Are You Missing Cena Yet?

[Dave]

Well, are you? I know I am.

Sitting in my lounge and watching the "Rivalries" series on the the WWE Network has really hit my in a way that I didn't think possible. Looking back on the feud that John Cena had with The Rock heading into WrestleMania 27 and 28, I have to admit that it really dims the sparkle on the biggest stage of them all this year. And maybe that is because this year's event has a surprising lack of star power.

And that is where John Cena has always been helpful. And of course there are a lot of injuries around Wrestlemania this year not limited to John Cena. But John Cena is the star power in WWE. But more than that though, John Cena represents a big night feel. He has fought the very best at WrestleMania pretty much every single year that he has been active. And his absence this year leaves a significant hole on the card. Or at least I think so.

But back to the original point. I firmly believe that the WWE is a better place when they have John Cena actively wrestling. He brought the United States Championship to a whole new level in his last meaningful championship run and he has to take all of the credit for that. But it remains clear to me that he is the star of this generation in the WWE. And when I watch Raw and Smackdown lately, there is something missing. That something is John Cena.

But what about you? Are you missing Cena yet? Or are you enjoying the absence of Mr. Fruity Pebbles?

 

[MERPER]

I am missing his meaningful matches and how he could elevate something like the US championship.

Look at the difference 1 year makes. Went from Cena vs Rusev for the US title last year at Wrestlemania to Kalisto vs Ryback. Talk about going from gold to garbage.

 

[Navi]

Goodness I'm watching that too right now on the network, Cena and Rock. Small world.

I'm missing him and have for a long time now. No one has been able to fill the void that has been created since he went out. It was okay when we thought he was coming back after filming that other TV show, but with the surgery, it's been kind of well, horrible.

Even although he wasn't in the main event scene when he left, his US Title challenges each week were part of the show I looked forward to the most. He and guys like Neville, Cesaro and Zayn put on some crackerjack matches. Most were better than the main event matches that RAW tries to pass off.

I've heard he's going to be out till at least July and that's a shame. We need him back and we need him back now. The only saving grace is that Orton and Cesaro are due to return soon, so it might shake things up a little. But yes I miss him.

 

[Sexcellence of Sexecution]

Yes. John Cena is the best guy they have. He's the biggest star and he has the best matches most of the time.

Some will argue that with Cena out, they have an opportunity to build a new top guy. But that's clearly bullshit. Raw is three fucking hours long, they always have the opportunity to build stars, and Cena was in the US Title picture for most of last year. Plus with Cena's star power he's a guy that can help get people ovr, which is exactly what he did with Edge in 2006, Punk in 2011, Bryan in 2013 and Owens in 2015.

 

[DetectiveZelix]

Nah bruh. The product is weak with or without him but still a little better because he's extremely boring in my opinion

 

[Azane]

Around 2014 he grew on me, He was working so hard to grow his movelist and outside of the failed springboard stunners (At least he tried?) I was really starting to appreciate Cena as what he really is, an active roster legend (like him or not).

I feel like his little midcard stint also showed how just taking him out of the main event cooled everyone's jets on him.

 

[nwocongo]

If there weren't so many other injuries I would say no personally. I respect how much he's improved in the ring and the quality of matches he is able to put on but his promos usually make me change the channel. Cesaro is the one I really miss watching, I hate to see anyone with serious injuries like these but the timing for his injury is very unfortunate as he could have gotten a push with Cena and Orton on the shelf.
So no, I don't really miss Cena that much but I will definitely welcome him back.

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Yeah I am missing John Cena.

I'm not necessarily a fan, but he has a ton of star power and always puts on a great performance.

I'm totally fine with Cena as long as he's not WWE Champion for an extended period of time. I just think they should give opportunities to the new talent, such as Rollins, Reigns, Ambrose, Owens, Wyatt, Balor, and a few others.

Regardless he is a great performer, so I am missing Cena.

 

[xRob13x]

To quote Dean Ambrose: "Nope."

Yes, having him involved in the show made whatever program he was in more meaningful, especially during his last run with the U.S. title, but really, they're in this predicament because they went years without elevating anyone even remotely close to his level except Orton, who was still never really on the same plane. Now that everyone's getting hurt, they're scrambling and all the guys they're trying to utilize now instead aren't viewed as anything special because for years people have been conditioned to see them as such.

Until they learn to go with the flow and let all these guys who are getting over organically actually get over, it's going to be the same problem, especially once he does come back, because odds are they'll just go back to the same old story.

 

[Charismatic Enigma]

Nope, in fact the only guy I miss even less is Randy Orton.

