The matches between The Rock and John Cena in 2012 and 2013 did big business for WWE. The former WWE Champion beat Cena at WrestleMania 28 in Miami, Florida then the next year at WrestleMania 29, Cena beat The Rock to win the WWE Title in New Jersey.
Cena said during his appearance on the Howard Stern Show that he didn’t know the WrestleMania 28 finish until two days before the show.
“I kind of knew what was gonna happen like a year in advance (for my match against The Rock at WrestleMania 28). But the decision on how the end would be was put up for debate until about two days before WrestleMania; about who would win and this is a very important thing I think. Certainly, a lot of weight rested on Dwayne’s shoulders because he’s the one who came back and he didn’t need to come back. Right then, he’s on the way to becoming his own universe. He doesn’t need to grace us with his presence. He’s doing okay. So he comes back and he does a lot of dates for us and the build-up is fantastic, we build the thing for a year. It breaks records for WWE, we break attendance records. One of the most successful events of all-time in the company. Two days before, we begin going over what we’re supposed to do… For like five minutes (it was uncomfortable), because we had buffers in Pat Patterson and Arn Anderson and Michael Hayes. We finally have to be in the same space and eventually, we do have to work together and he is so professional and so meticulous and I just wanted to get the match in the ring. So it wasn’t like, hey, we gotta do this and this and this. Ideas would come and I would be like, ‘Yeah, let’s do that, let’s do that, let’s do that.’ So we incorporated every one of his great ideas into the match, even the very end where I get too cocky and ended up losing and the fact that it was a clean loss and he had his moment, this wonderful WrestleMania moment, the reason he came back, this is why he did this.”
(H/T to POST Wrestling for the quotes)
