Cena is being written as a bad leader.

[MartialHorror]

In storyline, not in reality. Sometimes the writing of the character can make them unintentionally unsympathetic, but it seems like Cena has been on a roll with this lately.

This Smackdown, he was nowhere to be seen, allowing the authority to gain the edge over his own teammates. They showed an interview where he said he felt responsible for them, but apparently not enough to watch their bags in a show that will obviously end with the authority trying to screw them over. Obviously the real reason is that Cena just rarely shows up on Smackdown, but they should've brought him in anyway.

It was worse when he was recruiting Ryback though and I'm baffled at how idiotic WWE made themselves out to be by doing this. So his teammates get their asses kicked by Rusev and Mark Henry, with Sheamus being injured so badly that he is taken off the team. Does Cena come save the day? Nope, instead he's trying to bring Ryback on the team. At least with this Smackdown, Cena obviously wasn't there. But since he was present during RAW, it made him look like an awful and selfish leader.

So do you guys think that the writing is letting him down? Or has Cena always been written as someone who was self centered and aloof, even when he's being presented as the ultimate good guy?

 

[Navi]

I'm sorry but with all due respect, I really don't see where you're going with this. Of course the Authority will try to screw Cena's team over, they're heels and they're in charge and can do whatever they want.

As for Sheamus. Mark Henry didn't injure him on purpose, it was an accident. If a wrestler was going around doing it purposely then they shouldn't be on the roster. I heard he went through surgery the other day and will be on the shelf for awhile.

It's a case of bad luck for Sheamus and I'm feeling he might be a little injury prone. He's not even been back a year from his other one.

With regards to Cena's team though, they have an uphill battle, and that's what's been happening. We didn't even know who the team was until last Monday. This PPV isn't holding my interest right now, and I'm afraid it might be a shambles.

 

[MartialHorror]

I'm sorry but with all due respect, I really don't see where you're going with this. Of course the Authority will try to screw Cena's team over, they're heels and they're in charge and can do whatever they want.

As for Sheamus. Mark Henry didn't injure him on purpose, it was an accident. If a wrestler was going around doing it purposely then they shouldn't be on the roster. I heard he went through surgery the other day and will be on the shelf for awhile.

It's a case of bad luck for Sheamus and I'm feeling he might be a little injury prone. He's not even been back a year from his other one.

With regards to Cena's team though, they have an uphill battle, and that's what's been happening. We didn't even know who the team was until last Monday. This PPV isn't holding my interest right now, and I'm afraid it might be a shambles.

Er, I must've been very unclear as you missed my point entirely. I was criticizing the writers for having Cena seemingly leave his teammates to get beaten up. Sheamus's injury, from what I heard, had nothing to do with Henry's slam in real life. That was a storyline excuse to get him out of there. I presumed that Sheamus had some other injury that was simply getting worse with time (like Daniel Bryan).

Good writing would be having Cena run out after the strongest Slam, only for the villains to scatter before he can do anything.

 

[Navi]

Er, I must've been very unclear as you missed my point entirely. I was criticizing the writers for having Cena seemingly leave his teammates to get beaten up. Sheamus's injury, from what I heard, had nothing to do with Henry's slam in real life. That was a storyline excuse to get him out of there. I presumed that Sheamus had some other injury that was simply getting worse with time (like Daniel Bryan).

Good writing would be having Cena run out after the strongest Slam, only for the villains to scatter before he can do anything.

According to Meltzer he injured his arm, neck and spine when Mark Henry put him through the table, and he went through surgery last Thursday for it.

Good writing from the WWE, that's a laugh, they've been stuck in a rut forever now. The faces never run out to help each other, only the heels do. Remember when the Shield turned, never saw the locker room empty so many times, only heels came out, faces stay in the shadows.

Here's what I read about Sheamus

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2275107-sheamus-injury-updates-on-wwe-stars-arm-neck-and-return

 

[WimpyKid4Life]

The saddest part of this all is the fact that John Cena is getting some of the loudest, most passionate, 100% Pro-Cena chants in a while and anytime the crowd actually pulls for the good guy and chant "Cena! Cena!" he is nowhere to be found. For once the crowd is 100% on his back and Cena doesn't come out to save the day. It happened on Raw when Rusev and Mark Henry attacked Big Show and Sheamus & it happened on Smackdown in the main event. Hopefully John Cena doesn't waste this opportunity of being embraced as the hero .

#HustleLoyaltyRespect #NeverGiveUp

 

[Jack-Hammer]

John Cena is being written as Vince McMahon wants him to be written. In my opinion, that's where most of the problem with WWE's writing lies. Triple H has a direction he wants to go with an angle or story involving Cena, Vince has another idea and ultimately Vince is the one who makes the final call. Trips praised Vince in his promo last night and a lot of what he said is true, or at least it was at one point, but I'm of the opinion that Vince is no longer the greatest mind in the industry. I think he's more concerned at this point in time in maintaining the status quo for as long as he possibly can, i.e. keeping John Cena as the biggest & most relevant star on the roster no matter how much it might hinder the rest of the roster, rather than build more towards the future. Vince doesn't like the idea of Cena looking weak whatsoever because he thinks people will stop watching; the notion of people preferring heroes these days as more flawed & vulnerable is a concept that Vince McMahon just can't seem to wrap his head around.