I know we live in the age of instant gratification and short attention spans, and it has devalued a lot of things, but Cena has been so overexposed for so long that I think the absolute best thing is to keep him away as long as possible. The other thing though, is if you read the sheets, or if you watch Total Divas, it feels like he hasn't gone anywhere, just that you haven't seen him actually wrestle in a bit.

You know the reason some returns like Shawn Michaels or The Rock, were so exciting? It's because they were really gone for a good long time, so when they came back it was refreshing, I have nothing against Cena, but outside of a match with AJ Styles, we've literally seen him do everything there is to do, and wrestle everyone on the roster. Give him a solid year off, build new stars, and then have him come back healthy and rested, with all kinds of new story lines and potential opponents.

 

[dsotm5150]

With the lack of star power WWE has right now, Cena is definitely missed. It also shows how "one track" minded WWE has become during the "Cena Era" with the plethera of talent they have in Kevin Owens, Dean Ambrose and the number of other guys they've dropped the ball with and pretty much made lifelong mid-carders out of like Cody Rhodes, they've put 90% of their effort into a wrestler that almost everybody has refused to embrace in Roman Reigns.

 

[MERPER]

Again, I'll go back to Wrestlemania to answer this. Because regardless of what you think of him, he puts on great matches...

And ANY match he would have had at Wrestlemania would have been better than all but 1 or 2 on this year's card.

That is especially true if the rumors were true and we were looking at Undertaker vs. Cena. That would have been a pretty sweet match in terms of actual wrestling. Forget the drama and circumstances around Shane vs Undertaker, the actual wrestling involved is going to be awful.

 

[nwocongo]

With the lack of star power WWE has right now, Cena is definitely missed. It also shows how "one track" minded WWE has become during the "Cena Era" with the plethera of talent they have in Kevin Owens, Dean Ambrose and the number of other guys they've dropped the ball with and pretty much made lifelong mid-carders out of like Cody Rhodes, they've put 90% of their effort into a wrestler that almost everybody has refused to embrace in Roman Reigns.

Definitely shows the one track mind, it seems this company has become completely incapable of providing two different people with main event pushes simultaneously.
Rusev was ready to be the new top monster heel, but...lost to Cena (his ankle injury didn't help matters). Bray was poised to be the new top monster heel, but....lost to Cena. Owens was very hot in his debut, but....lost to Cena. You can even go back to Wade Barret when he looked like he could be elevated to a top heel. Granted these guys all scored victories over Cena at some point but in the culmination of the feud it has always been Cena going over which leads to the mid-card limbo WWE has stuck a lot of talented wrestlers in. Lesnar is about the only guy they've let get the better of Cena in recent memory and he was the one guy who was already established as vastly over and didn't necessarily need the rub.

This is why Cena is missed by some, mostly the company and its stockholders, and it is also why some are glad to see him off of tv for a while.

 

[OYDK]

Oh yeah, I miss John Cena. I have since he left. I'm not afraid to admit that I'm a huge Cena fan and I can honestly say that I believe nobody has matched him in terms of pure ability since C.M. Punk. Very few people can make a show interesting almost by themselves, Cena was one of those guys.

It's kind of telling that this is what Raw is like when he's not around... more scary than telling actually. Cena's nearly 40 years old and WWE has yet to get their next future guy over, not only have they not gotten him over, they've irreparably damaged him. Think about this...

Following the Hogan era, WWE had options as to who to push as their next guy. They went with Lex but when he failed, there was still Taker, Bret, Shawn, and Nash to fall back on. In the Attitude Era they had Austin, but when he went down there was still HHH, Rock, Foley, and Taker to rely on. When Austin/Rock left within 2 years of each other, WWE went with Lesnar but they still had HHH, Jericho, Angle, etc. waiting in the wings. Than Cena had to battle it out with Batista, Orton, and Edge to take his spot. Now there's who? There is quite literally nobody near ready enough to take the top spot from Cena.

So yeah, I miss Cena. And until WWE builds somebody to replace him, I'll likely leave with Cena as well.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Nope. What is there to miss? The same character that's been on TV for over a decade. Cena has done pretty much all he can as a headliner now, with the exception of a handful of matches. And should Cena's position be at a U.S. Title level when he returns? Nope.

It's time for him to become a part-timer.

