Once I take everything that happened in, I'm leaning toward the latter.
-Triple H, the guy known as the king of burials, cleanly puts over the guy they've been actively trying to bury since WM28.
-Triple H's buddies lose cleanly in a squash match.
-Undertaker, who probably has almost as much pull as Vince at this point, gave up his streak.
-Batista, the guy they were intending to push as the superstar babyface return, taps cleanly to the Yes Lock.
-Big Show, the favorite going in to the Battle Royal due to the obvious parallels to Andre the Giant, loses cleanly, albeit in another obvious parallel to Andre the Giant.
-AJ, the fiancée of the guy who abruptly quit and hasn't contact with anyone since, retained her title (may or may not be cleanly depending on which of Naomi's hands they go with), despite the Punk situation AND the fact that they're trying to promote Total Divas.
All of this points to the booking starting to finally have confidence in the younger performers and putting petty shit aside, until you get to Cena, who just HAD to win, just could NOT put anyone over. And you can't even use the happy ending/"for the kids" excuse because Undertaker still lost and Bryan still won the championship (and brought the cancer patient he met in the ring, so there's your moment for the kids) so everyone still goes home either sad because of Taker or happy because of Bryan. Cena losing would have had no effect on the mood the crowd leaves in.
