If only one could be in the Hall of Fame

[Disturbed]

I am starting a new series where, I name two superstars who are not in the hall of fame, and if only one of the two could go into the WWE Hall of Fame, then which one would you want in it? I am kicking off the series with John Cena and The Rock. If only one of these two men could go into the Hall of Fame one day, which one would you like in it?

Here is a list of Cena's accomplishments from Wikipediia.

Ohio Valley Wrestling
OVW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Rico Constantino
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
PWI Feud of the Year (2006) vs. Edge
PWI Match of the Year (2007) vs. Shawn Michaels on Raw on April 23
PWI Most Improved Wrestler of the Year (2003)
PWI Most Popular Wrestler of the Year (2004, 2005, 2007)
PWI Wrestler of the Year (2006, 2007)
PWI ranked #1 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2006 and 2007
Ultimate Pro Wrestling
UPW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Shawn Michaels (1) and Batista (1)
WWE Championship (7 times)
WWE Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with David Otunga
WWE United States Championship (3 times)
Royal Rumble (2008)
Slammy Award winner - 2009 and 2010 Superstar of the Year
Slammy Award for Holy %&^*%&* Move of the Year (2010) Sends Batista through the stage with an Attitude Adjustment.
Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
Wrestler of the Year (2007, 2010)
Best Box Office Draw (2007)
Best on Interviews (2007)
Most Charismatic (2006–2010)
Most Charismatic of the Decade (2000–2009)
Best Gimmick (2003)

List of The Rock's accomplisment's from wikipedia.

Pro Wrestling Illustrated
PWI Match of the Year (1999) vs. Mankind in an "I Quit" match at Royal Rumble
PWI Match of the Year (2002) vs. Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania X8
PWI Most Popular Wrestler of the Year (1999, 2000)
PWI Wrestler of the Year (2000)
PWI ranked him #2 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the year in the PWI 500 in 2000
PWI ranked him #76 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003
United States Wrestling Association
USWA World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Bart Sawyer
World Wrestling Federation / World Wrestling Entertainment
WCW/World Championship (2 times)
WWF/E Championship (7 times)
WWF Intercontinental Championship (2 times)
WWF Tag Team Championship (5 times) – with Mankind (3), The Undertaker (1), and Chris Jericho (1)
Royal Rumble (2000)
Slammy Award for New Sensation (1997)
Sixth Triple Crown Champion
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Best Box Office Draw (2000)
Best Gimmick (1999)
Best on Interviews (1999, 2000)
Most Charismatic (1999–2002)
Most Improved (1998)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 2007)



People have dreamed of seeing them in the ring against one another but if only one could go into the WWE Hall of Fame, who would be your pick?

 

[Ferbian]

I'm most likely gonna get a lot of hate for my choice, but I'm going with John Cena.

Not only is John Cena the face of the WWE company, and have been for years. But he will most likely also leave behind a bigger legacy of some sort. John Cena went on to become the face of a completely new era, where as The Rock can't exactly say the same thing, because unlike John Cena, The Rock needed to "share the spotlight" with Austin, where as John Cena hardly shared the spotlight with anyone, unless you want to count Randy Orton in the past years time.

John Cena has a long list of great matches, and sure The Rock has the same, however I must admit that I have had a bigger thorough joy of watching John Cena wrestling in the ring, as well as I have had a bigger joy in watching a John Cena promo. Overall, I just prefer watching John Cena, and I would much rather see him going into the Hall of Fame than The Rock, if I had to choose just one of them.

 

[Find'er Woo'er Ryder]

I did not know that John Cena and David Otunga won the WWE tag team championship.

Moving on to your question. My pick would be John Cena Because he deserves it more. He busted his ass in the ring for about ten years and should get something to show for it. Sure The Rock is great as well but I don't think he is on the level with the fans that Cena is in with them. The funny thing is that they are similar. They are both the most entertaining of their wrestling generation and they both have nine Heavyweight Championships under their belt from the WWE alone. Plain and simple, John Cena for the hall of fame.

 

[The_Gene_Genie]

As things stand I've gotta go with The Rock purely as he is finished as an active wrestler. I think being a Hall of Fame inductee you should be retired from physically competing in the ring and obviously have something of significant standing against your name. Both Rocky and Cena are massively over with their fan base and have carried the main strap for the company successfully. As Ferbian said, The Rock had to share the spotlight with mega superstar Stone Cold Steve Austin, but still got to the top. To me that means it could be argued that Cena has perhaps had an easier ride? I have no doubt that once Cena is done with wrestling, his standing within the business will have surpassed any accomplishment of The Rock's. Then, and only then, will I choose Cena ahead of Rocky.

