John Cena is my favorite wrestler

[Loss]

John Cena is great! He's not only survived the fans turning on him, he's used it to become an even bigger star than he was before it started. They've hit on a really awesome dynamic and WWE is actually playing his push really wisely by giving the fans who hate him more reasons to hate and the fans who love him more reasons to do so. Michaels in '96 started getting bad reactions and had temper tantrums. Cena gets the same reactions and has managed to use it to re-energize two ultra stale wrestlers in Kurt Angle and HHH, and also to finally make Edge appear like he might reach his potential. This is a rub they've all gotten from working with him. Cena has had the pressure on him for months now and has kept working hard and hasn't cracked. He has my respect. Because of the emotions he tends to bring out in fans, he probably has more interesting (not necessarily good, but interesting) matches than anyone in wrestling currently. He's obviously a great interview and is doing a really good job of slowly making changes as the climate in WWE changes to keep himself fresh. I hope he's wrestling's top star for years to come.

[Resident Evil]

John Cena is great! He's not only survived the fans turning on him, he's used it to become an even bigger star than he was before it started. They've hit on a really awesome dynamic and WWE is actually playing his push really wisely by giving the fans who hate him more reasons to hate and the fans who love him more reasons to do so. Michaels in '96 started getting bad reactions and had temper tantrums. Cena gets the same reactions and has managed to use it to re-energize two ultra stale wrestlers in Kurt Angle and HHH, and also to finally make Edge appear like he might reach his potential. This is a rub they've all gotten from working with him. Cena has had the pressure on him for months now and has kept working hard and hasn't cracked. He has my respect. Because of the emotions he tends to bring out in fans, he probably has more interesting (not necessarily good, but interesting) matches than anyone in wrestling currently. He's obviously a great interview and is doing a really good job of slowly making changes as the climate in WWE changes to keep himself fresh. I hope he's wrestling's top star for years to come.

Yeah, Cena at the top does create interest. There's no doubt about that.

 

 

Loss, can you PLEASE make a one time exception and post this on smartmarks? I'll give ya $5 someday if you do so*. I'd just love to see the responses to this over there. Oh, the fun I'd have reading that thread.

 

I haven't been watching any Raw at all lately except for the Cena vs RVD bout tonight which was a pretty fun one. How's the WWE giving Cena's dissers more reasons to hate him and his fans more reasons to like him?

 

Interestingly tonight, the fans were boing RVD and I'm really not sure why. I don't think they were boing Cena tonight but I could be wrong. I wonder if it has anything to do with the ECW vs WCW feud?

 

 

Cena so has to go wrestle in some kind of "purist" wrestling league and become the top heel there. Pin all his opponents with the five knuckle shuffle.

 

 

* maybe

[goodhelmet]

You should def. post this at smarkschoice.

[Guest Kevin Cook]

Cena's pretty great. He's about the only guy who's figured out how to really work the post-Attitude crowd and take advantage of the fact that they think they know more than they do about the inner workings of the "sport." I'm really impressed by how he's been booked in the big picture, too. They've been feeding him all the stale holdovers from the 90s? Jericho, Angle, Edge, Triple H, Bischoff, Van Dam? and keeping him away from the guys likely to turn out to be his long-term foils, like Orton, and potential big money draws like McMahon, Foley and Batista. That all the guys he's worked have come out looking like a million bucks is down to him, which is really, really impressive, but the booking's been great? he can have long programs with Michaels, Benoit and probably some other guys before even touching the others.

 

More than that, though, he's just a blast to watch, a guy who really gets it, and McMahon deserves all the credit in the world for staying with him through some ugly growing pains and pushing him this hard and this smart. That he's survived it not only without burning out but gathering momentum every week's really impressive. He's not going to be the Rock, but that's the last time I can remember really feeling a guy was becoming a star on weekly TV.

[Guest Luds]

You made some good points there Loss. I still don't really care for his ring ability but he certainly has the charisma and mic skills. I'd keep the title away from him and make the fans really pop for him to get it back while others who can't stand him keep watching as he can't get it back. It certainly is interesting to see Edge and RVD in there. Something fresh.

[Strummer]

I agree with WP. The first thing I thought of after reading this was I wish you could post this at TSM and see their reactions.

 

For proof of how over Cena is, look at last night. The crowd was pretty quiet throughtout the show and Cena had them in the palms of his hands at the end of the night. Fact is he brings emotion and heat to everything he does.

[Loss]

I've seen Cena compared to X-Pac in some cases, which is ridiculous. Fans are invested in Cena, whether they want to see him win or lose. What makes it work is that both sides are given so much ammo all the time.

 

I don't post at TSM, but anyone is welcome to post this as their own or even credit or however you want to do it.

