Manía 28 was th most bought Mania of all time....why; mostly because of Cena vs Rock. If they were gonna do a rematch, why wouldn’t it main event again? And to make said main event bigger, they needed the title. That’s why Punk lost it.
Punk fans like you argue for him all the time and the truth of the matter is this. Punk got white hot at the wrong time. Cena was still the face and deservedly so. He had a good year and a half in comparison to Cena’s 7 at the time. As a business man; who would you go with as your star main eventer?
Twice in a lifetime doesn't need to go on last. The tickets will still sell for it even if it's the second to last match. They absolutely didn't need the belt. The match was a clash of icons. The belt became secondary once Punk was out. Shit, I've even seen some dirts from the time that said why didn't they slip Punk in and make it a three-way? Punk was used for the build in the two shows that preceded it with Rock anyway. Cena could have beaten them both and won the title so he could lose it to Lesnar in Suplex City.
Here's the thing I'm not a huge Cena fan and never have been. That said, pragmatically I say both. First off, Cena had began winding in 2011. Between Punk, Daniel Bryan, Brock Lesnar, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, Cena was never really the one and only top guy after 2014 the year Punk left anyway. Build up the guy who was white hot and had the crowd behind him and let Cena be his dancing partner. Every generation had that Hogan-Savage, Hogan-Warrior, Bret-Shawn, Austin-Rock, Angle-Lesnar, Cena-Batista, Cena-Edge, dual top guy spot. 2011-2015 could have been Cena-Punk, then maybe after that Cena could have let Bryan take his spot because man Punk-Bryan when Bryan got white hot would have been money.