If Cena's Number 1, Who's Number 2?

[asiatic7]

This is just my assessment, but during my 27 years of watching wrasslin' there has always, pretty much been a number one and number two guy in WWF/E. During the 80's, Hogan was #1. Point blank. Macho Man rose to the number 2 guy in the late 80's. Even after winning his first WWF title in 1988 (Savage), everybody knew Hogan was still #1.
During the late 90's, after holding a nice cushioned spot at #1 for a couple of years, Bret and Shawn traded turns at being #1 and #2.
During the great Attitude Era, Stone Cold was #1 and The Rock was 1A (to call Rock #2 is an insult to the immediate impact he had on wrestling and after SCSA got hurt Rock was THEEE guy!)
Now, we have the John Cena era. John is THEEEguy and has been for the last 10 years. A few years ago, you might have said that Randy Orton was #2 and without debate.

Nowadays the IWC is just about unanimous about Randy's "stale-ness". Now, with CM Punk on the rise and the consistentcy of Sheamus and seeing how high the office is on the flamed hair hero, who do you consider the solid #2 guy in WWE? Is it still Randy? Or, maybe Punk or Sheamus? Maybe you think there is someone else who is the #2 guy or nobody at all...

But whomever your choice, back it up with reasoning and have fun guys. Thanks....

 

[The Hillside]

Much will depend on what criteria you would want to look at when considering your company's second best guy. Is it mic skills, charisma, ring work, feud building, drawing power or merchandise sales? Is it a overall package?

CM Punk? No doubt he is an established name since the last year and a complete package, but is it just because he has held the World Title for very long? Will he go down once the WWE Title is taken away from him, like when WHC was taken away from him.

Daniel Bryan? He is demoted to midcard again and he has never won the WWE Title.

Sheamus? He can get boring at times and again he is just being helped by the WHC Title in hand, remember how he turned into a midcarder again once the WWE Title was taken away from him.

Randy Orton? Yeah he used to be the second face of the company after Cena 2-3 years ago, but not anymore due to injuries, suspensions or getting stale whatever.

What are the other names? HHH, The Rock, Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho Brock Lesnar or The Undertaker? But they are all not regulars.

It is a huge discussion, but I will just look at the potential and drawing power of a superstar, as Cena is average inside the ring and on the mic as well yet he is the face of the company.

The greatest potential at the moment is The Rock, even though he is not a regular but he doesn't even need the World Title or regular runs to generate crowd heat and drawing power.

The Rock is the no.2 at the moment and fans are always look forward to his matches and appearences/returns and next feuds/promos the most. He is always the most awaited superstar to appear on television and PPV's and the fans most loved.

 

[The Great King]

Right now it is CM Punk, but I think WWE is building Sheamus as the new No. 2 guy in WWE. Though it has yet to be seen if it is going to work.

 

[Wolf Pac]

Even with all the injuries, suspensions & people thinking he's getting stale, as long as he is around in the WWE, it's still Randy Orton IMO. After Cena, he's the second most accomplished superstar on the current roster with like 9 or 10 World/WWE Championship reigns and there's a reason why he is on SD! instead of RAW with Cena & Punk, he's the backup for Sheamus incase he fails to carry the brand, which it seems like he will. I know HHH is considering making Sheamus the #2 guy but he hasn't accomplished much or that over with the fans to earn such a position, right now everybody just thinks of him as HHH's golden boy and nothing more. As for CM Punk, I see him more as the HHH of this era. He's the top heel, he has a couple of WWE/World Title reigns under his belt and is currently the longest reigning WWE Champion that they've had in years but at the end of the day, he's the guy who's just taking a backseat to the real top guy(s). The WWE haven't had enough faith in him to main event a PPV for nearly a year now unless it's with Cena or Cena is not on the card. Rock & Macho have main evented just about as much PPV's as Hogan & Austin did, Orton has main evented more PPV's than Punk when he was definitely considered the #2 guy, if Punk was the #2 guy now, he would've main evented just about as much PPV's as Cena has this past year but he hasn't.

 

[HBKistheHOF]

Well these days it's alot more complicated because we have so many "tweeners".

IMO, The top 2 guys (judging by their talent, abilties, reaction, screen time, etc.) are CM Punk & Daniel Bryan respectively.

But what you are referring to is the top two FACES (Hogan/Savage, Bret/Shawn, Austin/Rock).

