Before I went to sleep last night, I decided to tune and watch the final segment of Raw to see what the WWE would do with John Cena. Surprisingly, I found myself enjoying the end of the show.
True, Cena’s promo was over-the-top face material, but it wasn’t as bad as people are making it out to be. In fact, I thought it had something that we see very little of in the WWE-passion. Whether or not you like what they guy is saying, he cut a good face promo. Just ACCEPT it.
The post-match beat down was also entertaining. Jericho calls Cena a bunch of names, provokes him, and Cena attacks. Jericho played the heel role to perfection, and Cena showed a real fire with that beatdown. I honestly thought it was a great performance. In fact, I thought I might come on the blog this morning and see some of you guys praising Cena for a good job last night. I was totally surprised when I didn’t.
Face it–last night’s post-promo ass-kicking by Cena made sense within the storylines of each character. Why can’t a face beat down a heel after the heel calls him a “worm” and several other names? Is there a wrestling rulebook that has to be followed at all times by the bookers? If that were the case, there would be no point in watching, because you’d already know what was going to happen.
I thought perhaps we’d see the same old stuff. You know, Jericho attacking Cena from behind, perhaps even with help from another heel like JBL. But instead, WWE switched it up, and we got something new.
I really don’t see last night’s events “taking away” from the upcoming Cena/Jericho match since we already know that Cena can “beat” Jericho in a one-on-one match-up. In case you guys haven’t noticed, Chris Jericho’s playing the sneaky heel–he’s not booked to be the kind of wrestler that would just go in and beat Cena one-on-one. He relies on dirty tricks. So Cena facing up to him and handling him in a brawl situation is totally within the context of each guy.
Bottom line–I want everybody to do something for a second. Take a step back from your pre-programmed, IWC John Cena-hating ways and look objectively at the conclusion to last night’s Raw. Was it really that bad?
Or would you rather see more Batista/Jericho stuff? At this point, I’ll take Cena over Batista. At least Cena has a personality, even if he is lame at times.
What about C.M. Punk? He had a title run earlier this year, and I don’t recall him showing much personality during that run, either. In fact, I thought he was surprisingly boring, although part of that is not his fault since the WWE has neutered his wrestling-style. The CM Punk we see in the WWE is not the same one we saw in Ring of Honor.
OK. So any other faces on Raw? HBK? Well, we’ve seen HBK/Jericho about 1,000 times now, so I’ll avoid that, too.
The only other main event-level face on Raw right now is Rey Mysterio, and while he’s obviously a more spectacular wrestler than Cena, he’s just as kid-friendly. In fact, the way I see it, the only two options right now for a title feud on the face side are Mysterio and Cena.
Kofi Kingston and (I guess) Kennedy are the only other two faces on Raw who could even remotely scratch main event level, and neither of them appear to be ready. Cena’s basically the only option to feud with these guys right now.
Cena’s wrestling skills aren’t the greatest, but he’s not terrible. He’s had some fantastic matches in the past with a range of wrestlers, so I’m not even going to complain about his wrestling considering the WWE’s standards. He has improved by leaps and bounds. He works hard, he’s good to the fans, and like or not, the ratings were better when he was champion.
Don’t think I’m Cena’s Number one fan now, because I’m not. I’m simply pointing out reality. In fact, I don’t think Cena can save this show–it’s gone to shit in the past year. At least if Raw were off-the-wall ala some of the past TNA Impact shows I could be entertainined by laughing at it. Unfortunately, the show has become brutally boring because it’s the same old stuff OVER and OVER again. As enetertaining as I thought last night’s closing segment was, they’ll probably screw this up down the line by doing the same things they’ve already done with Cena. Many of you are right–he should turn heel.
My bottom line here, though, is this: John Cena is not that bad. There’s better and there’s worse. But right now, for Raw, there’s no better option on the face side.
If you don’t like it, do yourself a favor and watch Smackdown, ECW or Impact! Hell, go watch an ROH DVD, because if you hate John Cena that much, you probably aren’t going to need to pay for cable to watch Raw for a long while.
