Last night at Survivor Series, after Cena and The Rock summarily destroyed the Awesome Truth, as everyone predicted, The Rock challenged Cena in the middle of the ring. He called him out. And then gave him the Rock Bottom. And Cena took it. He took the boos, he meekly accepted that he wouldn’t be cheered when paired with The Rock, and he slowly walked to the back after taking The Rock’s finisher.

Character-wise, it was just as moving to me as Cena turning “heel” would have been. Even more so. I wanted John to do something, to retaliate. Instead, he took the high road, took his lumps, and let the dickhead mercenary have his victory and his cheers. We finally saw something of a defeat for John Cena. It was everything I wanted the Nexus angle to be. We saw John Cena humbled. He’s been ambushed before, gang beaten. During the Nexus angle, he got run through the whole NXT gauntlet of finishers multiple times. But he never gave up, something that I thought would have been a natural step in that story, which instead became John Cena Triumphs Over Adversity Part 37. We never saw Cena retreat, which is what we saw last night.

A retreating John Cena is a unique device, one that I am completely invested in. However, I am still not excited for his match against The Rock at ‘Mania. The Rock won’t be at Raw tonight. Maybe via satellite, but a proper build to their match requires his presence, at least on a semi-regular basis. Cena retreated from The Rock. He has not walked away from anyone else. No one else in the WWE poses any kind of threat to Cena. Even CM Punk, who has terrific chemistry with Cena, in and outside of the ring, has never beaten him cleanly. Will Cena remain humbled until ‘Mania? Doubtful. I’m sure it will become a plot point after the Royal Rumble, but I don’t see them maintaining the momentum they created last night until then. Last night was as much nuance I’ve seen in John Cena since his feud with Punk over the summer. Is another feud with Punk the answer? Potentially. It would certainly fill the gap until the Royal Rumble, and create ways for both of them to advance their characters. Regardless of who Cena feuds with until his Wrestlemania match with Rocky, the doubt and sorrow he displayed last night must not be forgotten.

The Rock has been playing a classical “heel” role for the whole rivalry. That is obvious. It’s not that much different from The Rock his whole career. He’s a dick, a smart ass, will use homophobic and misogynistic insults, but will do it with such charisma and such force that he’s almost impossible to resist. I don’t know if there is anything The Rock could do at this point to get booed. The crowd in NY loved him last night, as every crowd has everywhere he has appeared. He’s about as close to royalty that the WWE will get. He’s the Departed King, and will be forever loved for his place in the Golden Age, his every return heralded. John Cena is the Rejected Prince. He picked up the pieces after the departure of the King, but will never be loved like him, despite his efforts to maintain chivalric ideals, his very attempts at achieving greatness preventing from challenging the popularity of The Rock.