WWE's awful booking of Cena from 2005-2006

[rzombie1988]

We got a thread on Batista and it got me thinking and how Batista was able to do well and why Cena had a rough career at times.

 

Cena was hot in 2002-2003 and was over with the IWC.WWE finally cements the turn in 2004 as Cena starts to become a less edgy rapper and a more generic face, going over people like Big Show, Carlito, RVD and Jesus before getting injured.

 

Cena and Batista are the final 2 at the 2005 Rumble which will be remembered for Vince tearing his quad more than anything else. Cena then beats Angle and gets set up with JBL to give him the belt at Mania.Cena wins the belt at Mania 21, not really standing out next to HBK/Angle, Orton/Taker, Hogan's return, MITB and Batista winning the title. Cena feuds with JBL to close out the spring and then he makes the move that makes his career and then makes it famous at the same time - he goes to Raw.

 

The very first night, as Cena is now the top dog on the top show, he rap battles Christian and Christian gets over big time in the process - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEdUawtPrTI.. This is the start of Cena's issues with the crowd. How does WWE follow this up? He gets put with the tweener Jericho, then Angle who got put with Daivari in a forced heel turn. Cena loses to Edge at New Years Revoluion, again dealing with another tweener guy, then gets put with Triple H, who buries him 10 times over in to Wrestlemania 22(which I went to), where Cena gets crapped on by the Chicago crowd, and Cena's career is never the same again.

 

You would think WWE learns from all of this right and stops putting him with tweeners or faces, right? Nope. Enter RVD at One Night Stand. Another situation where Cena isn't the pure face and which exposes him more. Cena and Edge then restart their feud with one of the matches being a TLC...in Canada where Edge is cheered.

 

Looking back on it, it appears WWE's booking above all else was the true culprit in turning half the crowd on him. While Cena's phoniness and loose offense didn't help, pairing your top babyface with a bunch of tweeners and forced heels isn't a recipe for success and it's not surprising at all Cena got half-turned heel.

[sek69]

It always appeared that early on WWE seemed enamored with him getting 50/50 reactions since both sides were so adamant. Looking back, it was better than the "we'll make you love him" approach they took with Roman,

[DMJ]

Obviously, hindsight's always 20/20, but I'd say Cena's booking post Mania 21 really only sucked for that one summer and ended the minute Edge won the title.

 

Unlike Christian, Jericho, and Angle, Edge was, in late 05', getting great heat from the Matt Hardy/Lita scandal. Also unlike those three, Edge was never championed as a top 5 worker or a guy who had been "held down," so the "You Can't Wrestle" criticisms of Cena in 05'/06' were kind of negligent. Edge was Cena's greatest rival for that run and I think one could argue his best rival ever.

 

By WM22, the E definitely locked in on Cena as "the most controversial Champion ever" and wisely booked accordingly. Oddly enough, at ONS2, we saw the first crack in the Cena Sucks trope - Cena came in despised as a "phony" and then delivered one of the most iconic "Never Give Up" performances of his career, walking into a den of wolves and, though he wouldn't have his title, walking out John Cena. Anyone watching at the time can't forget Cena tossing his shirt into the crowd and having it tossed back and the "If Cena Wins, We Riot" flag, nor can they forget how thrilling the match was. Cena may still have been loathed as a character, but Cena the Performer gained the begrudging respect of many that night.

 

I'm not sure better booking was even possible back then, all things considered. The cheese of some of his promos could've been cut by half, sure, but he almost always delivered when he had to get serious. There were repetitive feuds/matches against Edge, Big Show, Orton, and others for the next 5 years, but I'm not sure lining up more dominant heels would've really gotten Cena more over anyway. In fact, the love for Cena in recent years seems to have hit highest when he was up against guys that rivaled his own popularity - CM Punk and Daniel Bryan - rather than positioned against monsters he had to conquer (Khali, Rusev).

[JaymeFuture]

I've always believed it was a combination of factors coming together at the same time that really fucked it up.

 

A lot of the Cena hate from around that time, and I remember it vividly, was a misread. Some on the internet thought it was a "he can't wrestle" thing, because that was their opinion. Thing is, there weren't that many instances of internet fans overtaking things in large arenas around the country at that time, so I don't think that accounted for the sheer size of the negative groundswell back in 2005/2006. Contributing factor.