November 25th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Let me begin by saying that I try to watch every wrestling show without that IWC pre-programmed mentality you were talking about. I even mentioned on the Raw discussion that I was beginning to tolerate Cena before he got injuried again.
But I have to disagree with you, that closing segment last night was terrible. His “good face promo” was the same crap hes said in every single promo he’s done for the past 3 and a half years. It starts becoming less effective after the 100th time. And the beatdown; Cena had Jericho in and tapping to the STFU in about 2 minutes. Why then, did their title match at Survivor Series last 21 minutes?
November 25th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
the issue though is not that cena is terrible. i think hes usually very overratted when being defended, but i will say he’s a good talker and an ok wrestler who can put on a really great match in the right situation. the issue i have with him is all in the gimmick. even if the booking is right and the promo is good, he’s just so damn boring because hes been doing the same thing for four years. it’s always the same promo, the same dumb moves. i think many of us have simply soured on the character so we cant enjoy him even if we give him a chance every once in a while. it’s like, hes a fine talent, he’s capable of being very entertaining, but change something to get there. but they just wont.
November 25th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
FUCK CENA
November 25th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
OK, so Jericho comes out and talks down to the fans constantly; as the main face on Raw, what is Cena supposed to say?
This Jericho-Cena stuff is actually pretty straightforward–it’s pretty much what heels and faces have been doing in pro wrestling for forty or fifty years. Heel comes out and run downs the crowd; face comes out and rallies behind them. If that’s something that doesn’t work any more, don’t blame Cena.
The point here is blame the Raw BOOKERS and Vince McMahon, not John Cena, as Kanadian rightly points out.
November 25th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
I agree that most of the blame falls on the bookers, but at the end of the day, it is Cena who is going out there delivering the promo in a cheesey way. What I don’t agree with is that you called it a good face promo and it really wasn’t anything special.
A good face promo was Shawn Michaels calling out Jericho for hitting his wife. Personal issues like this have also been used for years and years in wrestling but Michaels was able to make it work, even after we have heard it a bunch of times before.
November 26th, 2008 at 12:45 am
from what ive read the end of raw to me makes sense and lex gets it right, its a common wrestling practice, and fits jericho’s and cena’s characters.
just to expand on what i was saying before and how it should be interpreted: it is probably mostly the bookers fault i hate cena, but whatever the reason, i hate cena. its the same thing with say, edge; there is probably a great deal of bookers’ input in edge’s character (although probably less than cena’s because history has shown when the wrestler puts more of himself into the character it is better) which makes me love edge, but whatever the reason, i love edge. both my love for edge and my hate for cena can be changed.
what i meant to say but instead rambled on for a little bit, is that im going to say ‘cena sucks’, and ‘i hate cena’, because i hate him, no matter who’s fault it is. the rationalization of ‘blame the bookers not the wrestlers’ is silly because then we’d never talk about the wrestlers.
i am under the impression what im writing is not going to make any real sense, but hopefully some shread of my intended point gets across. sorry pwbites im very tired.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:51 am
LEX, dont you dare compare Cena to punk
Cena got a title shot and one on his 1st night back, while CM Punk couldnt beat anyone without a DQ(except for JBL)
You cant compare the two
CM Punk could be a great heel(see ROH)
I like Cena,the guy, but the shitty promos are not interesting to me because he thinks he is funny/cool and he isnt
plain and simple, FUCK CENA(the “marine(what a joke?)” character)
November 26th, 2008 at 1:52 am
Kanadian, Amen
November 26th, 2008 at 3:02 am
I personally think the reason for all the anti-cen hate in the blogging world is pre-dominantly down to the SUPER CENA mentality. Yes he looked vulnerable in places against jericho, selling the neck injury, but bar that he never seems to get run down or groggy. I would love to see jericho put on a similar beating to cena as he did to Michaels: I don’t think i can remember the last time that cena bladed, or was left completely out-cold in the middle of the ring but that’s probably so the kid audience he draws in doesn’t go crying off and never watch the show again. that this guy isn’t as untouchable as the booking makes him out to be.
The side that maybe he doesn’t get enough credit for his love for the company. I wouldn’t be surprised if backstage he spouted exactly the same stuff he does in the ring. Maybe this is why cena has drawn favour backstage as well as with the audience. At least he hasn’t screwed the boss’s daughter to be where he is today!