One thing you see often in pro wrestling is heels aligning to work easier than babyfaces. Most of the best factions in pro wrestling were either heels or started out as heels: The Freebirds, Four Horsemen, Heenan Family, nWo, DX, Corporation, Ministry of Darkness, Evolution, etc. Most of the time, a loose alliance of babyfaces are booked to just not be able to work together as smoothly as heels. In this case, the heels are aligned with The Authority who not only sign the paychecks, but are the brains of the operation. Triple H is the Cerebral Assassin, the thinker, the schemer, the planner whereas John Cena isn't really a strategic kinda guy. The Authority use money, blackmail and intimidation to ensure loyalty from their troops. As far as being a leader goes, the way Cena has been written does seem to go with his character, in my opinion. Cena's all heart, guts, toughness and physical force rather than someone who schemes and tries to manipulate circumstances. He gives passionate speeches, wears his heart on his sleeve, doesn't mince words and is the type to rally his troops with notions of courage & heart. As a result, they get their asses handed to them more often than not during the build up for Survivor Series. At the event itself, however, the babyfaces usually rally and manage to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat at the last split second.

 

[L@RISANO]

It is WWE Logic, nothing else... it is a pretty sad state as it paints the hero characters as being selfish.

Take for instance Reigns and Ambrose who were never written against each other but still they hardly ever helped each other over a period of 2/3 months. The only explanation given is that they both 'chose' different targets yet I never got why when the Authority ganged up in group beatdowns neither guy ever attempted to help the other.
In actual fact, such booking caused Reigns to lose some fans given that Ambrose was in the hot feud against the new hated Traitor who had the group backing of the Authority.

 

[MartialHorror]

It is WWE Logic, nothing else... it is a pretty sad state as it paints the hero characters as being selfish.

Take for instance Reigns and Ambrose who were never written against each other but still they hardly ever helped each other over a period of 2/3 months. The only explanation given is that they both 'chose' different targets yet I never got why when the Authority ganged up in group beatdowns neither guy ever attempted to help the other.
In actual fact, such booking caused Reigns to lose some fans given that Ambrose was in the hot feud against the new hated Traitor who had the group backing of the Authority.

While I agree with you, at least with Reigns and Ambrose, they were never really the good guys. They were anti-heroes and you can actually make decent arguments as to 'why'. Ambrose's obsession seems very narrow minded based on the writing. For example, he isn't even messing around with Rollins or the Authority anymore even though this would be the perfect time to enact revenge because his attention is on Bray Wyatt.

Also, remember when Reigns was turning into a face while Ambrose seemed to be more villainous than ever? He seemed to think that Ambrose should fight his own battles and only interfered when Rollins chose to do so. Hell, I'm easy going enough to see potential foreshadowing to Rollins heel turn long before they actually chose to go down that path. Rollins was the first one to acknowledge that he'd turn on the others during the buildup for the Royal Rumble and was rather smug about it.

But there is no justification for how Cena is being written. No way to really explain it. WWE is indirectly telling me that Cena doesn't care for the people who are helping them, even when they have so much more to lose.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Or has Cena always been written as someone who was self centered and aloof, even when he's being presented as the ultimate good guy?

I can see the point but don't feel Cena's been depicted that way, not when one considers all the times he's done run-ins to help people who seemingly had no connection to him.

The whole problem here stems from the fact that Cena doesn't contractually have to appear on Smackdown very much, which was to everyone's disadvantage last night. Even as I was thinking what a terrific legal case his team members would have to bring to the Labor Relations Board if they were fired, essentially for having joined Cena's team, it also occurred that he should have been there to fend off the Authority's threats.....and he was painted as a bad leader for being nowhere in sight.

When he's around, though, I don't see anyone projecting as a better team captain; a guy who can unite a group of people with disparate goals and personalities (think of who's on his team) and get them functioning as a cohesive whole.

At the go-home show before a major PPV, they should have gotten the leader on camera.

 

[L@RISANO]

While I agree with you, at least with Reigns and Ambrose, they were never really the good guys. They were anti-heroes and you can actually make decent arguments as to 'why'. Ambrose's obsession seems very narrow minded based on the writing. For example, he isn't even messing around with Rollins or the Authority anymore even though this would be the perfect time to enact revenge because his attention is on Bray Wyatt.

Also, remember when Reigns was turning into a face while Ambrose seemed to be more villainous than ever? He seemed to think that Ambrose should fight his own battles and only interfered when Rollins chose to do so. Hell, I'm easy going enough to see potential foreshadowing to Rollins heel turn long before they actually chose to go down that path. Rollins was the first one to acknowledge that he'd turn on the others during the buildup for the Royal Rumble and was rather smug about it.

But there is no justification for how Cena is being written. No way to really explain it. WWE is indirectly telling me that Cena doesn't care for the people who are helping them, even when they have so much more to lose.

