A little rant on Cena and WWE

[Kyle]

We've known for years that Cena is stale and the company has forced him upon us out of an unwillingness to change it up. 2015 will essentially be the 11th straight year where Cena is the top dog (though this is GREATLY the fault of WWE for not building new stars). Just think about that for a second. Rock and Austin's meteoric runs at the top lasted what, 4-6 years (and they were way more over than Cena)? And beyond that, he's spent that entire time as a face (loose term of "face" though) who's character hasn't changed one tiny bit since 2006. At least the underdog crap that they ran with for so long has subsided (because really, how can he be an underdog when he wins more than anyone on the roster?).

WWE really has no excuse to not have turned Cena heel any time in the last 8 years. Austin turned heel at WrestleMania of all places and it turned out well for business. It would have been so easy to turn him: the loyal company man turns on the fans because of the lack of appreciation for his hard work. And guess who would have been the perfect face for that heel run? 2011 CM Punk, the antihero to Cena's "company man" heel character. Thinking back on it, they really did drop the ball on that storyline in a number of ways.

And maybe the last decade of him would have been more bearable if he was good in the ring. I don't even think he's average - below average, I would say. To be fair to him however, they have cut him down so much in the ring that he rarely ever gets to show his real abilities (and that started in about 2005). Watching the match with Rollins from Monday made me realize just how little offense Cena ever gets in his matches. 90% of the time the only true offense he gets in are his signature moves. I know he's supposed to be the face, but it has never helped his character all these years to produce such little offense in his matches (RAW especially) when he's the best wrestler you have in kayfabe.

It's just incredibly sad for me to watch RAW with John Cena 2005-2015 still operating the same as ever. Same boring character, same "never give up" storylines against more entertaining heels (where he predictable goes over), and the same "moral high ground" promos where he ends up yelling and screaming and not making any sense. Besides, you really can't claim that you will give someone a big beat down when you get beat down yourself for 95% of a match.

I really long for the day when he's off our TVs. But at this rate he'll be wrestling main events until 2020.

[Str8Shooter]

Taj is that you?

[War Daddy]

When the next man shows the balls to step up and work as hard as Cena does, then maybe we'll get a new top dog. Til then, sit back and enjoy the show.

[PorkChop]

When the next man shows the balls to step up and work as hard as Cena does, then maybe we'll get a new top dog. Til then, sit back and enjoy the show.

The Miz works as hard as Cena, but he's languishing in the midcard with an unbearable gimmick and ridiculous sidekick.

[SortaCreative]

Taj is that you?

Because he made sense and turned you on in a weird but wonderful way?

[VaderBomb]

When the next man shows the balls to step up and work as hard as Cena does, then maybe we'll get a new top dog. Til then, sit back and enjoy the show.

[Messiah]

When the next man shows the balls to step up and work as hard as Cena does, then maybe we'll get a new top dog. Til then, sit back and enjoy the show.

[The Legend]

One point, Austin, Vince and the WWE all considered turning Stone Cold heel to be a total flop and a bad idea pretty much right after it happened.

I recommend people listen to the recent Stone Cold podcasts since he did the interview with Vince. He makes a lot of good points about both the guys and the WWE way of doing things.

[Kyle]

One point, Austin, Vince and the WWE all considered turning Stone Cold heel to be a total flop and a bad idea pretty much right after it happened.

I recommend people listen to the recent Stone Cold podcasts since he did the interview with Vince. He makes a lot of good points about both the guys and the WWE way of doing things.

I don't think Cena would need to be heel for long ... maybe like a year and a half or so - then he takes time off, comes back as a face again. It's just that his character has literally been the same for almost 10 years, and no matter who you are, staying entertaining for that long without any real changes is incredibly difficult. Cena can be a good heel and in this instance, which is different than Austin's situation, he's been so dull for so long that it's basically needed at this point.

[The Legend]

I completely disagree. Turning Cena heel doesn't accomplish anything. Right now half the audience boos him and half the audience cheers him. If you turn him heel, half the audience will cheer him and half the audience will boo him.

[Kyle]

When the next man shows the balls to step up and work as hard as Cena does, then maybe we'll get a new top dog. Til then, sit back and enjoy the show.

Um, Bryan, Ziggler, and Rollins? Miz works very hard and right now he's way more entertaining than Cena. When Punk was super over in 2011 he should have been the top dog but they screwed up the Summer of Punk.

[The Legend]

Bryan gets hurt when he works hard.

Ziggler is close, but not quite that over.

Rollins is a heel.

Miz absolutely can't get over as a face.

[Hanley!]