November 26th, 2008 at 6:53 am
I’d say that the problem started with Cena getting a title shot at his return and winning the title. It kinda feels like when Cena was Champ the last time, right were it left off. Though Cena winning the Rumble was awesome, so i have to agree that the booking can make or break Cena.
November 26th, 2008 at 6:57 am
Very well said, Lex. I agree 100%.
November 26th, 2008 at 8:01 am
Lex, that’s a joke right? That was one of the worst RAW segments I’v ever seen, and it made absolutely zero sense. None. As somebody pointed out at the time, that’s just what you want to do, have the champ totally squash the bonafide #1 contender. Squash him and destroy him. Why would Jericho ever stand a chance after a beat down like this?
What they should have done? Halfway through the beating heel Stephanie coms down to ringside and tells Cena to stop. He refuses. She tried to physically stop him and he turns and hits her by mistake. She strips him of the title. Now that would have been a RAW main event. As it was it was horseshit, and I’m bored of Cena 1 day into his title run.
BTW, did anyone else notice that Michael Cole apparently doesn’t know what a sycophant is?
November 26th, 2008 at 9:50 am
JSN,
Punk could be a good heel, but they can’t afford to turn him. Look the Raw roster–it’s pretty heavy on the heels. They’ve already had the draft, so I’m assuming they are going to have to turn one of those heels face on down the line.
And why not compare Punk to Cena? They are both faces on the Raw brand at the main event level. I like CM Punk as a wrestler, but in the WWE Universe, he’s not allowed to use his full arsenal for some reason. As I said above, his wrestling style has been neutered. I can’t really point to one CM Punk singles match that has stood out so far to me since he’s been in the WWE. Granted, that’s not his fault if he’s not allowed to wrestle like he can, but that’s just the way it is. Punk has not stood out during his time in the WWE.
November 26th, 2008 at 9:51 am
d-love,
I agree with you that it would be nice to see Jericho take down Cena next week. Still, he’d have to do it in a heelish way–he’s not going to be able to just come in face-to-face with him and beat him up. Powder to the eyes, brass knucks, another heel helping him do it…something like that would be really effective.
November 26th, 2008 at 9:57 am
DK,
I disagree. It totally made sense with the characters they are playing. Jericho comes out and insults people, usually from afar. But now he has the guts to do it right in front of a tough-guy face, and the tough-guy kicks his butt. What’s not logical about that? It doesn’t mean that Jericho can’t still steal a victory in the title match that’s three weeks away…in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they booked Jericho to win and set up a big match on Raw for the Title again. Cena wrestling for the title on Raw, like it or not, equals ratings.
November 26th, 2008 at 9:58 am
By the way, to prove my point about Cena improving ratings, here’s a snippet from PW Torch today:
After that kind of ratings boost, you’re going to see more of Cena, just like I said.
November 26th, 2008 at 10:08 am
I’d love to see a Cena heel turn down the road. Like if he just snaps after losing the title and repeatedly failing to regain it… However in his promo on RAW he reiterated that he doesn’t wrestle for titles, he wrestles for the fans, so I guess he could just turn on the fans for their mixed reactions as well. Although I’m not sure of a face for him to blow up on to successfully turn him heel… Maybe Batista, Michaels, Hardy or CM Punk. Maybe that’ll be more realistic sometime next year or the year after. That seems like the only place they can go with Cena’s character. They could also feud Cena as a face with Vince or Shane, and have a Wrestlemania match with either one of them. One of the McMahon’s screws Cena for the title and Viola! I’d like to see that.
BTW there was nothing wrong with that final segment. Both workers went over as they should have. Cena as the Super face and Jericho as the snakey heel, which is exactly what both characters are.
November 26th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Sigh. Hate him if you want, get bored of him if you want, but as Lex points out the viewing figures aren’t getting bored of him yet. He’s also right that the Raw roster is too loaded with heels to have room for another one. Even if most of the heels don’t know how to get real heat (but that’s a story for another day).