[Resident Evil]

I've seen Cena compared to X-Pac in some cases, which is ridiculous. Fans are invested in Cena, whether they want to see him win or lose. What makes it work is that both sides are given so much ammo all the time.

 

I don't post at TSM, but anyone is welcome to post this as their own or even credit or however you want to do it.

I'll post it than and give credit to you.

[Loss]

Oh my. I just visited that thread. It doesn't matter that Cena has insane heat, because he has a bad hiptoss. And Cena has Jeff Jarrett heat. Funny. Does half the crowd buy Jeff Jarrett merchandise like crazy while the other half pays millions of dollars every month to see him finally lose?

[World's Worst Man]

I never got the Cena hate myself. I realize he's terrible in the ring, but since when do most casual smarks care about wrestling ability? The past problems associated with his character are the responsibility of the WWE writers, as you can hardly blame Cena for how he was booked. As far as I can tell, Cena did as good a job as he could with what he was given. And his character has gotten more interesting since they started actually acknowledging that many people in the audience hate him. So while it's true that the negative heat he gets is "real" heat, he's done an excellent job of integrating it into his character.

[Marty]

Great points, Loss! I'd even throw RVD in there as far as "guys who may be reaching their potential from working with Cena", albeit RVD's had his knees cut off from potential title runs. Still, he has had an unremarkable position until the Cena matches.

 

I think I started realizing how much Cena is The Man right now around WrestleMania. I remember the heat for the Cena-HHH match and I remember JR saying how HHH may be cheered that night because of the traditional crowd (i.e. the anti-Cena crowd). Point being is it was one of the few times that the main focus (arguably) was not on HHH for a match like that. It wasn't "you either cheered Cena or cheered HHH" that night, it was, instead, "you eithered cheered Cena or booed the hell out of Cena, thus cheering HHH". Big difference.

 

The real amazing part is how the news came out about, in that program, how the anti-Cena fans were going to be brought up heavily, and how Cena has a lack of good wrestling ability, and how many online people who don't hate Cena that much feared it would only bury him, especially in a HHH feud. On the contrary, it's been the exact opposite. Credit to Cena, of course, for all the above things already mentioned, but also credit to Vince for maintaining a push that, within the last few years, he might've given up on.

[Guest Kevin Cook]

Cena's not that bad in the ring given his role. Compare him to Warrior, Hogan, Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, Jim Duggan, or any of lots of other comparable babyfaces. If you magically transported Cena back 15 or 20 years he'd blow people away with his athleticism and how hard he works in the ring. Sure, standards have come up since then, but he doesn't deserve to get shit on, really; he puts on dramatic, compelling matches. It's also funny how guys like JBL, Edge, Kurt Angle and Triple H, all of whom I like but none of whom are exactly superworkers, get all the credit whenever Cena has a good match.

 

Anyway, yeah. Cena >>> Bryan Danielson.

[Mad Dog]

It amazes me that people try to bash his ringwork considering smarks have latched onto much worse workers and proclaimed them as great. I actually really like Cena because he pisses people off so much and creates such an irrational reaction from some people.

 

As far as business wise. The WWF hasn't had someone create this kind of reaction since the Rock left. My only concern is that HHH and Michaels are going to go out of their way to bury him over the next couple of months. It was really pathetic seeing Michaels try to upstage Cena on a weekly basis last year.

[Loss]

Something for HHH to keep in mind -- the notion of him turning babyface and being really over and fresh in the role, if not for John Cena, would have been ridiculous. The DX reunion can be credited to John Cena getting HHH more over than he has been in over 5 years.

[Mad Dog]

He'll just chalk it up to him being the greatest ever. I have serious concerns that this summer and fall will be talked about in an infamous manner a decade from now. HHH has been laying low for almost a year and I fear that was to justify what's coming. Heels getting buried and faces getting undercut.

[sek69]

I'd be willing to bet that the offical line will be that feuding with Vince is what led to DX reforming.

[Guest KingPK]

Sheesh, people will just ignore every shred of fact thrown their way if it doesn't jive with their belief, won't they?

 

Hey, I haven't watched a full WWE program in months and don't really care for Cena either way.....but if you can get 8,000+ ECW fans to chant "Fuck you, Cena" and make signs saying they will riot if you win.....you gotta be doing SOMETHING right.

 

I mean, I don't really think people were doing that for X-Pac.

[Guest Bruiser Chong]

When X-Pac came out, the heat was more along of the lines of "Oh god, not this guy." That's not the case with Cena.

 

But I will say I am shocked the TSM crowd has been so blind to the pile of facts that negate their invalid hate of the man. They're typically so open-minded.

[Mad Dog]

It's pretty easy to see what Cena's done. He's reverted a lot of the IWC back into marks. He's playing them like any old school territory heel would play the fans.

