A different way to freshen up Cena

[Sabutage]

I apologise for the millionth thread about John Cena, but when writing a post about changing the Cena character I had this idea, Im probably not the first but I'll just throw it out there.

Everyone always talks, myself included, about turning Cena heel and why it shouldn't or cant be done. Merchandise, kids, money, ratings, the face etc.

We all know Cena has the never give up attitude, the overrcome everything persona . My idea to freshen it up, why not just take away the Super aspect of his character? Keep him face, keep him as the make a wish role model, but have him face a Kryptonite type challenge for a spell after Wrestlemania.

Simple Example. The storyline starts sometime after Wrestlemania, he faces a 'smaller' guy, I.e Cesaro and loses. Its unexpected, but people take it as a fluke. Then next week, theres a rematch. Cena loses again. Commentators start hinting at Cena not being himself etc. Next week Cena does a promo about how hes facing some personal issues, his heads not right, but he will overcome it.

Hes set up for a PPV match against Cesaro, the chance to kickstart his return to form. He loses again. This is where depression begins. He stops running to the ring, he delivers promos half heartedly, other wrestlers do promos about how hes lost his aura etc.

Then you come to the climax of the story arc. The authority tell Cena to take a week or 2 off, as this type of Cena is bad for business. Then 2 weeks later, Cena returns to start off Raw.

Now of course, here is where he could turn heel, but we know that wont happen. Instead he comes back with new or remixed music. New gear, a new slogan, but something similar in sentiment to never give up. Talks about how hes rediscovered his passion, he knows how many kids look up to him and hes going to fight to get back to his best again. Then you know the rest.

Of course this storyline could be shortened or extended and hint at a darker side to test the waters of a heel turn, during the time Cena is down and out so to speak, maybe he considers using a weapon at some point, or low blow but doesnt go through with. But to please WWE and the make a wish kids, it shows that no matter how bad things get, you can make the right choice and turn it around (which is the definition of SuperCena character), so theres little risk to his image or the money machine.

 

[PedigreeTHE619Chokeslam]

Yes I agree with you. Cena is never going to turn heel. Until they get someone to fill his place. Which the closest option is Daniel Bryan, but that won't happen, because there close to the same age I think. The other option would be Roman Reigns.

Anyways...

I like your idea. Give Cena a loss that no one expects him to lose. I like your idea with Cesaro, he's a good wrestler, and I like him. Another idea. How about losing to Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania. That would shock a lot of people, at least me.

I'll follow your idea. Next night on raw have him come out and say it was a fluke win.

Not bashing you idea, but instead of having him lose every match, have him win all his raw matches making statements that he still got it, and that his loss against Wyatt really was a fluke. After all those raw wins, have him face Bray again at Extreme Rules and come up short again. Have him go on a Raw winning streak, but a PPV losing streak. A couple of them vs Bray and a PPV or two against someone else. Have it all lead up to Summerslam where he guarantees a win vs Bray, and have him lose again. Next night in raw, have him cut a promo about how he's lost himself, and that he has to take time off to get things set straight.

Have him come back with different ring attire, maybe new theme song, and maybe a different look. Maybe a beard type deal.
Have him come back around the rumble or at the rumble, fresh character, and not stale anymore. Have him miss an extended amount of time. Make people miss him.

Having him miss time will open up the door for a lot of other superstars to make names for themselves. Like Bray, Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan, Cesaro, and others.

Having him out for a long time will open the door for new feuds for him to. All the quality competition that rose to the top during his absence. I know in the shirt term, it would be bad for WWE to lose Cena for an extended amount of time, but I believe it would help a little in the long run, with other names other than Cena getting out in the spotlight.

That's how I think you can fix John Cena.

....oh and FYI, I'm not a Cena hater.

 

[jholcomb22]

This sounds familiar to his 2012 year. Loss to Rock at Mania, multiple losses to CM Punk during his 434 day title reign. First person to cash in MITB and not win the belt. Loss to Laurenitus. Loss to Ziggler. He highlighted it in a promo for the Rumble in 2013 about how terrible his 2012 was. He even did the whole dark side tease with Kane early that year.

Sorry but this sounds a lot like that to me.

 

[L@RISANO]

I apologise for the millionth thread about John Cena, but when writing a post about changing the Cena character I had this idea, Im probably not the first but I'll just throw it out there.

Everyone always talks, myself included, about turning Cena heel and why it shouldn't or cant be done. Merchandise, kids, money, ratings, the face etc.

We all know Cena has the never give up attitude, the overrcome everything persona . My idea to freshen it up, why not just take away the Super aspect of his character? Keep him face, keep him as the make a wish role model, but have him face a Kryptonite type challenge for a spell after Wrestlemania.

