Now recently we've reported from several sources that there is "real heat" between John Cena and The Rock backstage, as in they don't like each other, but they'll do business together at WrestleMania to make each other and everybody else some money. A lot of people have cited Cena making fun of Rock having notes written on his arm and The Rock acting flustered about it as an example, whereas to me that whole thing came off as pre-planned to make Rock look like a Hollywood phony but in truth The Rock was ACTING like Cena got to him just to build up their match at WrestleMania 28.

Here is the twist, and you have to decide who you believe and to what degree. First we have Mark Madden reporting that The Rock has used crib notes for YEARS and this isn't something he started doing just for his segments with John Cena. If that's the case, one could believe Cena genuinely got to Mr. Johnson. Additionally, WWE took their footage of that segment OFF of YouTube. Additionally certain international TV affiliates who have uploaded their version to video sites (mind you likely without WWE's permission) appear to have received a version where the crib notes are blurred out with a block graphic the same color as The Rock's arm.

You can make of all of this what you will, but personally I don't put it past both WWE and The Rock to make this a "work the smart marks" kind of angle, where they purposefully let it leak that The Rock uses crib notes for his promos. Furthermore if they were doing it on purpose, The Rock would be well aware Cena was going to mention it on Raw, and prepared to "act flustered" when it was brought up. Pulling the video down would then in fact be their way of proving it was "a shoot" when in fact they actually intended it to be that way all along.

Now the counter argument to that is that a "worked shoot" is the exception to the rule and happens very rarely in the so-called WWE Universe. It has been done once or twice though - Matt Hardy grabbing a live mic to cut a promo on Johnny Ace, CM Punk dropping references to ROH and Colt Cabana, et cetera. The problem with a worked shoot is that it's a little TOO insider for 95% of the viewing audience. It's the age-old complaint about how Vince Russo booked in WCW and TNA - when you do an angle for the 5% of your audience that reads internet wrestling websites or subscribes to a pro wrestling newsletter, you run the risk of alienating the other 95% that have never been to those sites and couldn't care less about the backstage politics or the real-life personal animosity between guys. All they want to see is a good feud and a good fight, and they don't care about the "business" that goes into it.

I'm willing to concede there is genuine heat between John Cena and The Rock, because even though it could have started out as a work on Twitter, some of the comments they've made about each other have been beyond personally insulting and occasionally downright vulgar. It's easy to get lost in the heat of the moment (no pun intended) and get upset even if you know you're just supposed to be playing along. And it's possible that they'd get on each other's nerves backstage anyway - there are a lot of big egos backstage at WWE and they could be bruising each other's just by being in the same area intentionally or not. But for the sake of argument, consider for a moment that it all seems VERY convenient for both guys to have "real heat" because for WWE the key to selling WrestleMania 28 is to have the audience believing they GENUINELY want to kill each other. Much like that moment between Jericho and Punk where they each said put all our crap aside and all we want to do is prove who is really the best, it all comes down to why you would pay $55-$65 to see this show, and that means more than just your average wrestling match with the average pre-planned finish. Fans want to believe that something spontaneous could happen - a spark could ignite a genuine fight - and as all pro wrestling fans do WE WANT TO BELIEVE EVEN FOR JUST A MOMENT that it's real. So when you think about this feud, presume nothing you read is 100% on the level, but also accept that it's the very fact it's debatable how real this is that's going to have exactly the effect they intend anyway - you'll "buy in" just to find out if it is.