The Hollywood Champion

Now that he’s finally trounced John Cena The Rock has revealed his next goal: regaining the WWE championship.
 
It's been nine and a half years since 'The Brahma Bull' last held WWE's top prize. Soon after he dropped the title for what appeared to Brock Lesnar (who, by pure coincidence, has just made a WWE return of his own) at SummerSlam 2002 The Rock went full time as a movie star and the possibility of him holding a wrestling championship ever again seemed ludicrous. But if his comeback last year has taught us anything it's that Rock is committed to helping WWE out of its current slump.
 
I originally said that Cena should have won the WrestleMania XXVIII main event. As the man who's going to be on every episode of RAW for the foreseeable future Cena was in greater need of looking like the dominant star. I was working on the assumption that Rock's WWE schedule would be limited to one or two matches per year and the occasional, much-hyped, RAW appearances.

But perhaps a deal has been reached that will see The Rock clear blocks of two or three months to dedicate to WWE, making the possibility of him getting into a feud for the WWE championship a far more real possibility. If that’s the case then his win at WrestleMania wasn’t the questionable I first thought, it was a necessary step to show that ‘The Great One’ can still excel in a wrestling environment and is a threat to the champion.
 
Don't fool yourself into thinking that Rocky would just be in that feud to put over the champ. While I'm not saying he'll definitely be champion again this year (or any other time) I don't think a Rock title victory is something to casually rule out. As a Hollywood A-lister WWE would garner massive publicity if Rock regained the WWE championship. Vince McMahon is known as a man who likes to cross his product into other media (he’s been doing it since the first WrestleMania in 1985). There is arguably no better way of doing that in 2012 than putting his most prestigious championship on a film star.

Already Rock’s proclamation has had a positive effect: by saying he wants to be WWE champion again The Rock has indirectly put over CM Punk because he’s the guy that has something ‘The Most Electrifying Man in All of Entertainment’ says he wants.

CM Punk may be wrestling The Rock sometime in the future, but he'll never look as comfortable on the red carpet as 'The Great One'

It’s too early to say who Rock will face next but I’d guess WWE will try and get him involved in SummerSlam on August 19^th. Whoever the champion is at that point I doubt they’ll be facing The Rock. WWE will want to build to a Rock title challenge gradually. Right now I’d say The Rock has to be a very early favourite to win the 2013 Royal Rumble and challenge for the gold in New Jersey.

Punk v Rock at WrestleMania XXIX? Don’t rule it out.