Simple Example. The storyline starts sometime after Wrestlemania, he faces a 'smaller' guy, I.e Cesaro and loses. Its unexpected, but people take it as a fluke. Then next week, theres a rematch. Cena loses again. Commentators start hinting at Cena not being himself etc. Next week Cena does a promo about how hes facing some personal issues, his heads not right, but he will overcome it.

Hes set up for a PPV match against Cesaro, the chance to kickstart his return to form. He loses again. This is where depression begins. He stops running to the ring, he delivers promos half heartedly, other wrestlers do promos about how hes lost his aura etc.

Then you come to the climax of the story arc. The authority tell Cena to take a week or 2 off, as this type of Cena is bad for business. Then 2 weeks later, Cena returns to start off Raw.

Now of course, here is where he could turn heel, but we know that wont happen. Instead he comes back with new or remixed music. New gear, a new slogan, but something similar in sentiment to never give up. Talks about how hes rediscovered his passion, he knows how many kids look up to him and hes going to fight to get back to his best again. Then you know the rest.

Of course this storyline could be shortened or extended and hint at a darker side to test the waters of a heel turn, during the time Cena is down and out so to speak, maybe he considers using a weapon at some point, or low blow but doesnt go through with. But to please WWE and the make a wish kids, it shows that no matter how bad things get, you can make the right choice and turn it around (which is the definition of SuperCena character), so theres little risk to his image or the money machine.

Didn't something similar happen already?

[YOUTUBE]watch?v=F6oZGykxXf4[/YOUTUBE]

I must say, a pretty heartfelt promo from Edge that one was.

 

[Sabutage]

Yes I agree with you. Cena is never going to turn heel. Until they get someone to fill his place. Which the closest option is Daniel Bryan, but that won't happen, because there close to the same age I think. The other option would be Roman Reigns.

Anyways...

I like your idea. Give Cena a loss that no one expects him to lose. I like your idea with Cesaro, he's a good wrestler, and I like him. Another idea. How about losing to Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania. That would shock a lot of people, at least me.

I'll follow your idea. Next night on raw have him come out and say it was a fluke win.

Not bashing you idea, but instead of having him lose every match, have him win all his raw matches making statements that he still got it, and that his loss against Wyatt really was a fluke. After all those raw wins, have him face Bray again at Extreme Rules and come up short again. Have him go on a Raw winning streak, but a PPV losing streak. A couple of them vs Bray and a PPV or two against someone else. Have it all lead up to Summerslam where he guarantees a win vs Bray, and have him lose again. Next night in raw, have him cut a promo about how he's lost himself, and that he has to take time off to get things set straight.

Have him come back with different ring attire, maybe new theme song, and maybe a different look. Maybe a beard type deal.
Have him come back around the rumble or at the rumble, fresh character, and not stale anymore. Have him miss an extended amount of time. Make people miss him.

Having him miss time will open up the door for a lot of other superstars to make names for themselves. Like Bray, Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan, Cesaro, and others.

Having him out for a long time will open the door for new feuds for him to. All the quality competition that rose to the top during his absence. I know in the shirt term, it would be bad for WWE to lose Cena for an extended amount of time, but I believe it would help a little in the long run, with other names other than Cena getting out in the spotlight.

That's how I think you can fix John Cena.

....oh and FYI, I'm not a Cena hater.

Yeah, starting with Wyatt would be a nice high profile start to it. Definitely like that way.

This sounds familiar to his 2012 year. Loss to Rock at Mania, multiple losses to CM Punk during his 434 day title reign. First person to cash in MITB and not win the belt. Loss to Laurenitus. Loss to Ziggler. He highlighted it in a promo for the Rumble in 2013 about how terrible his 2012 was. He even did the whole dark side tease with Kane early that year.

Sorry but this sounds a lot like that to me.

I think the difference is a storyline with someone who hes not expected to lose to. I mean punk and rock are good people to lose people, if that makes sense. Also, my idea would focus on him becoming depressed, affecting his entrances, promos, even match psychology. Struggling to believe his own motto and everything hes been telling kids the last decade about never giving up, basically having Cena just about give up before turning it around.

But yes I can see the similarities, I just wanted to start a discussion about freshening up his storylines without turning him heel.

 

[enviousdominous]

In my opinion, John Cena has exploited the same tired gimmick for so long that he'll never grow out of it unless he changes his name and has his entire face reconstructed.

Maybe have this chain of events recognize how predictable he's becoming unto his opponents. Have him take a clean loss to who-the-fuck-ever based on their ability to easily read when he's likely to go for one of his signature moves. Whoever beats him brags about how they've been studying John and they were two steps ahead of him for that entire match.