 

I think far more than the "He can't wrestle" attitude, it was a disappointment in Cena. He's over big when he's on the rise, and people had attached to him the idea of him being the next great superstar (where they eventually positioned him), and he had the charisma and personality to do it. Matches weren't key, but he had good ones along the way. When he debuted on Raw, people pissed their pants. He had the great I Quit match with JBL right before. So far, so good.

 

Then when he's positioned as Raw's top guy after the switch from Smackdown, almost immediately we get the more whitebread promos, and the goofy, cheesy stuff that was out of place with the masses at the time.

 

At the same time, you had Christian, who had built a groundswell of momentum as an enjoyable heel to build for a Cena one-on-one. Fans didn't get it, and that segment of the crowd were disappointed. I'm not saying Christian's push being ixnayed is what damaged Cena, but Christian was being cheered in some cities during that time when it felt like he had potential to break through to the upper mix. I do think that, maybe subconsciously, it got Cena's run off on the wrong foot that a segment of the fans immediately didn't get what they wanted. Contributing factor.

 

Cena was chucked in a feud with Jericho that, once again, had him doing promos that reflected badly on him, and now he was in the position, it was more eye-rolling whackyness than money promos. Jericho had been midcarded for so long, that it was a perfect storm at Summerslam 2005 - Jericho was almost representing the legion of guys who were in that "just under the top level" that could never get past the company choice. With the Christian thing being dropped fresh in the mind, the fact Cena wasn't being the Cena people envisioned as a top guy, but was pushed anyway, over the guys people were also wanted to see, led to the crowd switch.

 

It was so unique and unusual for the era (babyfaces not fulfilling their end would typically lead to silence more than rejection then, see Taker and Batista in their matches with JBL), that it became newsworthy, and caught on. Angle was next up, and the same issue with the promos was prevalent, Cena doing the salute and those gestures felt phony, and Angle was good enough that the crowds did the same for him as they did with Jericho. Triple H actually buried Angle in a production meeting during this period, saying the reason Cena was being booed was because Angle didn't know how to be a heel. I'm sure Hunter will show us how it's done properly.

 

Edge comes along, and the dynamic changes, albeit briefly, as noted in previous posts. People are excited for a feud, people boo Edge and start cheering Cena a bit more as the three weeks go by, and once again, the people don't get the prolonged period of entertainment they desire, and just like Christian, the exciting new scenario is cut off, and the perception is that the chosen one winning is more important.

 

Then Hunter sweeps in to murk off the anti-Cena momentum and rub it on his nipples. There is an in-ring promo on Raw that just cut Cena's bollocks off so severely that most other heels would have had Vince positively primeval at them. Cena talking about how good HHH is, how he respects him, and it'll be an honour to wrestle him. HHH saying Cena is big, tough, and strong, but "Granted, you're not a very good wrestler", to a huge crowd pop and a smug HHH grin. Imagine Austin or Rock in this position. Cena smiled that smile, and may as well have said, "Thank you sir, may I have another?"

 

At this point, a lot of people are aware of the frustration, aim it at Cena for things that both are and are not his fault, the result of a lot of bad positioning, poor character work at a time when he needed to deliver, frustration at talented guys getting cut off, and John not being the smoothest wrestler being the perfect whinge point for the internet fans as if that was the entire issue.

 

Fans are chanting "One More Night" at him during the Hall of Fame. The Chicago crowd all expected HHH to win because it was reported in the Observer months before that HHH was getting the belt back, and word had spread. The Backlash poster was revealed early with "Long Live The King" as the title, further convincing people that HHH was winning. And then Cena wins, and goes on to feud with RVD in a feud designed to take advantage of the audience hating him, making it an accepted part of the proceedings. They then book Cena to lose in his hometown of Boston at Summerslam, and win the belt off hometown hero Edge the next month, more ways to convince the masses he isn't really your favourite.

 

Anything after this is either Pavlovian, the more modern niche crowd playing their part because they know they're supposed to, or genuine reaction based on this 16 month period - the launch of a decade of your new top guy, handled so poorly.