Nobody and I mean NOBODY... has a legitimate reason to actually hate John Cena.
I completely disagree. I can’t stand SuperCena...not even one bit. This isn’t about the man outside of the ring; this is about the character he plays on TV. That’s right...first and foremost this is a TV show like any other where there are some characters you like and some you don’t and I simply DO NOT like the SuperCena character.
I think it’s stale and boring. I can’t stand a grown man in jean shorts with oversized gold chains and a spinner for a World Title that used to be the Gold Standard of Professional Wrestling turned into something you would see on a car. The whole hustle, loyalty, respect thing is a joke. This is the reason he appeals to kids. You rarely see a grown man in bright colored shirts wearing oversized chains and rapping in real life outside of maybe MTV. It just looks ridiculous.
And if it came down to it, although I might boo him, I'd argue that he's one of the greatest to anyone.
When you say he is one of the greatest who exactly are you comparing him to?
In ring ability...nope...he doesn’t begin to compare to a Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle, Bret Hart, Randy Savage or a Ricky Steamboat just to name a few.
Muscle/Size...nope...he doesn’t compare to a Kevin Nash, Brock Lesnar, Scott Steiner or a Batista, again just to name a few
So who exactly are these greats that you are comparing him to? If the WWE wasn’t such a watered down version of what it used to be Cena would be a jobber or mid carder at best.
Come on, there isn't another person in WWE that deserves that success more than Cena. Not saying other guys aren't working hard, just saying that Cena has spent years working his butt off for the company. And he's still doing it. Even when he doesn't have to work as hard I'd say he's doing just as much if not more, and then he's spending so much time and money in charity and just giving back in general. Seriously, he seems like one of the coolest, down to earth guys there is. What is there to hate?
Here is what I will agree with you on. He is a good worker and he is dedicated to his job, that I will give him respect for and again at least IMHO this isn’t about John Cena the man, this is about the character he portrays on a weekly basis that I don’t like. I have heard that he commits himself to various charities and looks for many ways to benefit the community and for that I respect him as a man. It’s his onscreen portrayal that I can’t get behind.
As far as the criticism's...man, the people that use those are either A) New wrestling fans, or B) People who claim to have loved wrestling a long time but apparently have short-term memory. What’s happening to John Cena right now is NOT new. It's all a cycle. This same thing happens to every single top babyface character that wrestles. Most people I talk to that hate Cena for those reasons you mentioned, were sooo excited when The Rock came back to save them from how lame Cena is. Listen, I love Rock too, but you've really gotta check out the history on this. The Rock comes from a time when PG wasn't the answer, and YES, he possibly is the greatest talker in the business. I was happy when he came back, but not because I thought he could wipe the floor with Cena. Check out Cena promo's on the tail-end of the attitude era. He was just as raunchy, and drew AMAZING heat. Cena can talk. And I'll be honest here too, when he talked with The Rock, I booed him, but I almost had to stop. Because Cena won those arguments they had. The Rock was on fire his first couple of tries, but if you actually LISTENED to what they were saying... Cena made way more sense and the Rock just kept repeating catch-phrases.
This one is my favorite.... What bothered me about Cena's promos against The Rock was that they were contradictory in every way. It seemed like every time he talked about how proud he was to rep the kiddie demographic, he would then turn around and slam the Rock for doing kid friendly movies. Seems just a little inconsistent doesn't it? I mean if your sooooo all about the PG Kid Friendly Demo, then why would you slam a man that caters to the exact same audience as you?
I thought The Rock won not only on style points but also in the fact that every promo he cut on Cena contained the same central theme. He flat out told him what he disliked about him and how he felt he was basically a pitiful clown.
Cena's promos were either inconsistent or in the case of the one leading up to Mania seemed like he was kissing ass the first half of it. The other part of it was that it seemed IMHO that while The Rock was attacking John Cena the wrestler, that Cena was attacking Dwayne Johnson the man and not The Rock. It was too much breaking down of the 4th wall for me to really engage myself in the promo itself...
Regardless of kayfabe or not, it didn't seem like Cena had much ammo to toss out against the Rock...he came off as petty and jealous of the success of Dwayne Johnson while the Rock just came out and completely tore down every aspect of John Cena the wrestler...he based his promos in more of a kayfabe manner then Cena as well.
When you say he won all his arguments what were you basing that comment on? The Rock was routinely getting monstrous pops from the crowds throughout every promo while Cena was getting booed like crazy...to show how bad it got if you go back and watch the Wrestlemania Press Conference, Cena paused a few times because the boos got so bad he was unable to hear himself speak. That’s not what should happen to the Top Face of your company just because a Legend comes back to host a show...not even wrestle...all he had to do was be in the building and all of Cena’s fan base turned in seconds...
If you wanna say that all Rock did was repeat catchphrases then fine, but in reality those catchphrases killed Cena...
As far as an argument about 5 moves goes? Has anyone with that argument seen a Rock match? How about Stone Cold? Hogan? I used to troll them with the same thing. It's like when a guy gets big enough, Vince makes a call for them to stop being fancy and just use the basic stuff for pops. Unless it's a situation where they can use their in-ring skill as an advantage. But "Stunning" Steve Austin "wrestled" circles around his counter-part. Wanna see Cena wrestle? Check out his feud with Kurt Angle. The man can go.
Say what you want about 5 moves of doom...it doesn’t matter if Hogan, Rock, Austin or anyone else did that...we’re not talking about them so it’s irrelevant. Just because one wrestler gets away with something doesn’t mean every wrestler can. If it got to a point where every wrestler only used 5 moves then the business would be out of business.
I'm gonna stop now cause I sound like a Cena fanboy, but I'm not.
Could’ve fooled me with your post defending everything about him....
There is no bigger fan of the business than him.
I don’t deny his work ethic or who he is as a person. My gripe as a fan is that he is over-promoted and I don’t like his gimmick. I see a lot of people on the boards that just say oh yeah he sucks and blah blah blah without any sort of logical reason. This is the reason for my long winded reply. We all as fans have personal preferences and like certain guys while disliking others. The current product that the WWE puts out week after week is watered down in my opinion with a lot of guys that I think would’ve been jobbers on Superstars of Wrestling back in the day. Either there is nothing really special about them or they are currently being booked improperly...either way there is no one on the current roster that I look at and say wow....
He still sells WAY too many t-shirts, and this mixed reaction thing is kinda fun and unique.
Why would being a heel mean less T-shirt sales...Is that to say that the now, The Rock, Randy Orton, Macho Man and a list of others suffered from poor merchandising sales because they were heels....cuz unless you have sales figures I would be highly inclined to disagree.
To sum up this painfully long diatribe...for me to get behind a guy like John Cena he needs to change himself up...plenty of guys have completely repackaged themselves and become phenomenal successes...Stone Cold was the ringmaster...The Rock was Rocky Maivia...Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels were tag team guys and HHH was once a French aristocrat...its not like he can’t become someone I’m interested in...just gotta lose this rap crap look and jean shorts as well as the Superman tag and maybe I could see myself supporting him...but the current portrayal onscreen is just not something I’m into at all...