I completely disagree. Turning Cena heel doesn't accomplish anything. Right now half the audience boos him and half the audience cheers him. If you turn him heel, half the audience will cheer him and half the audience will boo him.

That's completely without basis in fact. You presume just because people want Cena to turn heel, they'll cheer him when he does? That's crap. People have hated on this guy for the last decade; they'd love the opportunity to boo him in a way that actually adds to the story. Competently booked, he could be hugely over as a heel. They just have to keep some of the elements of his character that people hate. It's easy to do and would be effective.

Also, when you said that turning Cena heel "doesn't accomplish anything", you were overlooking some of the other benefits of Cena turning. It should solve the problem of the audience cheering/booing the wrong people as I already stated, but it also solves a number of other problems that you're not thinking about. It introduces new possible storylines and helps WWE television become less stagnant. It introduces a lot of new potential feuds for Cena, a performer who has nobody to work with anymore.

There's a reason Cena has to keep going back to guys like Orton and Big Show. There's a reason that he was facing Bray Wyatt in only the 4th most important match at Wrestlemania 30 (and will probably face Rusev in the 4th most important match at Wrestlemania 31). He's already faced every star on their roster. Many of them multiple times. And the alignments of the performers involved in these feuds never changed because Cena has been face forever. They are completely tapped out of interesting things to do with a face Cena. That's a major problem that a heel turn would solve.

When the next man shows the balls to step up and work as hard as Cena does, then maybe we'll get a new top dog. Til then, sit back and enjoy the show.

Lots of guys work hard. Lots of them would work even harder given the opportunity. To think otherwise is naive. Most of the wrestlers on the roster have been fans of wrestling for most of their lives and would give anything to be the next big star. Of course there are guys with the balls and the drive and the enthusiasm to be the next Cena.

WWE likes to act like their roster just isn't trying hard enough, because it takes the fact that they have a thin roster heavily reliant on part-time stars from the 90s and it makes it someone else's fault. WWE mid-carders are in a shitty position at the moment because they're being paid less than they have been in quite some time, the company keeps publicly saying that they have to engineer their own push, but they're being more restricted in what they can do than ever before. When your matches are booked move for move and your promos are booked word for word, then how are you supposed to go the extra mile to get yourself over?

And that's making the assumption that they make the effort to support their stars when they do get over, which rarely happens. The whole system they have for building talent right now is paradoxical and poisonous and we just make it easier for them to continue to fail when we buy into the ludicrous idea that it's the talent's fault.

Bryan gets hurt when he works hard.

Like Cena has never gotten hurt.

Ziggler is close, but not quite that over.

Ziggler is extremely over. The guy gets one of the best reactions pretty much everywhere he goes, and he rarely has a real angle or story to support that reaction. Give him the material that his popularity warrants and he could explode, and he's been in that position for the last couple of years.

Rollins is a heel.

There's no set rule that the top dog of a company can't be heel. It's worked well plenty of times in the past. WWE tends not to favour that option, because they've always been crap at letting their heels look strong, but that doesn't mean that this isn't a valid option.

Miz absolutely can't get over as a face.

Cena can't get over as a face.

Now I'm not saying that any of these guys could take Cena's place. I do think Miz works best as a mid card act. But what I'm getting at is that you're acting like the company doesn't have options, and it's very clear that it does. It's also obvious that their current strategy is far from infallible as they've just had their worst year in a long time financially and ratings aren't where they were either. Under Cena, WWE has been on the decline for some time, so lets not act like there are not other valid avenues for them to explore.

[Kyle]

This is the way I see it if I were a WWE executive: the product is at a standstill right now so why not change it up? What's the benefit of Cena remaining the top guy in a stale position when it's clearly not working? If Cena did turn heel, as Hanley said, it would open him up to new feuds and perhaps even better in-ring performances if they freed up his moveset. When Bryan comes back he will be the most popular wrestler on the roster.

Back in the Attitude Era, you had Rock/Austin at the top, but then there was Foley, Angle, HHH, Jericho, and Undertaker all right there as a very world-class supporting cast. And all of them were made to look very legitimate against the two mega stars. Imagine if they did what WWE loves to do with Cena's opponents? Put them in a feud, give them momentum, and then shut it down with a Cena win (or a few)? If Cena did turn heel, he could help put over Bryan, Ziggler, Ambrose, Reigns, and any other face they want to look good.

And it would be very easy to make Cena look like a true heel, also as Hanley said. We don't like him. We want to boo him. Who's going to cheer him? His young fanbase? No. All it would take is a "snap" moment where he breaks because of his under-appreciation by fans for his hard work. Hell, he could align with the Authority because let's face it, he's already the symbol for "Company Man" anyways.