In that case it was John Cena & Randy Orton for the last couple years. But now Orton wants to turn heel & I don't think anyone can blame him.

It was only this past year that WWE tried to make the switch to CM Punk & Sheamus as #1 & #2 respectively. While it worked on many levels, WWE realized that Punk is best as a heel battling their Cena's & rising stars.

So now John Cena has re-claimed his position as thee top babyface with WWE trying to build Sheamus as a strong #2. They are letting him "run" Smackdown like Edge & Orton the years prior, they are giving him a long title reign, they are making him look invincible, they are really doing everything they can to make him into Cena version 2.0.

I think most peoples problem is that they see him as a very rushed, B-show, John Cena. (With even worse booking at times).

And with such a gap in between the main event picture & the mid card it is hard to place a #2 or #3, because wierdly enough the #2 and #3 spots all belong to the guys that are either supposed to be bad guys like Punk & Bryan or guys that are still rising or transitioning like Orton or Ziggler.

But currently, in the grand scheme of things, WWE's #2 is Sheamus.

 

[TheLurker]

Is this poll serious?

Of course its Punk..

Sheamus makes a big run for #2, but Punk brings in more merchandise sales and bigger pops than Sheamus. I have seen Punk on ESPN, have yet to seen Sheamus on it. Sheamus is number 1 on Smackdown, Punk is number 1 on Raw, John Cena is number 1 on WWE.

So... WWE > Raw > Smackdown
Hence... John Cena > Punk > Sheamus
Therefore... ^#1......^#2.....^#3

I forgot about Orton. But since I hear he might be going off air to go film 12 Rounds Reloaded, meh.

 

[TheHeartbreakPunk]

I would say that sheamus is the number 2 guy in wwe right now. I love cm punk, but the number 1 and 2 guys in wwe are generally on raw and smackdown, respectively. With that being said, and all the talk of a possible randy orton heel turn, i think that if randy orton turns heel, he will get put into that invisible spot of the number 2 guy in wwe, because you cant have a guy like randy orton turn heel, and not win the title going along with it. But that wont be for awhile seeing as he is shooting 12 rounds, which will last through november.

 

[James]

Punk is still the number 2 seller when it comes to merchandise, so obviously he is number 2. WWE keeps giving him new merchandise because the fans eat them up.

 

[Kodo Sawaki]

If Cena's Number 1, Who's Number 2?

CM Punk.

No2 face is definatly Sheamus but they are shoving us at our throtes ever since he came from ECW and he is still not that over and I dont think that it will ever happen. Maybe in time and with some good feuds but I dont think that will happen because I personally dont see him as "The Man" even on the Smackdown let alone as the future of WWE who will once be "The Man of the WWE". Time will tell if I am right or wrong...

No2 guy in the company(right now) is CM Punk. They builded him good(WWE invested heavylly in him), he is multiple World Champion and over 300+ days Champion at the moment and he is someone who is right after Cena. If Cena wasn't on the card for lets say for example at "Over the Limit 2012" it would be Punk vs Bryan with some involment of John Laurinaitis. He is no2 guy, and somebody who was maineventing before and is maineventing right now in the feud vs. Cena.

Orton would easily be no2 guy but he screwed a lot of things up with his behavior outside the ring. In the ring he is superb(aside of his mic skills who are OK but not the best) but he degraded himself with wellness policy suspensions and right now he is out of the mainevent picture.

So, right now in the eyes of WWE is Cena > Punk > Sheamus and then the rest of the rooster.

 

[DetectiveZelix]

I'm still going with Punk as number 2. He wil always be the fill in when Cena is out of action

 

[XXJJ]

Its Punk or Orton. Right now I will go with Punk. Orton being on smackdown kind of hurts him. You usually get the 3rd or 4th most important storyline on sd in the company. WWE title and whatever Cena is doing are usually the most important storylines. Plus, he has been absent a lot this year.

Sheamus is 4, both Punk and ORton are more popular.

 

[FlairFan2003]

First off, it's hard to say that every "era" has a clear #1 and #2 guy - For much of Hogan's HulkaMania Era 1984-91 Roddy Piper was the No 2 guy in the company, for awhile Ultimate Warrior was #2. A strong case could be made for Ted DiBiase as the No 2 guy for a time during this period.

