Is Cena really as bad as most fans make him out to be?

[CelticCorey]

Here is why I don't like Cena and if someone posted this in the first eight pages, I apologize.

#1 His gimmick. His gimmick is annoying as hell and extremely generic. Here's some guy with his jean shorts (made sense during the rapper gimmick. Now..?) and his purple hat and his cheery self. He makes these corny stupid ass jokes with his smile and all.

#2 In the ring. Yes, I KNOW that he is limited. I KNOW he is not as bad as people make him out to be. But from what we see from Cena? He STILL SUCKS. He can put on a good match if he gets carried. His moveset sucks. Orton is limited and he tends to do the same moves; but Orton's moves are cool like the clothesline, angle slam, ddt, that's a wide variety of moves. You get your occasional bulldog and top rope leg drop from Cena, but what do we usually get? Shoulder block, shoulder block, back drop, poor man's People's Elbow and a fireman's carry with an STF sometimes. Did I mention he hardly sells, EVER. He no sold the first Nexus beatdown. At the Chamber he was laying there the whole damn time. Does one move and then wins.

Keep in mind- I understand he is the face of the company, etc. etc. And this is W.M. season and all; but the way he won was so annoying. I am hoping that Miz beats him at WM 27.


#3 All in all, it's just annoying how he gets shoved down our throats. I mean, this whole joining Nexus thing. They SHOVED FREE OR FIRED DOWN OUR FUCKING THROATS and then he gets fired; but no he doesn't. Juan Cena is scrapped and what was the point of firing Cena in the first place? That was horribly executed and the fact that Vince can't live up to kayfabe and all. It's just annoying.


#4 I also did a thread on how he always upstages the WWE Champion and WWE Championship picture. He had no business winning 2010 Superstar of the Year and if Rock/Cena is getting all of this attention, then maybe Miz/Morrison wouldn't have been so bad afterall but sadly Rock doesn't wanna wrestle again.

 

[HBKnY2J4eva]

1. His gimmick is VERY stale and his promos along with his gimmick are corny/boring. Cena doesn't appeal to me like he does to the kids. I feel we're not seeing anything different from him week after week.

2. His 5 moves of doom!! AA, 5 knuckle shuffle, punch, kick, and throwing himself to his opponent. I'm definitely sure he has more moves than that. When he first debuted in WWE, he did a lot more wrestling moves than those five. Also, Cena gets carried everytime he's in the ring which makes the match very slow and hard to watch.

3. He's there more for show than he is to wrestle. That just annoys the hell out of me. It makes sense for WWE to do that because Cena is their big money drawer but they just shove him down our throats way too much!

 

[itssoeasy123]

Cena's had so many good matches at this point, that it's hard to make the case that he's getting carried - especially when his best matches are usually those in which he's facing someone who's significantly worse than he is. Like I said - tee off on the character all you want, but saying the guy isn't probably one of the best wrestlers in the company right now is just ludicrous. It's like Alex Rodriguez hitting 50 HR's and someone moaning that he doesn't steal 'enough' bases or something.

 

[Long Island Iced WXYZ]

When he retires he will be top 10 easily Top 10 WHAT? Most over guys in the wwe cause that's the only top 10 he will be in. It for damn sure want be top 10 greatest of all time if he keeps performing like the way he has been. Just cause he is over doesn't mean he has been good the whole time he has been over.

He's already one of their top stars of all time and Cena joins: Sammartino, Hogan and Austin in a VERY elite group, count on one hand group, of men that have been the faces of the worlds' largest professional wrestling company.

He couldn't have been there if he sucked or couldn't wrestle or entertain.

In pro wrestling history he'll be top 10 when he retires.

I have no doubt about that.

 

[The Mighty Tiger]

He's already one of their top stars of all time and Cena joins: Sammartino, Hogan and Austin in a VERY elite group, count on one hand group, of men that have been the faces of the worlds' largest professional wrestling company.

He couldn't have been there if he sucked or couldn't wrestle or entertain.

In pro wrestling history he'll be top 10 when he retires.

I have no doubt about that.

You think John Cena is gonna be in the 10 ten list for greatest superstars of all time?????? Come On REALLY? REALLY? R E A L L Y? The only reason John is the face of the company now is because Rock/Austin is retired, & HHH/Undertaker can't carry the company by themselves. John Cena is the face of the company by Default, dont get me wrong John is okay, but he is no where near top 10 of all time good. Maybe top 30 or 50. You better read my sig before you state nonsense about John being in the top 10 list of anything great about wrestling, & whats sad is that I didn't even name all the greats!!!

