Since winning the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 21 in April of 2005, World Wrestling Entertainment has pushed John Cena as the big star of the company. Cena was made to be “the guy” in the company for three years, and as the WWE’s product shifted from TV-14 to TV-PG in late 2008, Cena took on the role of a modern day Hulk Hogan and his push as "the guy" was increased tenfold. He is a hero to the children. A character who stands for America and the ideal that you should never give up no matter what. Children are part of the “Cenation” and their support gives Cena this superhuman ability to lay around and do nothing for 20 minutes, only to spring to life and do five moves to win. This gimmick worked for Hulk Hogan back during the 80s, but in this day and age it just doesn’t fly.
Four months after Cena became champion and received the push to become the modern day Hulk Hogan, he started hearing boos from the crowds. Women and little kids may have bought into the hype, but men weren’t having any of it. Cena was booed in his feud with Chris Jericho in the summer of 2005, and it only got more intense from there. From the end of his Jericho feud all the way to January of 2006, Cena was feuding with Kurt Angle. Cena was still supposed to be the hero but Angle was receiving a lot of cheers from the crowd. In January of 06 Cena defended his WWE Championship in an elimination chamber match at New Years Revolution and was booed the entire match. After Cena won, Edge came out to cash in his guaranteed championship match and despite being one of the biggest heels (bad guys) in the company Edge received enormous fanfare after he beat Cena to win the title. In feuds with Triple H and Shawn Michaels they had Cena win the matches but he lost the popularity contests badly.
This has been the case for six years now. Cena has been pushed as the face (good guy) but constantly receives mixed reactions or sometimes even straight up boos. The reason for this is simple: Cena’s corny and has been shoved down the fans’ throats. The gimmick worked for Hulk Hogan in the 80s because people wanted a superhero character and there had never been one like that in wrestling before and it came naturally. The fans made Hogan a star, whereas the WWE has decided Cena is their star. Cena has been force fed to the fans and acts like he’s some kind of American hero but it is just silly. Hogan’s whole “Real American” thing was borne out of the Cold War. Rocky even went to Russia to fight Drago in Rocky IV in the mid 80s. Hogan was able to do what he did because it had never been seen in the wrestling world before and it came across as genuine and was perfrect for the time period. But even then, after a few years people grew weary of Hulkamania. In the 90s things started to change.
People got tired of Hulkamania after a few years because it was the same thing every time. Hogan was going to get beat up then shake his arms and hit a few moves and win. He would cut the same promo about the power of Hulkamania. People didn’t want to see it anymore. The WWF (that’s right, the good ol’ pre-WWE days) went about keeping him a good guy by doing stupid things like playing up the American hero routine. They turned Sgt. Slaughter, an American patriot, into an Iraqi sympathizer and friend of Saddam Hussein and had Hogan beat him to defend the honor of America. It was a ridiculous storyline and a cheap way to keep Hogan face. The WWF even ignored Sid Justice being cheered for throwing Hulk Hogan out in the 1992 Royal Rumble. Hulkamania was right for the time and people loved it, but as the times changed it became lame. With wrestling getting edgier with characters like Stone Cold Steve Austin and D-Generation X in the late 90s, the cartoon superhero character was done.
Aside from little kids and women, nobody buys into Cena because his character is ridiculously corny in this day and age. Older fans remember guys like Stone Cold and The Rock and know Cena is a bad rip off of Hogan. WWE has made the mistake of putting Cena up against guys who are obviously more charismatic and better workers than he is. Sure Hogan wasn’t a very good worker, but in terms of natural charisma he was nearly untouchable. Cena doesn’t have that. What person old enough to understand anything is going to cheer for Cena over somebody like Kurt Angle or Chris Jericho or Michaels or Triple H? Those guys are phenomenal workers (sans Triple H) and great promo guys. Cena’s promos involve corny yelling and they make him come across like Vin Diesel. For years Cena’s promos consisted of gay jokes, yelling, and making stupid jokes like saying people with annoying voices sound like two old cats trying to have sex. Now he’s just thrown out the gay jokes since it is TV-PG.
