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Reviews Wrestling / John Cena

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SalvyMic Taking a level in badass Since: Dec, 2009
Taking a level in badass
11/21/2014 20:36:11 •••

A Heel Turn is Better For Business in the Long Run

John Cena has potential to be absolutely amazing as the top heel in the company, if only for a little while. He has a gift of drawing just about whatever type of heat he wants at will, and quite frankly, a Cena heel turn is about the only way the WWE can make the biggest match they can make, which is Cena-Undertaker at Wrestlemania, with Taker bringing his undefeated Wrestlemania streak into the match. Cena wouldn't even need to remain a heel for that long, and it would only be a matter of time before the crowd begins to turn him face anyway. And with a solid top heel run behind him, it would only make his ensuing face run that much hotter.

MasterDon Since: Dec, 1969
12/28/2010 00:00:00

This is not actually a review for John Cena the wrestler.

Bastard1 Since: Nov, 2010
07/26/2014 00:00:00

Is there such a thing as "John Cena the wrestler"?

novanious Since: Feb, 2013
08/01/2014 00:00:00

Problem there, bucko: 1. At this point, heel Cena is literally the worst idea for business, in both the short and long runs. Cena is the driving force for merchandise sales. He's the literal poster boy for the WWE, and with good reason. He constantly helps out the Make-A-Wish foundation, and is the hero for many-a kids in their bedrooms watching Smackdown just to see him kick the latest heel's rear end. Older fans may not like it, but they aren't the focus anymore, as proven by the switch to PG and the characters becoming more pronounced. If Cena went heel, especially when Vinnie Mac and WWE lost so much money because of how bad the Network is doing, the company would literally die by the end of August. There's no exaggeration. Kids wouldn't beg their parents to go to the local house show to see Cena anymore, Smarks would still find things to complain about and wouldn't watch any more than they do now. This point still stood when this review came out, late 2013, and everybody clamouring for Cena to go heel is only thinking about themselves, and not the business.

IndirectActiveTransport Since: Nov, 2010
11/20/2014 00:00:00

WWE, the company that used to be worth a billion dollars and is now barely worth a quarter of? They have done better. Fact is, WWE needs to change something, anything, even if it isn't turning John Cena heel, a ship long sailed that should have been jumped on in 2006, in my opinion. But they aren't going to make any drastic changes. Remember when Linda Mc Mahon ran for Senate and everyone pointed out how much money her company lost and continued to lose while UFC slice and diced its pay per view sales? She said WWE needed a new star to turn them around. WWE has never had it, they got lucky when The Rock and Stone Cold both showed up when they needed it against WCW. And even then, they started out with those stupid Rocky Maivia and Serial Killer gimmicks before they basically got on the microphone and said to hell with that, which they were only allowed to get away with because WWE was happy for any kind of positive response when WCW was killing them. No WCW? Curtis Axel reigns! Its almost exactly the same gimmick as Rocky Maivia. What's that, arena's cheering for "Daniel Bryan", yeah, keep that up for four years and maybe you'll be catered to.

Turn Cena heel, drop the PG rating? None of that's going to solve anything, not only because WWE isn't going to do it but because WWE's highest period in recent memory was just stealing from ECW and letting a few entertaining, talented people do what came naturally. The best thing for the wrestling business of North America is another company or two knocking sense back into WWE. John Cena's damaged goods, it's time his haters found another wrestling company to support and left WWE to its fate. There are many wrestling promotions, catering to all sorts of tastes and preferences. None are going to grow to sufficient size simply by siphoning fans off WWE, new fan bases will also have to be created, but some WWE "fans" will at least be a start. If you still like WWE, by all means keep watching but just realize somethings are never going to happen without them getting a little push from someone else.

They're own base's reactions to John Cena should have been enough to make anyone consider change. The fact people buy "Cena sucks" shirts and cheer when he actually loses, rather than turn their backs to the ring (Bo Dallas) or leave for the bathroom (X-pac) shows he had capacity to be a heel but as said, WWE isn't going to change. They've lost their sense for promoting pro wrestling. Someone else is going to have to show them again.

That's why he wants you to have the money. Not so you can buy 14 Cadillacs but so you can help build up the wastes
Tomwithnonumbers Since: Dec, 2010
11/20/2014 00:00:00

But them buying the shirts and cheering when he loses, suggests he already is doing the heel job right? In at least a meta-sense. With good writing (in the WWE lol) you could easily spin it so that he plays the same straight-faced angel who gets on well with the kid crowd, but at the same time set up matches against other faces so that the internet crowd can cheer for the other guy. Cena as he is now means that the internet gets stoked for when Daniel Bryan beats Cena in matches, and the kids are stoked for when he beats who ever the random heel is.

But if he turned heel the internet crowd would probably stop buying Cena Sucks shirts because it's not counter-culture anymore. Sure they'd be excited for five minutes, but they'd stop caring again immediately afterwards and all that would have happened is the kid crowd was endangered.

TBH, the way the WWE handles heels in general is just really boring (excepting Seth Rollins <3). It feels like basically every heel-face match, the heel only wins by cheating. It's cool to have a bad guy who actually feels like a real challenge (and squash matches don't fix that).

IndirectActiveTransport Since: Nov, 2010
11/21/2014 00:00:00

I did mention I thought that the time to turn him was 2006 and by now it would be too late to bother right? Maybe not in those exact words, point was John Cena hasn't generated a boom in WWE's business and I doubt anyone they contract ever will until rest of those in the business get it together and force WWE to reinvigorate itself. The last three decades have proven WWE don't have the savvy to do it themselves, no matter who they contract.

It's probably going to be a long wait too. Its not like Capitol broke away from the NWA and immediately became a national powerhouse. There were years, decades, generations, of careful work and steady growth taking place. Too many of the other promotions try to get a quick fix through endorsements and it doesn't work. If this seems to be going off the topic of John Cena, that's the point. He's not that important. I wouldn't even be responding but I'm getting sick of people kissing his ass. I used to defend him, I still like him, but after seven years of John Cena getting dumped on and WWE hardly being better than it was in 2005 when they started their repetitive John Cena push, there really doesn't even seem to be any point to sticking to the subject. He's the damaged goods of a stagnant promotion in an industry that is still trying to recover from its criminality catching up with it and he really gets too much attention.

Even if WWE really needed John Cena, he doesn't need them. He's rich enough to be set for life, baring some disaster. Even then, there are other national promotions who would hire him, provided he could swallow his pride, learn a new language, accept less international spotlight and work a lower card position (not everyone could but some still found other industries to work in). If John Cena really is so vital to WWE's continued existence, WWE could very well be gone in five years but CMLL, New Japan and many, many others survived worse.

That's why he wants you to have the money. Not so you can buy 14 Cadillacs but so you can help build up the wastes

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