MY TAKE ON THIS WHOLE CENA FIASCO

You gotta hand it to to Cena. He's still very professional
even after excessive and blatant jeers toward him.
photo by Hub Pacheco

ProWrestling Driver Seat
by Hub Pacheco

A lot has already been said about John Cena and the fiasco he is in right now. Many are against him because “he sucks” at wrestling. Many (the ladies) are for him because he’s “good-looking.” The IWC has repeatedly grilled Cena for his in-ring incompetence and kid-friendly mic work. I won’t repeat all that have been said. People are tired of reading the same sh*t over and over again. What I’ll do is provide my own insights into the Cena situation and hope that what I say hasn’t already been said.

If you think about it, Cena is a lucky guy. The WWE handed him everything he could’ve asked for. Aside from leading the company as its champion, Cena also had tons of merchandise to his name, reminiscent of Hogan’s early WWE title reign. Cena has a rap album, action figures, t-shirts, and, of course, the custom-made spinner belt. Let’s talk about the last two things, shall we?

The spinner belt is custom-made by WWE to suit Cena’s wrestling persona – the bad-mouthing, tough-talking sumbitch character he HAD that best exemplified today’s hiphop generation. If you recall, the U.S. title he once held was also a spinner belt. Both of Cena’s title belts were custom-made to suit HIS character? WWE must really love him so much that they would build the whole company around his character’s appeal. I can’t remember the last time when a superstar was built up to have both of their titles custom-made to suit their character. One title, yes. But two? I can’t remember. Hogan had his WCW World title sprayed with nWo on it. Not really that custom-made but still. Stone Cold had his skull belt as his custom-made WWF title. But his IC title? Normal. So for Cena to have both of his title belts custom-made for his character is a big honor. Stone Cold and Hogan only had one custom-made title. Cena had two.

Yes, WWE really wanted to package Cena into a combo of Stone Cold Steve Austin (trash-talking, ass-kicking, hates authority) and The Rock (excellent mic work, great audience appeal). Proof of that was the feud Cena had with then-GM Eric Bischoff, an obviously poor imitation of the Austin-Vince feud, and the five-knuckle-shuffle move Cena executes, an imitation of the Rock’s People’s elbow. I’ll not delve into those two points any further since a lot has already been said about those two points.

It would take a while before the WWE would realize that Cena was losing his appeal to the dominant adult male audience. (See previous post by Jeff Ty.) He was becoming too soft for comfort. His promos were too soft for the adult male audience to take in. “I never back down. I never quit” was more kid-friendly. As WWE would want Cena to appeal to. Now, here’s the best part of the whole Cena grilling.

Cena's in-ring abilities are severely put to question nowadays. I, for one, wouldn’t admit it because when he was on SmackDown!, it wasn’t that evident. It was evident when he came to RAW. (Again, see previous post for more on this.) From my point of view, the flak came from Cena’s excessive use of clotheslines. As a comeback move, he would do about three to four clotheslines to his opponent. And to casual fans or smarks, that isn’t really impressive. Solar Entertainment’s WWE forum has a thread there about the viciousness of Cena’s F-U. Some agreed that the F-U targeted the back area, which wasn’t that credible and all. With all due respect to the people there, I really don’t think that’s the point. There are a lot of wrestling finishers that target the back area and it’s still credible enough, like The Rockbottom. I mean, it’s about execution and for me, Cena executes the F-U pretty damn well. The fans can get pretty rough at times. That’s why WWE had Cena employ the STFU (STF actually, but Joey Styles renamed it to, again, suit Cena. Pretty creative on Styles’ part.) submission to gain added in-ring credibility. Yet all this talk about his in-ring abilities can also be attributed to his character’s persona. He is billed as a brawler after all, not a highflyer. So you can’t expect him to do a moonsault on his opponents. If he did, it would contradict his character’s tough guy persona.

Speaking of the fans getting pretty rough, I would like to make a not-too-subtle reference to the crowd at Araneta Coliseum during last month’s RAW LIVE TOUR. I really don’t like those people who start those “Cena Sucks!” chants. I mean, c’mon, I really don’t think that is appropriate. This is addressed to all you Cena-haters during the RAW LIVE TOUR. Yes, you may have all these comments about Cena – that his wrestling abilities sucks and his kid-friendly mic work – but you should keep them all to yourself. Think about it. It has been over a decade since the WWE had a show here. And you DISRESPECT the champion by chanting “you suck?” Again, as Jeff Ty said, if you get in the ring with Cena, who would suck? Yes, it is your right to cheer for anyone you like. It’s a “free” country, after all. But do you want the WWE to have an impression that the Filipino fans are just like the U.S. fans? But fortunately, that’s not entirely true as during the two-day RAW LIVE TOUR, ALL superstars were cheered. But getting back, sure, Cena hasn’t had the RESPECT of the fans but that doesn’t mean that you should DISRESPECT him as well. He, a champion, traveled halfway around the world to perform, to entertain you and you BOO him? Now, that’s very unbecoming of a Filipino. I see the post-colonial mentality of imitation here. And that shouldn’t be the case. We Filipinos have our own character. And for those of you who chanted “Cena sucks” that night, shame on you.

As I’ve said, Cena doesn’t have the respect of the adult male audience. But being a good professional, he didn’t mind all that, at first. But then it got to a point that he ACKNOWLEDGED the jeers. “Some have chosen to ride with me” and “I am not the company’s greatest athlete” still resound in my mind. (Again, see previous post for more on this.) I have to hand it to Cena for taking all the jeers in and being a true professional. That is something all the Cena-haters out there should admire about him.

Given all this, where does Cena go from here? WWE has made it clear that it doesn’t want to turn Cena heel since it would drastically affect the sales of Cena merchandise (kids and ladies mostly). Have Cena drop the title? Been there, done that. Poor Edge. I really hope he gets to be champ again. A solution here is that the WWE could put him up against a proven talent. And who a better proven talent than Triple H?

Cena’s feud with Triple H is a great idea on the part of WWE creative. This should help Cena gain some respect from the fans that overly boo him. (Yes, even you, Ms. Linda Robin :) ) Wrestlemania 22’s main event with The Game and Cena should be a good one, not great, just good. It all depends on how HHH will put Cena over. And I believe that should be the goal of WM22. It is for Cena to gain respect from the fans. It’s a win-win situation for all. If everything goes well, Cena leaves WM22 with the fans’ respect. Triple H leaves as the next Undertaker (someone who puts someone over). It’s not all about the WWE title. This Wrestlemania main event is for respectability.

Well, there you have it. That’s my take on the whole Cena situation. But I feel that I haven’t really made my point since it’s been weeks since I wrote a strong piece. To remedy that, here’s a really great read to solidify my point - http://www.obsessedwithwrestling.com/columns/jt/02.html

I’ll be back next week or days later with my republished thoughts on the Boogeyman character. My thoughts on Wrestlemania 22 will have to wait as I don’t want to be a spoiler for the fans here in Manila. We are two weeks late, after all.