John does vignettes, because there's ALWAYS time for a John Cena vignette, where he reunites with Tom Howard. John picks up some new moves or at least STOPS doing the five knuckle shuffle, and maybe improves his style a bit. Perhaps Tom starts to manage John as a rare example of a face manager with a serious edge. Tom teaches John to never take his opponent's lack of comparable fame as a weakness and to never take his eye off the ball.

For a while, have John win with moves like the backslide, school boy or maybe even the la magistral if he's really trying to shut people like me up. Have it become apparent that John is using the same strategy against his past opponents that they used against him, John shows that he's technically gifted enough to take that advantage away from his opponents.

I'll still hate him for the skid-mark he's left on the pro-wrestling world. But I'll at least have it as a painful memory as opposed to an on-going reminder of how low-brow the expectations of the majority of fans really are.

 

[OrionDown]

I like it, but as some people said, he sort of did it, ish.
He didn't re invent himself, it was just a great build up to make him seem like an underdog when it came to the rock. The guy who had the worse year ever, and to come back win the rumble and beat the rock and mania.

For me, a guy whose been in wwe 10 plus years, and been there top guy for too long. Long enough for him to have 3 major feuds. Edge, Orton and Punk. 3 of the best heels, where his going back to with Orton. His held the belt 14 times, won the rumble twice, his done it all, overcame it all. His not a gimmick guy, he did it, but now, his real and just basically a kids show spokesman. You cant really re package what isn't broken (to the wwe's eye) what do you do? Not main event him. You make him into a Chris Jericho. Look, cena is a future hall of fame winner. His respect inside and outside the ring, and his done everything he could. So lets find the new cena, and lets make some new top heels. Jericho comes back and makes people like Fandango, and ziggler look great, hell punk didn't need it but it did give punk and wwe an amazing feud.
Cena needs to loose, win some but loose more. He needs to have matches like he did with Bryan, where he lost to bryan. Needs to have matches like he did with cesaro, but loose, set up a feud. He can help out Big E, Roman Reigns, HELL HE CAN BRING BACK ZIGGLER, even though ziggler should be on top anyways. Dropping cena down to midcard, even tag teaming here and there, isn't bad. You still cut promos with him, still have him in matches, wont change his merch sells, how the kids and his fans see him, it might help him out more with the fans the dont like him. It wouldn't hurt wwe at all, and it can make the midcard worth something again. USA title never gets defended, BIG E barely gets anytime, and theres just too many midcard stars not seeing time or feuds. Cena can be a Jericho, be after year 2000 ric flair, he can do a lot more in the middle, and help wwe out more, and its stars.

 

[bioshock]

Actually sounds like a good storyline, and you have it right up to the end where you say Cena gets 2 weeks off. All of the above should happen but instead of 2 weeks hes off tv for maybe 2 or 3 months, just used as a vacation to heal up and get healthy, a vacation for him that isn't when hes out recovering from a major injury, and its a good storyline way of getting him off tv. Have him leave some time in May or early June, return around August to build up a Summerslam match and go back to being a regular.

 

[OYDK]

Kind of reminds me of the TNA AJ Styles storyline last year, where AJ lost to Storm and as a result didn't get a title shot for a year. AJ left for a few months and went into a "deep, dark depression" and came back not giving a crap about anything and kicking the crap out of everybody no matter heel or face.

AJ is (or was) TNA's equivalent to John Cena and it worked well for him. I can see it working for Cena if he can ACTUALLY pull it off without over exaggerating everything.

Not a TNA mark, just seems similar

 

[HeymanHustler]

I like this idea. He'll never turn heel and if he did, it doesn't necessarily mean he'll be "fresh". Hell, half the people who want him to turn heel just want him to go back to his Thugonomics gimmick from 2002-06. If you ask me, that's sounds more like taking 2 steps back than going forward.

However, to add to your pitch, I'd be in favor to something similar to what Superman went through in Superman vs The Elite. I know that sounds silly, but bare with me. In the film, Superman fought a group that mad him question his morals and "boyscout persona" and it got to a point where Superman realized that he's going to go against his code and become more brutal because his boyscout persona wasn't going to beat these guys. People call Cena the Superman of the WWE so this could still apply to him. After WrestleMania, he could start a feud against a group of young up and comers (not like with Nexus because he ran through every member of that group) possibly consisting of guys like Cesaro or Alexander Rusev and they just destroy Cena week in and week out. It even gets to a point where every single member beats Cena in one on one competition. Back to your pitch, he starts sounding depressed in promos and half-hearted until The Authority tell him to take a 2 week to a month off to get his act together because this Cena isn't best for business. When he returns, he goes straight up back to this group of young bucks with more brutality and beating the ever loving shit out of them. The next week he cuts a promo talking about how in this new day and age, the old Cena isn't gonna cut it or stand toe to toe with these young guys without getting crushed. The new Cena, however, is what the WWE needs right now. To add to his new repackaged persona, he adds new moves to his arsenal that you wouldn't expect from him on a regular basis, like when he used to hit random moves like hurricanranas in his matches.

