WrestleMania 29 The Rock v John Cena

Less than a month after winning the Royal Rumble Match and announcing his intention of challenging for the WWE Title at WrestleMania 29, John Cena found out who his championship opposition will be on The Grandest Stage of Them All: The Rock.

The Great One upended CM Punk at Elimination Chamber, the last pay-per-view before The Show of Shows, to retain the cherished WWE Championship and solidify his place in WrestleMania’s main event.

In The Brahma Bull, Cena will be facing a foe who helped set in motion the tailspin of a year that was 2012.

A 10-time former WWE Champion, the Cenation leader has not held the title since October 2011, and the disappointment of his drought was exacerbated last year by his high-profile loss to The Great One at WrestleMania XXVIII. The devastating loss bookended one of Cena’s toughest calendar years, to date. A series of distractions, from dealing with former General Manager John Laurinaitis to falling into an ill-fated romance with AJ Lee, kept Cena away from the WWE Title picture for much of the year. And even once he found himself in title contention, he was unable to pry the WWE Title from Punk, making 2012 a largely unproductive year for one of the most decorated competitors in WWE history.

Fortunately for the Cenation leader, 2013 appears to be off to a markedly better start, thanks to his huge win at Royal Rumble. The larger question facing Cena is whether he will be able to keep the momentum going all the way to April 7, when he faces the Superstar who dealt him one of the biggest losses of his career.

The Rock has shown no signs of ring rust since returning to WWE and winning the WWE Title in January. In fact, The Great One overcame great obstacles — including The Shield and The Second City Saint’s underhanded tactics — en route to dethroning Punk and subsequently turning back his challenge in a rematch.

With The Rock and Cena informed by their epic encounter last year in Miami, both competitors will assuredly come to MetLife Stadium with a more sharpened focus than ever before. Cena is out to avenge last year’s WrestleMania loss to The Great One. The Rock, on the other hand, appears intent on keeping the championship he waited more than a decade to reclaim — the title that represents the sport that not only propelled him to success on the silver screen, but also captured his heart and mind at a young age.

Now, all that separates The Rock and John Cena is time. On April 7, under the brightest lights that sports-entertainment has to offer, who will leave will the top prize: The Rock or John Cena?