No doubt that Austin & Rock were the top guys of the Attitude Era, Prior to that Hart was mostly #1 but he traded with HBK & Kevin Nash, then was eclsipsed by Austin & HBK and arguably Taker as well.

If you go back to 2006 as when Cena-Nation really took hold and began dominating the company, there have been periods where Batista, Orton, HHH, Edge have all been "The Other Top Guy", with varying levels of success as well as different reasons for why they didnt last (Batista left, Orton injury & drug issues, Edge injury & retirement). Just like the HulkaMania Era while Hogan was mostly a consensus #1 Piper was No 2 for awhile before he retired, Savage took a sabatical, Warrior was let go, DiBiase slipped down the card, different guys at different times with varying levels of success and different reasons why they rose and fell.

Right now it's pretty clear CM Punk is "The Other Guy", the Savage to Cena's Hogan, The Dusty Rhodes to Cena's Flair, The HBK to Cena's Hart. His lengthy title reign and the legitimate chance he will be main eventing Royal Rumble vs The Rock clearly make him the company's top guy next to Cena right now.

Cena is truly comparable to Brett Hart - a dedicated, hard working guy who himself is doing well during a time the industry as a whole is struggling, the similarities between the two and their prime eras are striking. Like Hart, who had his limitations (charisma being the biggest) Cena is not totally to blame for WWE's current woes - you can only do so much with what the company books.

Ultimately to answer the question - No 2 guy right now... CM Punk, it's not even close

 

[Mustang Sally]

Punk is clearly #2. There are plenty of folks who try to tell us he's #1, but that's a pipe dream; Cena is so many miles ahead of everyone else that there will naturally be those who attempt to convince us he's not (the same people who choose to hate him, I suppose).

I wonder what Phil Brooks thinks in private moments. We still don't know how much of last year's "Summer of Punk" was a work or not. Is there some part of him that really believes he should be regarded (by fans and the company) as the #1 guy? Did he think he was #2 at the time but figured he'd make his way to the top by now? Did he ever really think he could supplant John Cena?

The fact we still debate last year's events at all indicates that Brooks and WWE did a great job with the program, but I'd love to know what he really thinks.

 

[info62]

Its Punk or Orton. Right now I will go with Punk. Orton being on smackdown kind of hurts him. You usually get the 3rd or 4th most important storyline on sd in the company. WWE title and whatever Cena is doing are usually the most important storylines. Plus, he has been absent a lot this year.

Sheamus is 4, both Punk and ORton are more popular.

Batista was always #2 while he was on SmackDown & Cena was #1 on Raw, and Batista still got major storylines at SmackDown. I don't think being on SD automatically negates you as #2 for that reason.

I can't see WWE ever losing faith in Orton as their current #2 no matter what thing he does to anger them. Then again I never thought they'd actually bother to suspend him for anything ever again. As for now I'd still put money on Orton being the #2.

 

[S.J. Maximus]

I don't know how people can say Sheamus is the #2 guy in the company when there are multiple people who get a bigger pop than him every week. I understand he is the champion but being number #1 and #2 is more than being champ, which John Cena has clearly demonstrated with his current 1 year drought as Champion. Did Rock need to belt to be over? did Savage?

With that being said, I'd say CM Punk is the #2 guy in the company with Orton being close behind. Punk has been featured very prominently for the entire year of 2012, still gets big pops despite being heel, and dominates every promo they give him on a weekly basis. He's over, he's moving merch, and he is the key to RAW booking right now. Although Orton is clearly over, he has basically had no direction in the entire year of 2012 and hasn't been put in an actual storyline since his feud with Cody Rhodes last year. Maybe if they started using his character in storylines he could re-claim his #2 spot but as long as he keeps getting used as the guy who randomly beats people on RAW, SD, and PPVs without much story, CM Punk will remain the #2 guy.

 

[UFOcalling]

I've brought this subject up in several other threads (and I'm sure it's been on many people's minds since Cena's recent surgery, and the time he'll need to recover). It seems the WWE is in trouble, with the amount of babyfaces they have on their roster. The only "true" main event faces they've got right now are Cena, Orton & Sheamus (maybe you could count Rey Mysterio in that group, but he's got a program with Sin Cara going on right now). The other main event guys (CM Punk, Del Rio, Big Show) are heels...the other thing is that just about all the talent the WWE has on the brink of becoming Main Eventers are also currently playing heel characters: The Miz, Ziggler, Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes, Mark Henry, Damien Sandow (although he might be too fresh of a face on WWE TV to push as main event talent) and Tensai are the only ones I can think of in that position.

