I didn't watch The Bash last night, so I have no firsthand visual evidence of how badly the WWE fucked up all that build they put into the Miz last night against Cena. And as we've learned with Chris Jericho, Booker T, Rey Mysterio and even to an extent CM Punk if you're looking strictly short-term, heat is elastic and can be rebuilt.
However, after reading overwhelming amounts of negative feedback about the match from all corners of the Web, I can't help but imagining that I would have liked anything about the match. From all reports, Miz was absolutely squashed. Five minutes, no real offense.
I think it's time to reexamine a few things. For one, is the WWE really serious about building new stars? Two, is it time to start accusing John Cena of some of the things that the entire Internet has been accusing Triple H of since day one of his massive push in 1999, be it wrongfully or deservedly? Three, why would the company put so much short-term build into a program that ended in a glorified five-minute squash? Four, will this Triple H vs. Randy Orton program ever end? Okay, that doesn't have anything to do with Miz/Cena, but still, is there anyone out there, Triple H fan, Orton fan, fan of both or fan of neither who thinks that this feud isn't stale?
So many questions raised and yet it's mind-numbingly enraging to answer them at worst and disappointing at least if the answers found are what are embodied as our worst fears. This much is true though, whether it's Cena's pull or the WWE's ineptitude at building a program or stars: Cena's pattern of PPV wins and losses follows a disturbing pattern. He wins all the time. Okay, he's a top star for the company, he's gotta win a disproportionate amount of times, right? Well yeah. No one is going to argue that the biggest star and the best draw should be jobbing left and right. That makes no sense whatsoever. Even I, at the height of my hating on the Large Nosed One, would never call for him to lose every time he stepped in the ring. The thing is balance and context.
For a guy like Cena, out of 16 PPV matches a year, three or four matches with him not coming out victorious would provide the proper balance. He wins most of the time, just not all the time. That way, those three or four losses carry some weight and give an aura of specialness to the guy beating him, even if the win is tainted. Cena's PPV losses this year have been in the Elimination Chamber, which was a throwaway match in terms of a feud for Cena, and at Backlash, which was basically the only time that The Big Show was allowed to get over on Cena on PPV the entire feud they've been having.
Yet the announcers still beat it into our skulls that Cena has to "beat the odds" whenever he steps into the ring during a feud. Really? Cena, beating the odds when he doesn't even come close to losing a PPV match, when he always comes out on top... it gets pretty insulting to even the dullest wrestling fan's intelligence after awhile. Kinda like how when Triple H was able to curb his bloodlust to keep his title AND avenge his wife at WrestleMania, only to have Michael Cole shriek in our ears a few weeks later that Trips could finally get his revenge on Orton at Backlash... lolwut?
Yeah, I did say that Cena should have gone over Miz at the Bash before, but notice that they didn't do nearly what I was also calling for, and Miz came into the match cold since Cena and Trips eliminated him quite easily at the three-hour RAW. I thought Miz should have gone over with shenanigans setting up a return match at a later PPV, possibly SummerSlam, where Cena won clean after a hard fought match. Other people were saying that all Cena had to do was make Miz look credible. He didn't even do that.
You could say that there's a precedent with Hulk Hogan winning all the time, but there are differences between Hogan and Cena. One is that Hogan drew way more money than Cena has to date and probably ever will. Yes, drawing money isn't an excuse for shenanigans backstage, and Hogan is rightly raked over the coals for his indiscretions. Still though, while RAW drew record ratings last week, Cena wasn't the reason. Was it Trump as the WWE hoped? Maybe. Was it Triple H/Orton in a PPV quality match? Could be. Was it the fact that there were no commercials, which is what Meltzer/Alvarez and ultimately, myself believe? Maybe. However, Cena, who wasn't advertised in conjunction with the show, was more an afterthought and a "treat" for the viewing audience. It could also be argued that Jeff Hardy has surpassed him as the most lucrative draw.
Two, Hogan made people look like a million bucks in the ring. He sold, almost to the point of overselling, for guys clearly below him in the pecking order like Earthquake, Curt Hennig and even The Genius. Yes, Cena does this for Show. He does this for Edge. He even did so for Rey Mysterio at No Way Out. So... why couldn't he do this for Miz? Even if he went over clean, how about at least looking like he was going to get beaten?
I know that the kiddies want to see John Cena win all the time, but sometimes, you just can't give them what they want all the time without keeping the people who give them the money to purchase their tickets and merch interested. A good businessman gives the crowd what it wants to see. A great businessman leaves you wanting more. If you go home satisfied all the time, with no cliffhangers at all, then you get complacent.
Again, I'm not saying Cena should lose all the time. He just needs to drop enough PPV mains in order to keep people guessing as to who's going to win a match with him involved instead of perhaps changing the channel until another segment's on RAW or... not ordering a PPV out of fear that it'll be the same ol' same ol'. Other people need to look strong too. Miz right now is a wrestler in need of some credibility. He's a gifted heat magnet and he's outlandishly underrated in the ring. Most people peg John Morrison as the better worker from the team. I beg to differ, and I don't even think it's close. All of that doesn't matter if he's not booked to look good.
Besides, if you keep putting something off just because it's possible to rectify later doesn't mean that you should do it. This weekend should have been a stern reminder with two very famous celebrities dying unexpectedly. In a business like wrestling, where a drug overdose can take a life or a botched move injuring a body part, you don't put off today for tomorrow. All it takes is for a minor slip for Miz to blow out a knee, and then boom, you have a guy who just got chumped by Cena is now limping off to the sunset. Then, you have to do more work to get him over than if you did what you were supposed to do now.
But I guess as long as the kiddies keep coming in, Vince McMahon is happy then, right? Well, when the kids start to get bored with wrestling and with the parents finding nothing engaging about the product, the numbers they have right now won't last, and then what will he do?
Hopefully, it never has to come to that.
Banner by K. Sawyer Paul