I know they did a bit like this with 2012 Cena's losing streak, but they didn't do too much with it. This way they could actually repackage his character without going overboard or making him go heel.

 

[OYDK]

They can do MANY things to freshen up Cena. I mean good god WWE just give us ANYTHING, SOMETHING different.

Even Cena has talked about pitching a heel turn and Vince will not even consider it. I remember reading somewhere that Vince said, if they turn Cena heel it would have to be the biggest angle in history. WELL WHY NOT THEN VINCE. Give us the biggest storyline in history, we wont complain (probably). They dont even need to turn him heel. They can have him stop pandering to the crowd, come out in all black. Even something tiny like that would get me interested in Cena again. Change his music... ANYTHING.

 

[JoeFromTomsRiver]

Something as simple as having him not wear shirts w/ colors as bright as Crayola crayons would freshen him up. It's almost gotten WORSE since the Rock made fun of him w/ the "Fruity Pebbles" comment, like they have embraced it.

I'm not getting into anything about "changing his character". It's a waste of time because he's not changing. This is what we have, and we should just accept it. I got off the "Cena Heel Turn" bandwagon about 4 years ago. If it happens eventually, it happens, there is no point in re-hashing this same tired discussion over and over and over again.

 

[lil steroid meat]

Meh that promo where he talks about overcoming and shit will get booed so hard.

Only way to freshen Cena up is to let him go heel/tweener and let him grow facial hair so people differentiate Heel Cena from the Cena we've seen for the past ten years.

People are tired of that shit and Daniel Bryan is more than capable of replacing his merchandise sales. A heel/tweener Cena that kayfabe rebels against the PG safe aura of the WWE could be good for business anyways as far as merchandising sales. Being an anti-establishment type character did wonders for DX, Austin, nWo merchandising.

 

[Dyscord]

This is good. Though when he comes back, have him take aim at anyone, face or heel. Not giving a damn. I call that "Prototype" and he's shown aspects of that...like back when he went off on Nexus. Not really heel. Not quite face..just a single minded machine of destruction.

 

[Sabutage]

I like this idea. He'll never turn heel and if he did, it doesn't necessarily mean he'll be "fresh". Hell, half the people who want him to turn heel just want him to go back to his Thugonomics gimmick from 2002-06. If you ask me, that's sounds more like taking 2 steps back than going forward.

However, to add to your pitch, I'd be in favor to something similar to what Superman went through in Superman vs The Elite. I know that sounds silly, but bare with me. In the film, Superman fought a group that mad him question his morals and "boyscout persona" and it got to a point where Superman realized that he's going to go against his code and become more brutal because his boyscout persona wasn't going to beat these guys. People call Cena the Superman of the WWE so this could still apply to him. After WrestleMania, he could start a feud against a group of young up and comers (not like with Nexus because he ran through every member of that group) possibly consisting of guys like Cesaro or Alexander Rusev and they just destroy Cena week in and week out. It even gets to a point where every single member beats Cena in one on one competition. Back to your pitch, he starts sounding depressed in promos and half-hearted until The Authority tell him to take a 2 week to a month off to get his act together because this Cena isn't best for business. When he returns, he goes straight up back to this group of young bucks with more brutality and beating the ever loving shit out of them. The next week he cuts a promo talking about how in this new day and age, the old Cena isn't gonna cut it or stand toe to toe with these young guys without getting crushed. The new Cena, however, is what the WWE needs right now. To add to his new repackaged persona, he adds new moves to his arsenal that you wouldn't expect from him on a regular basis, like when he used to hit random moves like hurricanranas in his matches.

I know they did a bit like this with 2012 Cena's losing streak, but they didn't do too much with it. This way they could actually repackage his character without going overboard or making him go heel.

Yes, thinking of him as superman is what gave me the idea. When even people like superman are forced to question their morals or themselves. it makes sense to pose the question to cena.

Even if they were scared to take it that far, its not hard to just have him get beat down a few times, go away and come back with new music and gear. That would just mean more money from song and fresh merchandise sales.

Meh that promo where he talks about overcoming and shit will get booed so hard.

Only way to freshen Cena up is to let him go heel/tweener and let him grow facial hair so people differentiate Heel Cena from the Cena we've seen for the past ten years.

People are tired of that shit and Daniel Bryan is more than capable of replacing his merchandise sales. A heel/tweener Cena that kayfabe rebels against the PG safe aura of the WWE could be good for business anyways as far as merchandising sales. Being an anti-establishment type character did wonders for DX, Austin, nWo merchandising.

I never thought about facial hair. An unshaven Cena would help show a less perfect side to him, even a 5 oclock shadow type thing could do the trick.