for me. Vince McMahon would come out and was about to declare Punk stripped of the title, but The Rock would insist on the match being restarted, which it was and The Rock would win the WWE Championship. His first championship win in WWE in a decade at this point and the precedent for the current landscape of part time champions something I wish never happend.
That same night, John Cena would win his second Royal Rumble match, giving him the opportunity to face the champion of his choosing at Wrestlemania, setting up the prospect of his encounter with The Rock being “Twice In A Lifetime”. Following the Royal Rumble, CM Punk would use his rematch clause at the next months pay-per-view, Elimination Chamber. The Rock would lose the title if he was counted out or disqualified, The Rock would end up winning though, all of this to set up the rematch that nobody wanted between The Rock and John Cena.
The story going into the rematch was following John Cena’s loss to The Rock at the previous WrestleMania, that Cena went into a downward spiral and had the worst year of his career, citing his loss to John Laurinaitis, and being the first to fail at winning a championship after cashing in his Money In The Bank briefcase. Now I get it, the story of Cena needing redemption for everything that happened the previous year is interesting, but not interesting enough to have this rematch for a championship. As I said already Punk was having the best year and a half of his career and deserved a WrestleMania main event for his efforts. Nobody wanted this rematch, nobody wanted The Rock to win a championship. Nobody wanted Punk to lose to the title to The Rock especially after a the greatest title reign of the modern era of 434 days. Yes, you can argue despite all that, Punk had the best match on that WrestleMania card which is 100 percent true while also being the last victim of the Undertaker’s streak (more on that in the next entry of this list), but was it enough for everything he did in that prior year and a half? Absolutely not.
So the match happens, at WrestleMania 29, I was there and it’s safe to say I wish I could have went to WrestleMania 35 instead, however, the experience as a whole was amazing. The match we are here to discuss however, didn’t need to happen, just for John Cena to get another title reign off of getting revenge against The Rock, it wasn’t necessary at all. There’s so many other things that could have been done that year, did I dislike the Punk/Undertaker match, no, it was great, but the argument of a triple threat between The Rock, CM Punk, and John Cena will always look more appealing to me, and Undertaker could have taken on an up and comer who needed the rub of being in that match.
That’s gonna do it for this installment, sorry it took so long for this one to come out, I’ve been super busy, and will definitely try to get the next installment out quicker as well as other future projects on here and on my own site.
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