John Cena gets good treatment around here. I don't bag him for his character all that often, and his in-ring gets praised on a regular basis. TWB has been somewhat of an oasis in a desert of Cena bashing from the IWC at large. Still, it's not like he's Chris Jericho. There are criticisms that I have, but they didn't really manifest themselves much around here at all.Until last night.
Let's flash back to last year, back to Cena's feud with The Big Show and had his mini-"feud" with The Miz. Here's what I wrote then:
I know that they're booking for the kids now, and the kids want to see John Cena win all the time, but you know what? They're going to get bored if there's no tension or doubt about the result. If Cena always wins, why should they watch? As an adult, if John Cena wins all the time, why should I order a PPV where he's headlining? You tread a line where you stand to ruin all of Cena's drawing power and the potential drawing power of anyone else thrown in his maw like chum to a shark, and at times like this, I don't think the WWE should really be trying to ruin a potential draw.Since then, the perception is that Cena was doing a little bit better. I mean, he was losing to Sheamus, right? He was taking beatdowns from Nexus. Well, not exactly. When did John Cena lay down for Sheamus? Once, when the Nexus destroyed him and Sheamus picked the bones. When did Cena lay down for Randy Orton? At SummerSlam last year after a million match restarts. When did Cena lay down for Big Show, Chris Jericho or Edge? Not for a long time. Hell, his feud with Batista was predicated on Cena beating him at every PPV excepting Elimination Chamber, where Batista again picked the bones.
So last night, there was yet another opportunity for the WWE have Cena lay down for someone, or at the very least have Wade Barrett and Justin Gabriel make Cena earn his come-from-behind win. Instead, they had Cena eat a DDT on the concrete from Edge and Jericho, get set up for the 450 and then Hulk up like his name was Terry Bollea, blocking the 450, emphatically pinning Gabriel and then seamlessly locking Barrett into the STF for the quick tap out. Again, Cena rips off his shirt, reveals the S on his chest and just destroys the remaining Nexus threats.
It's getting old, very old. A1 poster and blog commenter KoppoKick said it best last night that we were so wanting for Cena to put someone over strong that we were rooting for a gang of rookies, a lot of whom suck, to do the trick last night. Instead they just did a job.
And that's where we stand with John Cena. A guy who wins all the time in a sport/entertainment medium where guys who win all the time are boring or get boring pretty quick (still loling at Eric Bischoff calling Bill Goldberg a draw on the level of The Rock over here). I have praised the WWE's creative staff in the last couple of months for building some good angles, but this proves at heart that they're still bad entertainment writers, guys who are used to putting the good guys over all the time, and not wrestling bookers, who know that the bad guys HAVE TO WIN sometimes.
I'm gonna lay some real talk on you here too. If Triple H were in this spot and not John Cena, we'd be all ravenous and calling for his head. In fact, there was a time when this was Triple H, and that's why he's so hated at worst and polarizing as fuck at the very least. Cena gets defenders because he's not marrying into the McMahon family, he's not reported to be politicking backstage from the dirtsheets like Trips has been. However, what we see on-screen is at the very least repugnant to viewers such as myself, and trust me, although we're not as big as the kiddies, we're sizeable enough that we should be courted.
I don't want to accuse Cena of tomfoolery, but the results are just annoying at this point. I'm not 6 years old anymore. I want my heroes to be vulnerable. Even if I were of that age, well, I should be conditioned to believe that the good guys don't win all the time, but when they do, it's a special event. Intrigue, tension and compelling the audience is what turns youngster fans into lifelong ones. It's all about building the audience and the WWE seems like it doesn't have an idea how to do that re: Cena or really, any top face they've had since Hogan.
I know Cena is the closest thing they have to a guaranteed bank right now, but a successful company can't rely on just one star, especially one who gets hurt or gets called on to star in movies every once in awhile. They need to take the next step in building these stars that they've started on building. Despite my unhappiness at how Nexus was booked last night, I give the WWE props for putting Nexus in that spot and booking them strongly. It was great that they actually made Danielson's return to the WWE an event and protected the shit out of him. Promoting Miz and Sheamus to the main event or cusp of the main event has been a brilliant move so far. Jack SWAGGAH~! on Smackdown has been good even if his push hasn't really even begun in earnest yet.
However, how am I to expect them to take the next step and truly become main eventers if the crowds are always going to expect them to lose to John Cena? The cycle has to be broken now. That means Sheamus or Chris Jericho need to get a decisive pinfall victory over him. One clean loss every few months will not hurt him at all. It will do wonders for the other RAW wrestlers though. The WWE is in jeopardy of throwing away the goodwill it has earned in the last few years in this mini-wrestling renaissance. Hopefully, they course correct and stop making the same mistakes with Cena that they did with Triple H in the past.
Photo Credit: Online World of Wrestling
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