 

[S.J. Maximus]

It would appear as if I'm in the minority on this one, but I do not miss John Cena at all. I don't know if people actually cared enough about Rene Dupree to look at the interview this website posted but I think he put it best when he said that Cena's absence (and the subsequent WrestleMania32 sellout) just proves how powerful the WWE brand is. When guys like Punk in '14 and Bryan in '14 (and '15 lol) stopped wrestling it definitely left a void creatively but the needle didn't really move much. With no Cena, they are still selling out the big arenas and numbers are doing just fine: John Cena is just another cog in the WWE machine. Granted I will admit he's a bigger cog, but a cog nonetheless.

Personally, I would be content if he never wrestled again (which obviously isn't a possibility). His return will shoot him right back into the main event scene, probably have him tie and then beat Ric Flair's record, and then continue to shit on people as the "Face that Runs the place". It absolutely amazes me how Hunter gets this reputation for burying guys despite putting over so many people over the years (Y2J, Angle, Cena, Batista, Orton, Bryan and more) while Cena has literally buried every up-and-comer he's face during his 11 year face run. He has literally never lost a feud with a new talent, but I will admit he rolled over for CM Punk (who was already an established main event guy at the start of their feud). IMO he's worse than Hogan in terms of burying talent; putting on 15-20 min matches with people on RAW letting them kick out of your finisher and then decisively beating them every week isn't putting them over.

But I understand the era we're in and I know people love that Cena Kool-Aid, so that is simply something I'm going to have to accept when it happens. Hopefully for me though, it won't happen for a while.

 

[enviousdominous]

I miss John Cena. There, I said it.

He shed his old gimmick and now he's basically just a highly agile body-builder who's mastered the art of showmanship, and above all that he's one of the few people left who we fans can take seriously as a world champion.

It's one of those dilemmas a hater like me has; I have to see John Cena to be able to see him lose and thus become happy. He's had more championships than even his biggest fans can recall without using Google. I think the only accolades he hasn't earned are having had more world championships than Ric Flair, and holding one of those championships for beyond Bruno's record. The Hall of Fame is a given for him, so he practically has that already. My point is; he's much more qualified than anyone else to carry the main event of WrestleMania. HHH is a great performer, but his match with Roman Reigns just seems toxic to me.

Being a consummate hater, I'm not sad that John Cena is gone. But, I'm willing to admit that I miss him because the show would be a lot more enjoyable if he were still around pissing me off. I hope he gets well soon and I sincerely hope that he takes Roman Reigns under his wing.

 

[BringThePain834]

This just in from PWInsider.

John Cena is ready to return to the ring and is expected to be cleared in the next few days. It’s also possible Cena has already been cleared and will have some type of physical role at WrestleMania 32 on Sunday. Cena is expected to appear at the PPV regardless of whether or not he gets physical.

Quite possibly due to how much star power is lacking, this is some good news and could possibly explain why the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal was moved to the main show and why the Braun Strowman plans have appeared to change.

 

[MERPER]

This just in from PWInsider.



Quite possibly due to how much star power is lacking, this is some good news and could possibly explain why the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal was moved to the main show and why the Braun Strowman plans have appeared to change.

This is interesting as within the last week we have conflicting reports on Cena.

This one saying that miraculously he is way better and can perform in some capacity at Wrestlemania vs the other one saying he would be out a couple months after Wrestlemania.

I have a feeling someone at WWE is leaking this current one to drum up interest in Wrestlemania because Network buys are down and they're hoping if people think Cena will be involved, they will buy.

 

[YatesA]

He does bring star power and can make a fued watchable when playing it seriously but I couldn't really care less about Cena at the moment. Meh, is my reaction almost every time with him.

 

[Lord_Frish]

I kinda miss him, but WWE really struggles to use his momentum to help anyone after they get a win over Cena. The highlight of Owens main roster career so far was his rivalry with Cena. He wasn't able or wasn't put in a position to build off that.

Del Rio could have been a solid babyface after his return and he beat Cena for the US Title. He got a good reaction but they paired him with Zeb to try and make him a heel. Which lasted a month? I forget, but it was short. After that all his brief momentum was gone and now he is either 2nd or 3rd in line behind Sheamus in one of the worst Main Event level heel factions in years.

The US Open Challenge was great, a guaranteed fun match on every Raw, but they completely failed to keep that momentum going. The US title is nothing special right now, no one who wrestled in the US Open Challenge is special right now.

 

[The Yes Guy]

Yes. Definitely.

Inspite of what people say, guys like Ambrose, Reigns and the lot don't have the Drawing Power that some of the guys like Cena or Punk had.
Ambrose does get the biggest pop of the night but getting a pop and being a draw are two different things.
With these guys it never feels like the big leagues. The feud never moves beyond the Sunday night Heat.
So, always been a fan of Cena, and always will be.