 

[legendkiller1979]

The answer is clearly John Cena. For six years now Cena has been the top guy in WWE.
Of course their have been other guys who have had the chance to shine but their has been no doubt who "the man" is. It's almost getting boring now because it's a given that Cena will walk out of wrestlemania with a world title.

At no point during Rock's time in WWE was he ever the clear top guy. Obvoiuisly this isn't his fault. The roster was stacked from top to bottom. Now let's take look at championships. Rock was a seven time WWE champion. This would be impressive except the average length of his title reigns was 42 days. The Rock was definitely more entertaining. But for the purpose of this discussion John Cena is the clear choice if you can only choose one.

 

[Saeros]

There will be few that will ever be as big as the rock to the mainstream.

I class this vote on

who has drawn bigger buyrates for PPV's
who is more "over"
who has provided more memorable moments
who will be more talked about in 20 years time

The Rock comes out on top to all those IMO.

Ferbian. While Cena is the face of this new era and has been on his own, while yes, The Rock did share it with Austin. But lets not forget, No doubt about it, the WWF/E had its biggest fanbase in the year 2000...when austin wasnt around for most of it.

Rocks promos were second to none in my opinion. The single greatest face on the mic that ever came into this business. The stuff he did with Coach, Cole, Mankind/Foley and others are just classics. I can't honestly say that any promo done by Cena was particually...memorable.

Find'er Woo'er Ryder - saying the rocks not on the same level as the fans is a bit unfair. At this point in time, yes, you are correct. But from 1999 - 2001 every fan in the arena would of licked his boots. Cant say the same for Cena. Rocky connected with fans in a way that made you like him, even if you hated him (which i did back then)

Sorry but until Cena does anything to prove to me that he is as huge as people think, he will never deserve a place above The Rock, Austin, Bret Hart, Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair. Those 5 were truely HOF worthy, and faces of their respective companies at their time due to the amount of people that came/tuned in to watch them.

Viewing Figures, Ticket Sales and PPV buys count for more than the arena being a bit louder or staying with the company longer.

 

[6timehitta]

I am going to have to go against the masses. My choice is The Rock. Now hear me out, he already has arguably a better legacy, and the fact that alot of Cena's fans are women and children show how inferior Cena is to the Rock. Rocky had fans from day one. Plus Rocky could be a multi persona guy. Super Face, Mega Heel, Tweener, he had it all. The Rock led the WWE through its biggest patch of "stardom" between the 2000's until he prematurely retired. So for me, being a Cena hater till the end of time, Its, going to be The Rock 100% of the time

 

[riveraf92]

Definitely The Rock, He has had better matches with top guys like Triple H, Stone Cold, and even the Undertaker. Not to say that Cena has had good matches, but if you were to go up to someone and ask which had the better match with say Triple H, I would find it hard to believe that people would just say Cena over The Rock. The Rock has better in ring skills than Cena and he also has better mic skills than Cena. Also everytime The Rock entered an arena, he would always get big pops, whether he was face or heel. There are very few times where that has happen in history, which also makes a statement. Overall, when it comes down to it The Rock has the upper hand in all aspects and I think that he would get chosen over Cena to be in the HOF. There is still more for Cena to accomplish in order to be chosen over the Rock in the HOF.

 

[showstoper2315]

Oh how people forget.

It's The Rock and it's not even close. The Rock went mainstream like no other wrestler not named Hulk Hogan has ever come close to. The WWE took one of his catchphrases and named a weekly show after it. When The Rock was on the mic you hung on every word. John Cena is great and deserves the HOF but he's not in the same league as The Rock, but then again not many are.

