The Collapse Of John Cena

Guest poster David has something he would like to say...

When John Cena growled the WWE's newest (and very briefly used) catch phase "Ruthless Aggression" and delivered a sucker punch to the jaw of Kurt Angle he set the tone for his entire career. Cena had all the potential in the world. He combined good looks; perhaps the most impressive physique in the WWE and as fans learned later a quick wit and cleverness that would set him apart from the other young talent. Most importantly though was the fact that he was able to connect with the fans. Sure he got cheap pops by wearing the local teams' jerseys. Sure his gimmick seemed a bit dated and Vanilla Icy. Still, the fans loved his cocky style, rugged physical and hyper aggressive matches. Cena was also willing to do the J-O-B as well as risk his body in a match. It seemed like the sky was the limit and so it was… for a while.

My first real inkling that something might be seriously wrong with John Cena was during a rather unmemorable match with Kenzo Suzuki. The match was to start with a rap competition which Cena naturally dominated. Kenzo was at a serious disadvantage having limited skills in the English language but he remained blissfully ignorant, smiling happily throughout despite the fact that his "rap" was by and large incomprehensible. Cena's rap on the other hand was a very comprehensible jingoistic tirade that bordered on racist. After verbally abusing Suzuki, Cena went on to absolutely destroy his smaller opponent and ended any momentum Suzuki may have had going for him. Mind you, Cena was supposed to be the face in the match. Relying on nationalism and anger towards foreigners has unfortunately always been a staple of the WWE in to generate a cheap pop but Cena seemed to take such pleasure in humiliating the Japanese newcomer that it really left me wondering where John Cena the man ended and John Cena the character began.

Another telling moment for me was a segment he did with JBL. JBL had done a miraculous job at reinventing himself in a short period of time. He managed to go from a flabby cowboy named Justin Hawk Bradshaw to a flabby, beer drinking redneck as a member of the inexplicably named tag team "The Acolytes" (ok, the reason they were called The Acolytes was because they briefly served the Undertaker but after years of being done with the angle it made no sense). Anyway, John Bradshaw Layfield was still flabby but he now had a coherent character and some newly discovered mic skills. In fact I would have to say that his mic skills were some of the best in the company so one might expect some good fireworks when Cena, the face, ran a segment in the ring with JBL, the heel. Unfortunately, Cena seemed less like a face and more like a bully as he ruined JBL's suit and cut his tie. Cena barely allowed JBL to talk and looked like a man in need of some tranquilizers. As a lead-up for their PPV match JBL was left looking weak and confused.

From then on Cena's segments degraded badly as did his matches. Cena seemed to resemble a man suffering from a serious case of roid rage. His matches were squashes and as if that weren't bad enough he took to using a weapon in the ring because having an overpowering physique just wasn't enough thus the 'Chain Gang' was born.

Thanks to last years lottery Cena headed off to RAW which for me that was the end because at the time I wasn't watching the Monday night program. Personally I was thrilled to see him gone. As much as I despised seeing Cena on TV I was shocked months later to find out that he was getting booed. There are very few wrestlers who seek the fans adulation more than John Cena and few wrestlers have his potential. Wrestling fans have embraced stiffs like Goldberg and The Ultimate Warrior so it was astounding that such a pandering monster could fall out of favor with fans who generally abided by the heel/face scripting set before them. Fans don't just hate the John Cena character, they hate John Cena. I guess the cockiness and the rapping and the squash matches just grew too tiresome to take. Kudos to the fans for showing some independent thinking.

Comments can be sent to wrestleblogger@yahoo.com