[Guest Josh]

Something for HHH to keep in mind -- the notion of him turning babyface and being really over and fresh in the role, if not for John Cena, would have been ridiculous. The DX reunion can be credited to John Cena getting HHH more over than he has been in over 5 years.

C'mon. It's not like John Cena wanted that crowd to turn on him and it was some masterplan to get HHH over as a babyface. John Cena did not get Triple H over. They intentionally had Hunter playing the "cool" heel all during that feud with, looking back, what would seem to be planting the seeds for HHH's babyface turn.

 

The DX reunion is over because it represents an era that people loved and it's the first time that the original two have been properly back together in just over eight years. The build to it, though containing huge logic holes, was also booked really well in the sense of teasing it for so long that people were desperate to see it and since they've actually pulled the trigger, it has been really fun. That's why it and HHH is over. Not because John Cena was tanking as a babyface and apparently got HHH over by proxy. Look at HHH's October return as a babyface, he was over then too. He virtually always will be, too, particularly over these next few years, because he's one of the few people with the aura and reputation of a star.

 

Also, they've wanted HHH to turn babyface for ages now, but he's always been against it and had the power to get it nixed. It's not an idea that suddenly popped up and they decided to run with it.

[Loss]

This is the first time ever that fan response has necessitated a face turn for HHH. I suggest watching the RAW Homecoming again -- really faint babyface heat for HHH. If HHH had gone against Batista, Benoit or pretty much anyone else he's faced in the past few years, he would not have gotten that reaction. It happened for Edge, Angle and Van Dam as well. If Jericho hadn't left, that feud would have revitalized him too.

 

Cena is not tanking. There's no problem to fix because there is no problem.

[Guest Josh]

This is the first time ever that fan response has necessitated a face turn for HHH. I suggest watching the RAW Homecoming again -- really faint babyface heat for HHH. If HHH had gone against Batista, Benoit or pretty much anyone else he's faced in the past few years, he would not have gotten that reaction. It happened for Edge, Angle and Van Dam as well. If Jericho hadn't left, that feud would have revitalized him too.

 

Cena is not tanking. There's no problem to fix because there is no problem.

I remember it well enough, and he got a good reaction upon his entrance and the fans were really into his hot tag. The Cena feud didn't necessitate a babyface turn for him, either, they could've kept going with him as a heel after Cena if they'd wanted to enough or there was another strong face for him to work with, but really, there aren't any left for him to face while he has feuds with Vince, Edge and Orton lined up as a babyface. The feud helped, definitely, but it's not the only reason at all. Batista's a crappy heel, so that's why that wouldn't have worked and they did HHH as a face against Benoit before and it worked fine. But anyway, it's not really a fair comparison because all three feuds happened in different contexts. The Batista feud worked so well because of the story they told and that story wouldn't have worked with the roles reversed. Working with Cena has definitely helped Van Dam, Edge and HHH to varying degrees, but Angle? Not that it's Cena's fault, but that feud is probably the low point of Angle's career over the past fifteen months or so and he's been stalling badly since it ended. Horribly booked and Angle's new character is terrible.

 

I never said Cena is tanking, I said he was. Undeniably so in January and February.

[Guest Kevin Cook]

Cena's run against Edge saw the highest ratings and best house show attendance in something like four years. I'd hazard a guess that if they'd had Cena chase Edge to Wrestlemania it would have outdrawn Batista/HHH. That's not to say they made the wrong call going with HHH, just that Cena wasn't tanking, which is why HHH put him over clean by tapout in the main event of one of the best drawing shows of all time.

[Guest Josh]

Cena's run against Edge saw the highest ratings and best house show attendance in something like four years. I'd hazard a guess that if they'd had Cena chase Edge to Wrestlemania it would have outdrawn Batista/HHH. That's not to say they made the wrong call going with HHH, just that Cena wasn't tanking, which is why HHH put him over clean by tapout in the main event of one of the best drawing shows of all time.

"Tanking" is probably too harsh because like you say, he was still drawing money, but I was really referring to character wise and on TV. Most of those weeks he was coming out and getting absolutely booed out of the building, no matter what they tried. It made for extremely interesting television because it was such a novelty, but I wouldn't really credit Cena for that because they really Forrest Gump'ed their way into it by booking him so badly in late 2005.

 

My entire point, muddled in all of this, is that I think claiming that Cena's ability and talent got Triple H over as a babyface or that HHH owes him this entire run he's having isn't true at all and is giving Cena a ton of credit that he doesn't deserve.

[Guest DylanWaco]

I actually think Cena is a good worker at this point. He's technically weak, because his execution isn't great and alot of his offense looks bizaare, but the guy understands things like the power of a blade job and timing his comebacks better than pretty much anyone the E has now.