Money in the Bank streak finally broken; first match set for Royal Rumble?

On the 1000th episode of Monday Night RAW earlier tonight, The Rock made his long-awaited return to WWE, having been absent since the night after Wrestlemania. After the Daniel Bryan/AJ wedding ceremony was cancelled and Bryan was confronted by current WWE Champion CM Punk, The Rock returned and interrupted their promo time with some big news. He announced that, regardless of who is WWE Champion in January of next year, that person will be defending their title against none other than “The Great One” himself. Punk, reminiscent of the war of words he has shared with The Rock on Twitter and several media outlets, assured “Rocky” that he would be facing Punk on that night, and Punk would most assuredly retain. Bryan then interrupted, saying he would champion by then. Rock responded to this by nailing the former World Champion with a Rock Bottom.

As I said before, Punk and Rock have been having somewhat of a war of words for quite some time now, so if Punk is still champion by then (and by all accounts, he will be, as COO and Executive V.P. of Talent Relations Paul “Triple H” Levesque is pushing for longer title reigns), we could see something of a dream match. Punk and Rock have never once faced off in a match, which could make this something really special.

Speaking of Punk, he defended his WWE title in the main event of RAW 1000 against Money in the Bank winner John Cena, who chose to cash in his briefcase. Punk looked to retain the title after the referee was knocked out of the ring, allowing The Big Show to run in and spear Cena before nailing him with the WMD. However, Cena kicked out at 2. Punk then went for the Go To Sleep, but Cena was able to reverse the move into the STFU. It appeared Punk was going to tap, however, The Big Show once again interfered by attacking Cena, resulting in a disqualification win for Cena. Unfortunately, titles do not change hands via disqualification according to standard WWE rules, so although Cena won the match, he did not win the title. And, officially, Cena becomes the first man to unsuccessfully cash in the Money in the Bank briefcase.

After the match, Show continued the assault on Cena as Punk looked on in confusion. Eventually, The Rock returned to the ring and began attacking Show. As he was about to hit The People’s Elbow, Punk decided to intervene, leveling Rock with a clothesline and knocking him out with the GTS.

Rumor has it Cena may get a rematch at Summerslam, but regardless of that, he has made history in failing in his briefcase cash-in attempt. We will likely hear more about this Friday night on Smackdown!