As far as faces that could eventually be pushed into the main event, the only guys I can come up with are Brodus Clay (however with his current character, I just don't see him making the leap to main event status in the immediate future), Christian (he's got the TNA red-tape holding him back right now though), Evan Bourne (not big enough height/build-wise, plus his drug stuff is holding him back), Kofi & Truth (I put them together, because it's obvious they're busy with the tag championships), Kane & Bryan (same as Kofi & Truth, although I think they're technically still heels), Ryback (it's too early to make this guy a main eventer, although he will be HUGE for the WWE in the future if he doesn't screw it up or get popped for taking "performance enhancers"), Santino & Zack Ryder (both Santino & Ryder are in that "comedy jobber" role right now, it would take a character tweak to make them main event relevant).

Unfortunately, the WWE is very low on main event faces right now (unless you were to add the part-timers; Rock, Undertaker and/or HHH). This is one of the reasons I can really see the WWE reaching out to Jeff Hardy once his TNA contract is up. I think the WWE needs Hardy more than Hardy needs the WWE right now, and Hardy could EASILY be the #2 face (if not #1 face, eventually eclipsing Cena's popularity - don't scoff, I really think this could happen) for the WWE. With the current roster, it's gotta be Sheamus as their #2 face.

A lot of people are saying Punk is #2. That may be, but he's playing a heel. I don't consider him #2, I consider him WWE's #1 heel. Before Punk went back to playing a heel (which started back at Raw 1000), Punk was the #2 face of the company...he was only slightly behind Cena in that respect, however - and at times seemed even more popular than Cena.

If the WWE is thinking about pushing a new (babyface) superstar into the main event, my suggestion at this point in time would be Santino or Ryder. You could easily put either one of these guys on a MAJOR hot-streak for a few weeks, and have them beat some big heels. I think the WWE should give whomever they decide to push a new finishing maneuver however, as I think the Cobra and the Rough-Ryder both need a change. Neither one screams "main event" finisher to me. The announcers could say that "this new attitude of (x-wrestler)" combined with "their new finishing move" are the contributing factors to their new-found success. IMHO, the WWE needs to do something right now, as their main event is gonna look pretty scarce if Orton indeed turns heel. All that would really leave as their main good guys are Sheamus & Cena. If one of them were to get injured, they'd be completely screwed (unless they start building a new ME face NOW...and I mean like next week). It's no wonder that the WWE started doing "supershows", it seems they don't have enough talent on the roster anymore for two shows. The other option the WWE has (which I don't think they'll do any time in the near-future) is to unify the belts (at least the WHC and WWE Championship) and go back to one company...I know they've kind of already done that with the Raw "supershow" and everything, but the brand extension might be in jeopardy with their current roster. My guess is that the WWE will continue to rely on Cena, however, and it looks as though they're also putting a lot of eggs in Ryback's basket (for the future). Hopefully that will work out for them, but IMHO Ryback won't be ready for the main event until sometime in 2013.

TNA has more main event level talent (at least in TNA's eyes) IMHO, and they wouldn't be in trouble if they were to lose Hardy or Aries at the moment. They could easily slide Storm into that slot, and move everyone up again. It's weird to say, but TNA has a better long-term plan going on right now than the WWE does. I know a lot of you will probably disagree with me on that, but before you blast me for that opinion - just think about it for a minute. Just my two cents.

 

[boywithbluehanger]

If CM Punk isn't the number 2 guy, they wouldn't have let him belittle Sheamus' WHC title live on RAW. I can't remember verbatim what Punk said to Sheamus but I swear it was something like "I am the WWE champion. I am the best in the world. You are the World Heavyweight Champion, which makes you second at best."

Since we all can agree that Punk isn't quite the face of the company that Cena is yet, then he is the number 2 guy. And Sheamus, the guy whose title he shitted on, is the number 3 guy.

 

[Brothervis]

Cena number 1 and this isn't spam? I can say The rock is #1 since him being part active gets a better babyface reaction than Cena ever will. Punk is more over either way than Cena ever will. Cena is number 2 in any feud he is in as people with balls root against him. Owen Hart 3:16 Cena is lame

 

[MrGameTime]

Hands down 100% punk is numer 2

Orton used to be but hes fell off after his trip down doobie lane.