On Reigns and Ambrose...My point was merely that though they are "Anti-Heroes" of sorts(or should be and remain as such for the forseeable future) Both were after the Authority(Rollins after all became an Authority member as well), yet it always seemed that when Rollins/Orton/Kane/HHH came to gang up on either guy, the other one was nowhere to be found.

Such writing hurt Reigns more, given he was feuding with, at the time, "Boreton and Borane", and didn't seem even a little bit that "You know what?...Seth Rollins also backstabbed me and joined the enemy" No. It was like he was put into a different dimension than his brothers and it all seemed to be inconsistent writing more than anything of what could have been an overall Awesome chapter of the Authority angle.


With Cena, on RAW last week he was watching a Ryback match during the show, but never once bothered to help 'his' teammates at all. I thought that to be another inconsistency like it was with Reigns and Ambrose earlier, though yes, I Do Agree that with John, it is even more unforgivable given the stakes of this feud and the fact those guys joined him when they didnt have to.


Maybe we are in the age of "Selfish Heroes"....

 

[No Count Pup]

This is actually an excellent thread. Martial Horror, I think there are different ways to look at the writing. One way is to say they have erred and that Cena looks aloof. But I also think that in the kayfabe world it is common knowledge that Cena does a lot of media and charity work. He could have been visiting a Make-a-Wish child for all we know. In the kayfabe world, we could also surmise that Cena was banned from the building by the Authority.

When watching Smackdown last night I had the same thoughts as the OP. But when I started thinking about the fictional explanations for Cena's absence, I became less critical of the writers.

 

[Softcore Holly]

This is actually an excellent thread. Martial Horror, I think there are different ways to look at the writing. One way is to say they have erred and that Cena looks aloof. But I also think that in the kayfabe world it is common knowledge that Cena does a lot of media and charity work. He could have been visiting a Make-a-Wish child for all we know. In the kayfabe world, we could also surmise that Cena was banned from the building by the Authority.

When watching Smackdown last night I had the same thoughts as the OP. But when I started thinking about the fictional explanations for Cena's absence, I became less critical of the writers.

Eh...I see your point but it still doesn't make it seem any less lame. For SD they could've said that Cena was banned from the arena or "given the night off" at the start of the show or something to explain his absence outright. We shouldn't have to fill in the blanks with maybes that will probably never be addressed.

Even if Cena was storyline busy with charity that makes him come off as a bad leader whose team is second priority, great human being sure but still a lousy leader. Like you don't ever want to go to war with someone who might be busy doing something else, especially not the leader. No matter how good of a reason that may be he's worthless to you if he's not around when the fighting starts.

But then again this is the same storyline where the good guys are happy to run in single file to the entire opposing army like sheep to a slaughter so it's not really all that surprising. Still really dumb but not surprising.

 

[sanefan_har]

Maybe Cena was convinced by the fact that his team got the better of the Authority on Monday Night Raw, and hence used that as an excuse for not showing up on Smackdown.

Also, Nikki Bella. She has the charisma of a napkin, but would anyone, especially John Cena, really turn down an opportunity to cuddle those puppies, among others? Fake or not, they make her stand out in more ways than one.

In all seriousness, this is a great thread. One could even speculate that John Cena might actually join the Authority, Since Hunter never mentioned whether or not John Cena would be fired. He looked the other 4 in their eyes and told them so. Suspicious eh?

 

[BigThunder]

Cena's leadership is being written by Creative so that Congress's leadership looks good by comparison. It's awful.

The storyline is being written on autopilot with Wrestling logic ("The heels always get the better of the faces and the good guys never help if you need to draw heat") while forgetting that even Wrestling logic has an extra provision for team situations, that teammates always support each other, unless there's a special stipulation barring them from interfering, and when one teammate fails to go to the wall for the other, that almost always leads to a turn or a breakup.

Maybe Sunday will be an effective payoff. But if it's run like none of this mattered, and everyone's happy and on the same page... *shakes head and walks away*

 

[Woodstuff]

I think this angle would make more sense if the members of Team Cena didn't necessarily get along, but chose to help Cena because they're each individually sick of The Authority. Ziggler (kayfabe) lost his IC title to Luke Harper because his team mates didn't fend of the pre-match attack from half The Authority. If there was beef between him and the other Team Cena guys, them not rushing to his aid would have made a lot more sense, as is the case with all of the 3 / 4 / 5 on 1 attacks, in my opinion.

I think the reason there's been virtually no team work outside of tag matches on Team Cena, is that somebody (I think Ziggler) is gonna turn on Cena and cost his team the match.

 

[MartialHorror]

Really this whole angle is missing out on so many opportunities.

It was set up that Kane didn't like bailing Rollins out all the time, but it was never really followed through. Rusev and Henry should be butting heads because they feuded not that long ago. In fact, Rusev should be treated as the wild card. He's a loner and doesn't like Americans and should make that known in-story line. The Authority should fall because Rollins ego alienates people and they just can't get along.

I don't mind Team Cena being united as most of their feuds were too long ago.