Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Rock/Cena Dynamic

It's not a traditional matchup
Photo Credit: WWE.com
To most observers right now, WWE is trying so hard to keep John Cena from getting booed out of Sun Life Stadium against The Rock at WrestleMania. Ever since the Royal Rumble, they have been showing videos of him making wishes come true, chilling with healthier fans, helping out the next generation of WWE Superstars down in FCW. This past week on RAW, he came out with a fiery screed against The Rock for being the guy who left the fans behind, as a liar and as an out-of-touch movie star, not a pro wrestler. Despite all of this, Cena has failed to win over enough fans to make his reactions seem in line with how he seems to be portrayed in the company, as its top hero. (excepting when he acts the worst, i.e. dumping Eve Torres)

Instead, many of the vocal fans continue to support The Rock, even though he lied when he said he'd "never leave", even if he's only there for a handful of shows out of the year. People try to rack their brains coming up with an answer for why, but it's quite clear. In WWE, babyface and heel roles are no longer defined by how good or bad a character is. Cool characters, no matter what they do, are faces. Uncool ones are heels. Who is a cooler character to the typical wrestling fan right now than The Rock? CM Punk maybe, possibly Sheamus, but the answer certainly isn't John Cena, again, unless he's doing something "cool" like dumping on Eve Torres. (again, I don't condone it, but there are a lot of people out there who think that kind of thing is cool)

While some see this as WWE trying and failing to make Cena the guy who gets cheered out of all this, I see it as the company just throwing all its cards into making the Cena character as fully-fleshed out as possible in its current incarnation. He's the guy who stayed, and that contrast against the movie star is more important than worrying who the one who gets to nominally be called "the babyface" is. If that character gets booed out of the building? Then so be it. At least people are reacting to him. I think WWE sees this, and it's not a mistake that Cena's tone has gotten more and more homespun, authentic, charitable and kid-friendly than Rock's almost insular counterpart videos. They each reinforce the image of coolness in the fans' heads. Cena is trying too hard to get people to like him, and no matter what, he comes off as lame. Rocky doesn't need anyone to tell him he's cool, so his videos can be about his family or just showing him filming on the set of his next movie. They each inform the roles the specific characters are going to play in Miami.

That all being said, the crowd reactions are hardly ever all uniform for either guy. It just happens that the ones who cheer Rocky and boo Cena are able to get to a louder, more defined tone than the ones who do the inverse. So, either WWE is engendering a mixed crowd for this like it's some kind of sporting event, or they're going with it and allowing John Cena to be the heel he always has been.

Yes, the heel he's always been... it's been said before by people who are much smarter people than I that if John Cena were to "turn heel" in the traditional metric that he would pretty much ensure that he'd be cheered unanimously. Again, we got a preview of that Monday when he basically slut-shamed Eve Torres for trying to kiss him (KISS, not fuck, KISS). Fans ate that up, and we can all agree that that was a dickhead move to do. By embracing the old school ideals of hustle, loyalty and respect at all other times, Cena is the bad guy to people who feel that the most heinous crime one can commit is being uncool. While some might see this as a failed attempt to get John Cena in the fans' good graces, I see it as great character development and very much a situation where the crowd is played perfectly. WWE doesn't want people to cheer Cena. They just want people to react. For better or worse, people are going to react to John Cena on Monday, in Miami and as long as he's around, really. In other words, everything's going according to plan.