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

Rock for sure. He was there for a shorter period of time, but it was the golden time when WWF didn't need to try so hard to force it's way into the mainstream, and Rock was a key component to this. He was wanted for a role in a follow up to a successful film, whereas Cena has been reliant upon WWE films to gain recognition as a "movie star".
His mic talking skills, we all know about so no need to repeat what others have said/will say about them. Rock all the way

 

[PagingMr.ass]

No brainer, The Rock. He beats Cena in almost every category. Better mike skills, Cena is good but he's not the rock. Better ring skills, there's no question about that. In fact if you take all the names of performers who were at one time the face of the WWE (Hogan, Hart, Michaels, Austin, The Rock) Cena is hands down the worst in-ring worker out of that list. The WWE was bigger in The Rocks day. And while where on the subject of Cena, does anyone else feel like Super Cena's character has turned into a pussy. Whenever the odds are stacked against him in promos like the ones with nexus, he gets this defeated look on his face. He did it through out the whole nexus angle and continues to do it when ever the story line turns against his favor. He needs to grow his thug balls back and show some rage when it looks like he's down and out like Orton does.

 

[The Mizard of Oz]

The Rock was the man for the WWF in the most lucrative boom period in wrestling history. He's the best mic worker of all-time and was a better wrestler than Cena.

Both of them have went down the Hollywood path. How did that work out for Cena?

You're comparing one of the absolute five biggest stars/draws in wrestling history to the forced-down the publics throat "face of the company" during a down period. It's not even comparing apples to oranges. It's apples to brussel sprouts.

 

[Tech N9ne]

Definitely The Rock.

He is my all time favorite and I don't think Cena compares at all. The Rock was the total package. In ring he was awesome. He is the best ever on the mic. He had/has the look. He was never boring. He is the most electrifying man in the history of sports entertainment. His finisher was great. He was smooth in the ring. Plus, he had one of the most exciting moves ever, The People's Elbow.

I think he is leaps and bounds above Cena. I hate when they are even mentioned in the same sentence. I would murder John Cena, so The Rock could get in, if only one of them could! LOL

 

[Calderownz]

While The Rock will likely always be the bigger star, I think that John Cena will have more of an established legacy when it's all said and done.

More title reigns, more matches and feuds and more of an impact in those senses.

He might never outdraw him, in terms of sales and tickets, but with time, he could possibly do that and will also have been a top draw for a longer period of uninterrupted time.

Cena just needs a couple of classic matches and a few more little things to work out character-wise in my personal opinion.

But, he's big enough to survive without those things.

Either one is worthy, in my opinion.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

If this were a comparison of ability, I would have undoubtedly gone for The Rock. But a spot in the hall of fame is not something that depends on talent alone. It's about having the better career and while it is close, I would say that John Cena has had the better career than The Rock.

Think about it. John Cena has been the undisputed face of the company for over five years at this point of time. He has held the company together at a much more difficult period of time with the pro wrestling business in a slump and he has also had to work with a much more inferior roster. I am sure that he would eventually surpass both Rock and Austin as the biggest merchandise seller of all time.

Rock is probably the most charismatic figure of all time in pro wrestling. He was probably even better in the ring than Cena. But at the end of the day Cena has greater achievements to his name. Cena has been the best thing in the biz since 2006 whether you like him or not. Even in his prime Rock always had to compete with Stone Cold Steve Austin for the top spot in the company. Cena has been the undisputed top dog and that is I think that he deserves the HOF more than The Rock.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Quite easily The Rock....let me give you my reasons.

- Better in the ring
- Better on the mic
- Better crowd working techniques
- Bigger mainstream star
- Better move-set
- More classic matches

No contest really for me. Cena is worthy of a spot in the HOF no question, he has achieved things far and beyond what most wrestlers ever will, but NEVER EVER should it be at the expense of the Great One. The Rock was at the forefront of the WWE and helped lead it through the Attitude Era, the biggest boom period for wrestling in the last 20 years, Cena has so far proved unable to drag the WWE ratings back up to the heights it was at the turn of the century.

/ Thread

 

[WWE.IS.AWESOME]

Both men have made and will continue to make history in the WWE. Both diserve HOF spots, but if only one could be chosen, I would go with The Rock.

The Rock is the most electrifying man in sports entertainment. He has left his mark on the WWE. The Rock has had amazing fueds with the likes of Mick Foley and Stone Cold. He's main evented Mania, been a multiple time champion, and has enough charisma for the entire roster. There will NEVER be another Rock.

Cena is great, don't get me wrong, but Rock is just above his level. John Cena is the face of the WWE right now, but I just don't believe he will make as big as an impact as The Rock.

The fact that Rock left at the top of his game makes this even more impressive. To be able to only wrestle for that short period of time, and have a HOF spot almost guarenteed is fantastic. John Cena will get into the HOF too, but it took him a while to establish himself.

Both men are great, though.