 

[RJJ]

You think John Cena is gonna be in the 10 ten list for greatest superstars of all time?????? Come On REALLY? REALLY? R E A L L Y? The only reason John is the face of the company now is because Rock/Austin is retired, & HHH/Undertaker can't carry the company by themselves. John Cena is the face of the company by Default, dont get me wrong John is okay, but he is no where near top 10 of all time good. Maybe top 30 or 50. You better read my sig before you state nonsense about John being in the top 10 list of anything great about wrestling, & whats sad is that I didn't even name all the greats!!!

Actually, cena became the face of the company by mistake. In 2002, rock was supposed to be dominating the WWE for like a decade ahead(he was only 30yrs old at that time), based on the way they were pushing him. He took a break and came back, automatically, he main evened no way out 2003 against hogan, he main evented WM XIX(raw's main event, even though it wasn't for the title) with austin, and he main evented backlash 2003 with goldberg, and left after that. He made HHH the WH champion at that time look silly, all the eyes and attention were at the great heel rock. In 2004, weeks before mania, he came back to save foley. He showed up 2 times on raw during that period, His return speech(after he kicked the evolution's ass), and "This Is Your Life" segment. And by the way, both of these appearances were at the end of the show, which means the main events. He finally retired after mania 20.

Later on that year(2004), they made orton the youngest WH champion ever, and they were pushing him to be the face of the company, but the problem was, he wasn't ready. He was too green, and it's hard to put him in that kinda position.


As far as smackdown goes, lesnar was not only the star smackdown, he was CLEARLY the face of the company(during rock's absence IMO). Since he won his 1st title at summerslam, he was dominating left and right. He was THE GUY, and that was vince's plan after rock and austin had left. Lesnar was supposed to be the face of he company for atleast 8 to 9 years, but unfortunitly, lesnar decided to leave after dominating the business for 2yrs.


Anothe guy was considered to be THE GUY, was kurt angle. Kurt was getting payed more than anyone in the business before he left. His rivalry with lesnar was the title of the wwe tv at that time. If it wasn't for those neck injuries kurt would've been the best up up untill this time.


Rock, austin, kurt, lesnar, goldberg, they all supposed to be the top guy, but they left with led us to cena. Vince wanted someone to count on, he wanted someone to be that much loyal to the wwe, an that's the main reason why he picked cena.

 

[kaneso14]

I don't actually mind Cena. He is the face of the company, no doubt, and therefore is gimmick is going to be one which can get him over with the greatest amount of fans. In this era those fans are mainly kids and women. I know people are tired of his gimmick, tired of his ultra babyface persona, his 5 moves of doom and the fact he never loses clean. Personally I think there will be a time when Cena turns heel, just like Hogan did. It won't be for a few years but it will happen.

WWE really needs to find new superstars and have them go over as babyfaces and become the face of the company. When this happens there will not be as much pressure on Cena to "carry the company" and then it may be possible for him to go heel. He has a lot of potential as a heel. He is a decent wrestler. The five moves of doom is totally Vince's idea (so the kiddies can get excited when they see Super Cena cleaning house). Does anyone remember during Cena's initial babyface run, he started doing lots of other moves in response to the smarks who were booing him with "same old thing" at every show. Of course he is not going to put on a clinic in the ring but he is a much better wrestler than people give him credit for.

His gimmick is stale but it's not going to change any time soon. WWE really needs him right now that they don't have enough established main eventers to take the pressure of Cena.

 

[The Mighty Tiger]

Actually, cena became the face of the company by mistake. In 2002, rock was supposed to be dominating the WWE for like a decade ahead(he was only 30yrs old at that time), based on the way they were pushing him. He took a break and came back, automatically, he main evened no way out 2003 against hogan, he main evented WM XIX(raw's main event, even though it wasn't for the title) with austin, and he main evented backlash 2003 with goldberg, and left after that. He made HHH the WH champion at that time look silly, all the eyes and attention were at the great heel rock. In 2004, weeks before mania, he came back to save foley. He showed up 2 times on raw during that period, His return speech(after he kicked the evolution's ass), and "This Is Your Life" segment. And by the way, both of these appearances were at the end of the show, which means the main events. He finally retired after mania 20.