D-love, you’re bang right about the reasons he’s being booked as Super Cena. I was sat next to some kids (8, 9 years old at a guess) at a recent SD house show and they were talking about how Cena “has never lost a match” and how great he was. They were all dripping with merchandise. That’s your reason why he won’t turn heel, or blade, or be out of the main event picture any time soon. Because the kids, the marks, the ones who buy the merch and the PPVs are the ones they’re making it for. Not smarks like us.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
cena didn’t go over as a super face though, that’s the problem with the segment. A face beats his opponent, but doesn’t continue to beat him down, especially after he can no longer defend himself. Put it this way, cena snapped more over Jericho insulting the crowd than he did when Orton attacked his dad. Does that make any sense to you at all?
November 26th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
It seems Paul Heyman agrees with Lex
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/wrestling/heyman/article1975101.ece
November 26th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Dont go hatin’ on my boy johnny c.
he spits words like a pro
could totally take samoa joe
all you haters are some joke
just like al snow
you must be snorting cocaine
or you damn fools insane
word life
basic thuganomics
Chain gang 4 life fools.
November 26th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
People hate Cena because his charecter/gimmik is representative of the poor writing that has be going on on Raw in the past year in a half. Lex is right when he says that he’s the best thing they have on Raw as far as faces go and that’s the problem. WWE as a whole seems to have lost there ablity to deliver good face charecters Cena, HHH and even HBK are a far cry from what Mick Foley, The Rock and Stone Cold brought to the table as faces a few years ago I don’t know how they fix this I just know it’s borken. I held out hope that Kennedy could make Raw good again but after what they gave him to do last Monday caused me to turn off my TV I don’t think he’s gonna be there savor. So for the time being I’ll watch WWE programing for the great heels they offer Chris Jericho, Orton, MVP, Santino, and Edge are the only people on there shows that can even remotely interest me these days.
November 26th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
LEX, how long do you think that is going to last?
Its obvious that ratings will increase when a top star returns, right?
the point is that after he defeats Batista at WM 25 or at the Rumble, then the crowd will begin to boo him for his predictable match storytelling, his constant winning, and his horrible character(WWE writers partly to blame)
November 26th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
No way, Lex. No fucking way. That segment was one I waited for to end. It was horrid.
November 26th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
john cena was great on raw, “The” Jsnwwf i totally agree with you on that point. Cena will get crowd will evenutally will star booing cena in a few months. He should beat jericho at SS. having the cena chase batista to wrestlemania 25 for the world title would of been better. But wwe writers give to cena already. At Mania 25 in Houston they should have cena turn heel, just like stone cold turned heel at wresltemania 17 in Houston. But anything is possible till mania?
November 26th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
my bad error while writing the previous post lol ” he should of never beat Jericho”.
November 26th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Get over it guys…Cena has the whole thing figured out which is why most hate him. Seems to me another guy has it figured out too and most hate him….seems like that would be HHH. Besides I would much rather see him than Batista. At least he’s not botching every other move like Batista. And to me, from the female point of view, he’s a sight better than most of the guys. Not my type mind you , but good eye candy for us gals. Get over he’s good….move on.
Lex, That’s it exactly.
November 26th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
From a British stand point, I would say that the Cena - Jericho segment wasn’t bad, but it was very good either.
I was disappointed that Cena won the belt straight away. I would have preferred if Cena had lost and we had a rematch further down the road. John Cena does seem to be able to overcome adversity far too often for my liking. He needs to loose and loose bigtime. You don’t need to blade him but give him a reason to turn heelish at least.
Does anyone remember when Bret Hart started to do things that would be considered heelish, but not enough to be an outright heel. Get this guy doing something different. Put him in a faction. He keeps going on about this chain gang. Well put him in one and have DX reformed with a couple other wrestlers. They can screw each other over for a while. At least it would be different and we wouldn’t have to put up with Super Cena every week, coming down to the ring to save the day, or whatever he does.
I remember the last time Cena was on a Raw run. Before I heard the music for John Cena, I could here it in my head, as if I was expecting him to turn up at the beginning of the show every week. I know most of this is off topic but, I just thought you guys and gals might like to hear an opinion from the other side of the pond.