 

[Prince Vee]

I really don't miss him much. Many might can complain on the product and the lack of starpower but in my verdict, it's alright. We might not have the greatest of the Wretlemania Cards but it's alright. If I have a shred of thought in my heart about missing Cena, it would be the value that he brought back to the US Championship. I definitely don't miss him as a World Champ or Mainevent Player. Even though Roman Reigns or Dean Ambrose aren't getting the crowd reactions as of John Cena, they are getting the reactions necessarily. One thing that has been missing is the Midcard status, which John Cena brought it up.

 

[d_henderson1810]

Well, are you? I know I am.

Sitting in my lounge and watching the "Rivalries" series on the the WWE Network has really hit my in a way that I didn't think possible. Looking back on the feud that John Cena had with The Rock heading into WrestleMania 27 and 28, I have to admit that it really dims the sparkle on the biggest stage of them all this year. And maybe that is because this year's event has a surprising lack of star power.

And that is where John Cena has always been helpful. And of course there are a lot of injuries around Wrestlemania this year not limited to John Cena. But John Cena is the star power in WWE. But more than that though, John Cena represents a big night feel. He has fought the very best at WrestleMania pretty much every single year that he has been active. And his absence this year leaves a significant hole on the card. Or at least I think so.

But back to the original point. I firmly believe that the WWE is a better place when they have John Cena actively wrestling. He brought the United States Championship to a whole new level in his last meaningful championship run and he has to take all of the credit for that. But it remains clear to me that he is the star of this generation in the WWE. And when I watch Raw and Smackdown lately, there is something missing. That something is John Cena.

But what about you? Are you missing Cena yet? Or are you enjoying the absence of Mr. Fruity Pebbles?

I am missing his presence at Wrestlemania, considering that he was booked to fight the Undertaker at WM32, before he got injured.

Cena-Taker are two of the biggest names in the business, and have not fought each other for over 11 years. The match screams "Wrestlemania". Shane v Undertaker does not.

 

[d_henderson1810]

It would appear as if I'm in the minority on this one, but I do not miss John Cena at all. I don't know if people actually cared enough about Rene Dupree to look at the interview this website posted but I think he put it best when he said that Cena's absence (and the subsequent WrestleMania32 sellout) just proves how powerful the WWE brand is. When guys like Punk in '14 and Bryan in '14 (and '15 lol) stopped wrestling it definitely left a void creatively but the needle didn't really move much. With no Cena, they are still selling out the big arenas and numbers are doing just fine: John Cena is just another cog in the WWE machine. Granted I will admit he's a bigger cog, but a cog nonetheless.

Personally, I would be content if he never wrestled again (which obviously isn't a possibility). His return will shoot him right back into the main event scene, probably have him tie and then beat Ric Flair's record, and then continue to shit on people as the "Face that Runs the place". It absolutely amazes me how Hunter gets this reputation for burying guys despite putting over so many people over the years (Y2J, Angle, Cena, Batista, Orton, Bryan and more) while Cena has literally buried every up-and-comer he's face during his 11 year face run. He has literally never lost a feud with a new talent, but I will admit he rolled over for CM Punk (who was already an established main event guy at the start of their feud). IMO he's worse than Hogan in terms of burying talent; putting on 15-20 min matches with people on RAW letting them kick out of your finisher and then decisively beating them every week isn't putting them over.

But I understand the era we're in and I know people love that Cena Kool-Aid, so that is simply something I'm going to have to accept when it happens. Hopefully for me though, it won't happen for a while.

You just explained then, why WWE can push Roman Reigns if they like.

You said creatively, no matter who leaves and who gets pushed, they still sell out Wrestlemanias and sell arenas.

So, pushing someone like Cena or Reigns isn't going to hurt business, even if it doesn't help it either.

It also proves what I have suspected for years:- the people who complain here, the ones who write endless posts bagging Cena or Roman Reigns, or pushing Daniel Bryan, are a drop in the ocean of the WWE Universe.

This is why neither Vince nor Triple H read or listen to internet smarks. Because, even if they all quit watching wrestling tomorrow (which they won't, since it will give them nothing to complain about), this is a minor dip in attendance and ratings, and WWE will still make millions, with or without them.

Cena sells to women, children and families, which is where a lot of advertisers are targeting these days. Most of Cena's critics live in a time warp where they still want the "Attitude Era", which had a limited shelf life regardless.

When WWE needs to "paper" arenas or give away free tickets, like WCW did in its dying days, then Vince will change things up. Until then, he will keep doing what has worked for him for the past thirty years.