What is better is the fact that Hogan had a run at the top as the biggest face on the planet for years while Cena’s run hardly lasted a few months before he started to hear it from the crowds. Rather than turn him heel and make things really interesting, the WWE has taken idiotic steps to keep him as a good guy. First they had commentators acknowledge the boos and say he’s “the most controversial superstar” in the history of this business. That’s a nice way of saying, “We hear your boos and although we can’t drown out your boos we know we’ll make a shit ton of money off little kids’ parents buying Cena’s shit so we’re not turning him heel anytime ever.” Second, they put him up against weak competition so he could look like a hero. They gave guys like Umaga, whose gimmick was that he was a Samoan savage and never spoke any kind of language other than nonsensical screaming, and Sheamus, a big Irish dude whose gimmick is that he’s an Irish warrior, feuds for the WWE title just so Cena would have a bad guy to play off of. Sheamus even won the belt. That guy never deserved to hold a belt that people like Mr. Perfect and Roddy Piper never had, but WWE put it on him just to make Cena look like a hero when he got it back.
The lamest tactic the WWE has used in keeping Cena face is the use of American imagery in his gimmick. It is nice that John Cena loves America and the troops but it is a lame and corny tool used to keep him in the fan’s good graces. They have Cena salute all the time and wear camo shorts sometimes to show his respect for the armed forces. Most of his shirts involve a red, white, and blue color scheme. The top light bar on the Titantron (entrance stage in real person speak, Titantron in the WWE) is an American flag during his entrance. This isn’t like the Cold War era that Hogan found himself in where he’s fighting Russians. There is no foreign threat to America that Cena is up against, they are just shamelessly putting American stuff on his merchandise to make him seem like he’s a good young man. It is good he loves his country but that’s a cheap marketing trick to get a cheap pop from the crowd rather than a piece of his character. And while it works for little kids and women, the biggest demographic in the business isn’t buying it.
People say WWE fans “love to hate” Cena. You love to hate somebody when you know deep down they’re awesome but you play along with the business and boo them regardless like with somebody like Mr. Perfect or something. Cena is booed because wrestling fans aren’t idiots and won’t be told who to like. It has been six years of this and it is only getting worse now that Cena is in a feud with The Rock set to culminate in the main event of next year’s WrestleMania. Every time Cena and The Rock are face to face hardly anybody is cheering for Cena. This isn’t just a nostalgia pop for The Rock like Hogan got at WrestleMania 18 when he fought Rock. This is both genuine love for The Rock and a desire for him to come back full time since he’s still in his prime in terms of wrestling years, as well as the fact people are tired of Cena. This is the WWE’s last big match it could do and as bad as they want Cena to be the face of the new generation, The Rock is one of the two or three biggest stars in the history of the business and the fans are not going to go against him.
This past Monday on Raw the WWE finally acknowledged the boos Cena has been getting by having Roddy Piper confront him about it and tell him to “make right” with the fans. Cena is sporting a new shirt that says “RISE ABOVE HATE” in red, white, and blue of course. This both says he’s a patriot and that the company doesn’t care if you’re going to boo Cena since he’s still the big face. Cena said the boos don’t affect him since he wrestles for the children or something. It is nice that they want Cena to be the hero to the little kids still, but when it comes to the wrestling business the only thing you can do is give the people what they want: John Cena as a heel.
No American flags or weak opponents can change the fact that Cena’s best run was as a heel who walked around cutting raps in 2003. When CM Punk left the company earlier this year with the WWE Championship then returned to feud with Cena when Cena had won a tournament to crown the new champ, Punk got a monster pop for being the returning hero and everybody wanted him over the big star of the company. People aren’t just cheering for The Rock over Cena because they haven’t seen him in a while, they are cheering for him because they hate Cena and want to see him finally do the job to an all-time great. Michaels, Triple H, Angle, and Jericho all had to do the job for Cena and the fans were pissed and they want to see Cena get beat by somebody they like.
