1. and TWB's Wrestler of the Decade - John Cena
He debuted for the WWE with a bang, challenging Kurt Angle and then Brock Lesnar in short order. He was given a white rapper gimmick that he took and ran with, generating off-the-charts heat as one of the most over mid-card heels in the company's history. He turned face and then proceeded to be pushed to the top of the card, where he currently resides. He's co-headlined five WrestleManias in a row, and I'm not the only person who thinks he's the best wrestler in the company and one of the top wrestlers in the world.
A lot of praise for a guy who's taken his share of lumps, both from the Internet and the non-dork crowd, eh?
In reality, John Cena deserves all the praise he gets. Well most of it anyway. I'll preface this entry by saying that there are a decent amount of times that he gets booked into a corner and they write him to come out like Superman, which is annoying to most fans over the age of 15. His finisher kinda sucks too. Be that as it may, those are both minor offenses. The booking is something that I feel like he has not a whole lot of creative control over. The finisher... that's "WWE safety" coming into play for you. We'd all love to see an honest-to-God Death Valley Driver, but it just ain't happening. Again, minor offenses for a guy who pretty much has defined wrestling this decade.
I said yesterday that Chris Jericho is a wrestler's wrestler. Cena has elements of that, but on top of that has shown bona fide superstar power and is probably the only guy in the company right now who carries himself the way that The Rock and Hulk Hogan used to. He connects with fans in a way that no other guy in history has, and I don't mean that generically. Cena is the only guy I've ever seen who can get a crowd to cheer and boo him at the same time. The best part about Cena is that he gets the joke. When a crowd turns on him, be it in London or Boston or Toronto or even West Podunk, he'll start playing the heel and letting the other guy get the face spots. The guy is savvy.
Speaking of being in the ring, there really isn't anyone in the company who has a grasp of the WWE's main event style like Cena does. The proof is in the number of classic matches he's had against opponents as diverse as they come, from gifted all-timers like Shawn Michaels to slugs like Chris Masters, on stages as big as WrestleMania against Triple H to the smallest of the small on Velocity against then-jobber Bryan Danielson. I have never seen a John Cena match that I didn't like. For a guy of his exposure and of his sheer size, that's huge. Then, when you factor in the amount of jaw-dropping spots he puts into his matches because he's so strong and agile at the same time. I mean, you're always going to be entertained unless you have a problem with him only doing five moves and think that equates to being a shitty wrestler.
He also is one of the great backstage guys as well. You hear interviews all the time where former WWE wrestlers start making cryptic comments about Triple H or JBL, but Cena is almost universally praised. This is why I'm so hesitant to lay any of the deficencies with how Cena is booked at his feet. A guy who played politics would have had someone, at least one person, come out and accuse him of it. Yet, everyone puts him over, even if they really had no obligation to do so because McMahon wanted his cash cow to appear infallible in all aspects of the game.
Cena, right now, is the closest thing to a total package we have in wrestling. Sure, he's going to be hated in some circles, but regardless, he always gets a strong reaction. I don't have numbers in front of me, but he's got to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest draw for the company in the decade (I'd say it's either him or Triple H). And he's probably the best in-ring worker. Cena has the chance to become an all-timer, and I think that while he may be unappreciated by some, he certainly isn't going unnoticed by any.
The Final List
1. John Cena
2. Chris Jericho
3. Triple H
4. The Undertaker
5. Kurt Angle
6. Edge
7. Eddie Guerrero
8. Dave Batista
9. Booker T
10. Randy Orton
11. Shawn Michaels
12. CM Punk
13. Jeff Hardy
14. The Rock
15. Bryan Danielson
16. Brock Lesnar
17. Jeff Jarrett
18. Rey Mysterio, Jr.
19. "Lightning" Mike Quackenbush
20. Chris Benoit
21. Samoa Joe
22. The Big Show
23. Sting
24. Rob Van Dam
25. Ric Flair