Later on that year(2004), they made orton the youngest WH champion ever, and they were pushing him to be the face of the company, but the problem was, he wasn't ready. He was too green, and it's hard to put him in that kinda position.


As far as smackdown goes, lesnar was not only the star smackdown, he was CLEARLY the face of the company(during rock's absence IMO). Since he won his 1st title at summerslam, he was dominating left and right. He was THE GUY, and that was vince's plan after rock and austin had left. Lesnar was supposed to be the face of he company for atleast 8 to 9 years, but unfortunitly, lesnar decided to leave after dominating the business for 2yrs.


Anothe guy was considered to be THE GUY, was kurt angle. Kurt was getting payed more than anyone in the business before he left. His rivalry with lesnar was the title of the wwe tv at that time. If it wasn't for those neck injuries kurt would've been the best up up untill this time.


Rock, austin, kurt, lesnar, goldberg, they all supposed to be the top guy, but they left with led us to cena. Vince wanted someone to count on, he wanted someone to be that much loyal to the wwe, an that's the main reason why he picked cena.

I agree w/u, & that was the point I was tryn to get across w/my pervious post w/out breaking it down in complete details. I was just tryn to say that the guy was basically given the ball to be face of the company cause who else was there. He was given the ball & he ran w/it which is fine that's what he suppose to do. He was at the right place at the right time, but to say the guy is going to be in the top 10 list for greatest of all time is stretching it a bit. The guy is good but he not that damn good, its not like he is really rising the bar for guys after him. I know that's not completely his fault either, but some guys put him on this high horse just cause he is a hard worker blah blah blah. If we are puting ppl in the top 10 list for greatest of all time just cause they love the business, hard working & they do charity work then top 10 isn't enough room to fit everyone.

 

[RJJ]

I agree w/u, & that was the point I was tryn to get across w/my pervious post w/out breaking it down in complete details. I was just tryn to say that the guy was basically given the ball to be face of the company cause who else was there. He was given the ball & he ran w/it which is fine that's what he suppose to do. He was at the right place at the right time, but to say the guy is going to be in the top 10 list for greatest of all time is stretching it a bit. The guy is good but he not that damn good, its not like he is really rising the bar for guys after him. I know that's not completely his fault either, but some guys put him on this high horse just cause he is a hard worker blah blah blah. If we are puting ppl in the top 10 list for greatest of all time just cause they love the business, hard working & they do charity work then top 10 isn't enough room to fit everyone.

Exactly, what people here fail to realize is that you can't rate a wrestler based on his activity outside the ring. Now, him being a hard worker, ....hmm back in the day, wwe wrestlers used to perform twice a week on tv, not mention the house shows and the special appearances on heat. As I said , if you say you're good, prove it INSIDE the ring.

As far as cena being in the top 10 of all time......

 

[Mr.MainEvent]

Cena is not a bad wrestler at all. He's not a GREAT one, but he isn't a bad one either.

For me the great problem with the Cena is his character and the way he is booked. Which isn't his fault of course. He is the face of the company and as many have pointed out, has this seemingly "SuperCena" approach. He's made to look like the guy who never gives up, EVER. And that hurts the quality of his matches. He performs the "5 moves of doom" after taking an immense 10-15 min beatdown and usually, wins. The way he does this doesn't make his opponent look good.
Because of the way he is booked, there isn't enough back and forth between him and his opponent. Edge and Rey Mysterio always have good matches with one another because they go back and forth (Chamber especially), Austin and Rock were classic for it, HBK and Taker at the last couple of Mania's are a few examples. There isn't a "On the edge of your seat" aspect to most Cena matches and that makes it, ulitmatley, stale, boring and preditcable. Because 95% of the time, we know Cena will win.

Because of the PG era his rapper gimmick (which served in getting him over in the first place) has been completley watered down and nowadays his promos, unless he raps, generally are a bore which is frustrating because he has quite a lot of charisma.

Now going back to "SuperCena", I agree with whoever it was who said Austin and Rock used to put people over cleanly every once and again. They were the top faces. Michaels has done it. Cena could certainly lose cleanly or even be made to look just a bit more vunrable more often. The Rock made Lesnar look like gold. He put Angle over cleanly-enough (albeit for slight Hardys/E&C interefernce) for his first title win. How many times did he lose to Trips back in the day? Austin, Taker, Goldberg. But then I feel this is an issue with ALL the top faces in WWE at the moment and is something the company as a whole could look at changing. Taker, Orton, Trips, when do any of these guys ever lose cleanly anymore?