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Yet Another Rock/Cena Question

How surprised are you that the WWE were able to pull this Cena/Rock match off? They actually were able to build a match one year out into this huge mega super event. Typical WWE don't even think one week in advance, let alone plan something a year away and actually pull it off pretty damn successfully. I know it's Cena/Rock and there is no way they could have screwed it up, but they deserve some credit, don't they?

Yeah, some, but they didn’t really BUILD anything over that year.  They happened to announce it a year ago, then forgot about it completely for months, then had them teaming up at Survivor Series for no reason, and then finally starting building the actual match 6 weeks out.  Justin Shapiro had a great analogy, where the writers are high school students assigned a paper 6 weeks away and so they’re like “Well we’ve got 6 weeks to study and prep for this” and basically do nothing for the first 3 weeks before suddenly realizing that it’s due in 3 weeks and nothing has been done.  Clearly the creative team just can’t deal with stuff outside of their usual 4 week cycle (waste the first week, build for 3 weeks) and six weeks of build time was just WAY too much to deal with. 

Comments

  1. Even leading up to Survivor Series, they could've gotten a full two months out of Miz/Truth as the "interlopers" creating anarchy throughout WWE, leading up to Cena realizing that there's only on guy who can help him, and he has to bite the bullet and ask Rock to team. It keps them both faces and builds Miz and Truth. Is that too fucking complex?

    But no, we get HHH destroying them, then Rock and Cena destroying them without the need for the other. Anger.....rising....

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  2. Eh, I dunno. They pushed it harder at certain times than others, but the WWE kept mentioning the match all year long.

    The Rock and Cena have also been trading hateful tweets, building the feud off TV all year long.

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  3.  ugh, I'm sorry, I will never count a "tweet" war as part of a feud buld.  You're kidding right?

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  4. Maybe, and I think maybe, the problem is not that they hire hollywood writers, but the hollywood writers who wants to book too much like wrestlingbookers. Vince Russo had always a kind of hollywood storyline booking style, where wrestlingfeuds had not only two guys who don't like each other but a greater back story, with many twists and turns and just like tv series or movies usually have. 

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  5.  Someday a wrestlingmatch will be two guys sitting in the middle of the ring and tweeting insults over their phones...;)

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  6. I'd love to see Chikara do something like that. =D

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  7. And they didn't really build anything.

    The build of the match is the fact it's Cena Vs Rock

    Nothing that has happened in the past 12 months has really escalated the feud. Rock cost Cena the title last year, gave him a Rock Bottom at Sur Ser and neither warrants a mention.

    But then I think Hogan Vs Savage at WM5 is the only year long storyline they've ever properly pulled off

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  8. Immediately after the match was made, Cena made his intentions to win the WWE Title so that his match with Rock would be for the title.  I remember Cena mentioning his match with Rock in the buildup to his match with Punk at Summerslam, where he said "If I lose, I still have my match with Rock, if you lose, you lose everything."

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  9. Rock and Cena talk shit about each other in tweets, dirt sheets report it, fans read about it. Sounds like building a feud to me.

    Where do you think the mass interest in a CM Punk vs Steve Austin match came from?

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  10. That'd be pretty funny if they actually announced the tweets (or showed them on the Tron).

    *Triple H tweets on his phone*
    Tron: "Go back to banging ugly groupies with 'Fozzy'."
    *Jericho tweets on his phone*
    Tron: "You mean like Chyna?"

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  11. If the last few months showed us anything, it was to stop yelling for slow builds to feuds. A year? Six months? These guys can't even drag something out longer than four weeks without blowing it.

    I think the last decent slow burn they pulled off was Angle/Brock.

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  12.  Maybe it creates some "behind the scenes" momentum, but as far as building a feud on the actual TV show, it does shit and it's just another annoying tool WWE decides to use when they should focus all of their energy to creating an entertaining TV show.  Don't they continously remind us that this is entertainment and it's a TV show?  You don't see two characters from a drama show tweeting at each other do you?

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  13. It's all part of the same hype machine, working to earn buys for the pay-per-view. The Rock and John Cena have about 2 million followers each. That's alot of people reading those tweets.
    And characters in a drama don't have the ability to convince people aspects of a story are real the way wrestlers do. I can't count how many articles and message board posts I read discussing whether or not Cena pointing out the notes on The Rock's arm was scripted. Nobody ever asks if something Walt did on Breaking Bad was supposed to happen.I don't think the WWE should focus all their attention on twitter, but its a good supplemental promotional tool. In a feud like this, based on realistic personal animosity, social media is pretty effective. 

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