Cena’s time at the top of the company is coming to an end as evidenced by the rise of CM Punk and the fall of the TV-PG era. The fans haven’t accepted Cena as the “the guy” for six years and their dislike of him gets stronger every day. The WWE doesn’t have a choice other than to just turn him heel and see where it goes from there. You can’t say fans won’t buy his stuff because when WCW turned Hulk Hogan heel and put him at the head of the NWO merchandise sold big time. Cena has been stale for years and it is time for a change.
Four months after Cena became champion and received the push to become the modern day Hulk Hogan, he started hearing boos from the crowds. Women and little kids may have bought into the hype, but men weren’t having any of it. Cena was booed in his feud with Chris Jericho in the summer of 2005, and it only got more intense from there. From the end of his Jericho feud all the way to January of 2006, Cena was feuding with Kurt Angle. Cena was still supposed to be the hero but Angle was receiving a lot of cheers from the crowd. In January of 06 Cena defended his WWE Championship in an elimination chamber match at New Years Revolution and was booed the entire match. After Cena won, Edge came out to cash in his guaranteed championship match and despite being one of the biggest heels (bad guys) in the company Edge received enormous fanfare after he beat Cena to win the title. In feuds with Triple H and Shawn Michaels they had Cena win the matches but he lost the popularity contests badly.
This has been the case for six years now. Cena has been pushed as the face (good guy) but constantly receives mixed reactions or sometimes even straight up boos. The reason for this is simple: Cena’s corny and has been shoved down the fans’ throats. The gimmick worked for Hulk Hogan in the 80s because people wanted a superhero character and there had never been one like that in wrestling before and it came naturally. The fans made Hogan a star, whereas the WWE has decided Cena is their star. Cena has been force fed to the fans and acts like he’s some kind of American hero but it is just silly. Hogan’s whole “Real American” thing was borne out of the Cold War. Rocky even went to Russia to fight Drago in Rocky IV in the mid 80s. Hogan was able to do what he did because it had never been seen in the wrestling world before and it came across as genuine and was perfrect for the time period. But even then, after a few years people grew weary of Hulkamania. In the 90s things started to change.
People got tired of Hulkamania after a few years because it was the same thing every time. Hogan was going to get beat up then shake his arms and hit a few moves and win. He would cut the same promo about the power of Hulkamania. People didn’t want to see it anymore. The WWF (that’s right, the good ol’ pre-WWE days) went about keeping him a good guy by doing stupid things like playing up the American hero routine. They turned Sgt. Slaughter, an American patriot, into an Iraqi sympathizer and friend of Saddam Hussein and had Hogan beat him to defend the honor of America. It was a ridiculous storyline and a cheap way to keep Hogan face. The WWF even ignored Sid Justice being cheered for throwing Hulk Hogan out in the 1992 Royal Rumble. Hulkamania was right for the time and people loved it, but as the times changed it became lame. With wrestling getting edgier with characters like Stone Cold Steve Austin and D-Generation X in the late 90s, the cartoon superhero character was done.
Aside from little kids and women, nobody buys into Cena because his character is ridiculously corny in this day and age. Older fans remember guys like Stone Cold and The Rock and know Cena is a bad rip off of Hogan. WWE has made the mistake of putting Cena up against guys who are obviously more charismatic and better workers than he is. Sure Hogan wasn’t a very good worker, but in terms of natural charisma he was nearly untouchable. Cena doesn’t have that. What person old enough to understand anything is going to cheer for Cena over somebody like Kurt Angle or Chris Jericho or Michaels or Triple H? Those guys are phenomenal workers (sans Triple H) and great promo guys. Cena’s promos involve corny yelling and they make him come across like Vin Diesel. For years Cena’s promos consisted of gay jokes, yelling, and making stupid jokes like saying people with annoying voices sound like two old cats trying to have sex. Now he’s just thrown out the gay jokes since it is TV-PG.