I would say
1 cena
2 punk
3 - sheamus/orton maybe ziggles if he keeps improving, del rio etc still way far off.

 

[EastCoastFan]

CM Punk. He's been the guy they've been pushing for well over a year. He's definitely over with the fans and many thought he was going to surpass Cena and become THEEEEE guy. Even though it turned out not to be the case, he's still a solid #2.

 

[Sexcellence of Sexecution]

First off, I just want to say that people definitely underestimate the pop that Sheamus gets week in and week out. The guy is over like rover, and I don't even know what that means.

That being said, it's pretty clear that Punk is the #2 guy behind John Cena. He's taken that status ever since the big angle with Cena last year. His merchandise sales are through the roof, he's been WWE Champion for a long time, he's going to be facing the Rock one-on-one most likely at the Royal Rumble, so I think it's an easy decision. Sheamus is making his way up but isn't quite on Punk's level, and Orton has become almost a workhorse upper midcarder it seems (which is fine by the way, the guy's a good worker and can help young guys have solid matches), so there you have it.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

Why is this even a discussion? CM Punk's number 1... he has the WWE title. Period. John Cena's a strong two, but I've been a firm believer that no matter what the circumstances are, the man who holds the top of the heap holds the belt. And Punk holds the belt.

 

[enviousdominous]

And my stupid phone is at war with my ability to leave a thoughtful post. Fucking thing abruptly posted that last one.

If WWE could control space and time, Randy would be the number 2 guy. He's a home grown legacy with arguably the beat theme music in the business.
Cena, as much as I'm sure he'd rather be working with Randy, has to admit to himself that there's more money in his fued with Punk.

Punk is the number 2 guy only because he's willing to be for the sake of allowing the writing staff the ability to feel useful. There's nobody who can match his charisma, not even Cena.


Posted from Wrestlezone.com App for Android

 

[BigRedPunk]

An interesting topic that has to be thought about for a minute. About 1-2 years ago the #2 guy was obviously Randy Orton. Sure a lot of the Ziggler/Bryan/Punk guys considered him to be stale and boring, but it's the truth that he was still the second biggest draw next to Cena and always got near the same level of reactions. Although ever since Orton was injured and came back I think he has lost at least some of his momentum. He still consistently gets solid reactions/pops from the crowd, but not quite as cared about as before.

Therefore I believe the #2 guy to be CM Punk. He has risen above Orton this past year. He now gets bigger reactions then him and sells more merchandise and is also relied on more when Cena is injured.

They are trying to build up Sheamus as the next top guy, but he is not even quite past Orton's current level yet. He is close and he may be the #2 at some point POSSIBLY just not now.

I have faith that in a year or a couple more Ryback may rise up to the top spots. He already garners great reactions/chants from the crowd anyway.

BUT right now...it's the Second City Saint CM Punk.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Therefore I believe the #2 guy to be CM Punk. He has risen above Orton this past year.

One interesting aspect of the Orton & Punk story is the divergent paths they took to reach their present standing. Orton gained his #2 spot through hard work and exciting performances, then lost it through bad deeds which saw him come close to being terminated. Punk also did great ring and promo work, reaching #2 only after (allegedly) threatening to quit.

Would Punk really have given up his position in the largest wrestling organization in the world? He insists he would have, but we don't know how much of it was a work. As for Randy, would the company really have fired him? Maybe not, but his off-site antics may be the reason Punk was able to take over his #2 position.

If Punk had quit, what do you suppose he would be doing for a living? Join TNA and risk being mismanaged there? If he didn't like the way Hogan, Bischoff and whomever ran things, he'd probably figure he was better off in WWE, not enjoying himself but at least earning big bucks to soothe his wounded feelings. Or maybe he would have gone independent, playing high school gyms in Wheeling, West Virginia for $250 an appearance. Whoopie!

But it never happened like that because he got his way with the company of his choice. I doubt he ever figured to be boosted over John Cena; Punk seems too smart to expect the ridiculous. Being #2 was probably fine with him.

One way or the other, he got himself placed at the top of the company. Whether he was really "almost out the door" or not, I'd wager the rest of the locker room thinks the guy's got cojones, no?

Wonder what Randy Orton thinks of Punk.