What is better is the fact that Hogan had a run at the top as the biggest face on the planet for years while Cena’s run hardly lasted a few months before he started to hear it from the crowds. Rather than turn him heel and make things really interesting, the WWE has taken idiotic steps to keep him as a good guy. First they had commentators acknowledge the boos and say he’s “the most controversial superstar” in the history of this business. That’s a nice way of saying, “We hear your boos and although we can’t drown out your boos we know we’ll make a shit ton of money off little kids’ parents buying Cena’s shit so we’re not turning him heel anytime ever.” Second, they put him up against weak competition so he could look like a hero. They gave guys like Umaga, whose gimmick was that he was a Samoan savage and never spoke any kind of language other than nonsensical screaming, and Sheamus, a big Irish dude whose gimmick is that he’s an Irish warrior, feuds for the WWE title just so Cena would have a bad guy to play off of. Sheamus even won the belt. That guy never deserved to hold a belt that people like Mr. Perfect and Roddy Piper never had, but WWE put it on him just to make Cena look like a hero when he got it back.
The lamest tactic the WWE has used in keeping Cena face is the use of American imagery in his gimmick. It is nice that John Cena loves America and the troops but it is a lame and corny tool used to keep him in the fan’s good graces. They have Cena salute all the time and wear camo shorts sometimes to show his respect for the armed forces. Most of his shirts involve a red, white, and blue color scheme. The top light bar on the Titantron (entrance stage in real person speak, Titantron in the WWE) is an American flag during his entrance. This isn’t like the Cold War era that Hogan found himself in where he’s fighting Russians. There is no foreign threat to America that Cena is up against, they are just shamelessly putting American stuff on his merchandise to make him seem like he’s a good young man. It is good he loves his country but that’s a cheap marketing trick to get a cheap pop from the crowd rather than a piece of his character. And while it works for little kids and women, the biggest demographic in the business isn’t buying it.
People say WWE fans “love to hate” Cena. You love to hate somebody when you know deep down they’re awesome but you play along with the business and boo them regardless like with somebody like Mr. Perfect or something. Cena is booed because wrestling fans aren’t idiots and won’t be told who to like. It has been six years of this and it is only getting worse now that Cena is in a feud with The Rock set to culminate in the main event of next year’s WrestleMania. Every time Cena and The Rock are face to face hardly anybody is cheering for Cena. This isn’t just a nostalgia pop for The Rock like Hogan got at WrestleMania 18 when he fought Rock. This is both genuine love for The Rock and a desire for him to come back full time since he’s still in his prime in terms of wrestling years, as well as the fact people are tired of Cena. This is the WWE’s last big match it could do and as bad as they want Cena to be the face of the new generation, The Rock is one of the two or three biggest stars in the history of the business and the fans are not going to go against him.
This past Monday on Raw the WWE finally acknowledged the boos Cena has been getting by having Roddy Piper confront him about it and tell him to “make right” with the fans. Cena is sporting a new shirt that says “RISE ABOVE HATE” in red, white, and blue of course. This both says he’s a patriot and that the company doesn’t care if you’re going to boo Cena since he’s still the big face. Cena said the boos don’t affect him since he wrestles for the children or something. It is nice that they want Cena to be the hero to the little kids still, but when it comes to the wrestling business the only thing you can do is give the people what they want: John Cena as a heel.
No American flags or weak opponents can change the fact that Cena’s best run was as a heel who walked around cutting raps in 2003. When CM Punk left the company earlier this year with the WWE Championship then returned to feud with Cena when Cena had won a tournament to crown the new champ, Punk got a monster pop for being the returning hero and everybody wanted him over the big star of the company. People aren’t just cheering for The Rock over Cena because they haven’t seen him in a while, they are cheering for him because they hate Cena and want to see him finally do the job to an all-time great. Michaels, Triple H, Angle, and Jericho all had to do the job for Cena and the fans were pissed and they want to see Cena get beat by somebody they like.
Cena’s time at the top of the company is coming to an end as evidenced by the rise of CM Punk and the fall of the TV-PG era. The fans haven’t accepted Cena as the “the guy” for six years and their dislike of him gets stronger every day. The WWE doesn’t have a choice other than to just turn him heel and see where it goes from there. You can’t say fans won’t buy his stuff because when WCW turned Hulk Hogan heel and put him at the head of the NWO merchandise sold big time. Cena has been stale for years and it is time for a change.
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