**MERGED** John Cena Thread - Heel Turn, Matches, Etc. (Keep it in here!!)

[Kidd Folarin]

I would shoot for a triple threat with orton cm punk and cena.....making cena interchangable...but seeing as he's only going to be out for 2-3 weeks he should be good to go with the feud


I would expect to see Punk come out and brag about injuring Cena..something along those line of "Cena didnt give me respect and i injured him, and put him on the shelf."

 

[UFOcalling]

If Cena is unable to compete at Hell in a Cell next month (even though he probably will, just like everyone else is saying here), the WWE should have (IMHO) some sort of tournament or battle royal to decide the new number one contender to Punk's WWE Title. If the WWE did something like this, they could easily insert another wrestler in Cena's place without upsetting the "Universe" too much (again, IMHO).

The better question is who would win such a tournament/match and/or be named the new number one contender? That's a little harder to answer at the moment. Randy Orton is the first one that comes to mind, but then again that's a little obvious. Dolph Ziggler is another viable option, but since he's currently holding a MitB briefcase it would be odd. How would we expect Ziggler to have a chance of winning the match if he would still also be holding the briefcase? Doesn't make a lot of sense.

I like the idea of having an "underdog" vie for the WWE Title, like RicSpade suggested. The problem with that again is believability. If someone like Santino is put into the match, are we supposed to believe that he has a snowball's chance in hell of winning the strap? I dunno. The fans might eat it up, but there's no way that Vince would pull the trigger on a comedy act like Santino. At least not at this point in time.

There are other possible contenders (at least for a battle royal-type match), but not a whole lot of viable babyfaces that would seem to have a "real" shot of beating Punk at this point in time (sans Orton, and maybe Sheamus - but he's the current WHC). That's actually kind of worrisome, when you think about it. WWE probably won't have to worry about putting another wrestler in Cena's role (since Cena will most likely be able to compete by HiaC), but anything's possible. My vote? Hornswaggle.

 

[mrpops]

Im happy cenas injured. It gives someone else a chance to step up. But since its apparantly or 2-3 weeks were still getting cena so that sucks. Hopefully he wont be cleared to wrestle. It would be nice to not see him on tv for a bit. Give some other guys matches to hype up instead. Make it a better ppv because all we got so far is cm punk/cena and ADR/sheamus for the 50th time. Probably another tag team match, another womans match and i guess ryback/miz.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

Im happy cenas injured. It gives someone else a chance to step up. But since its apparantly or 2-3 weeks were still getting cena so that sucks. Hopefully he wont be cleared to wrestle. It would be nice to not see him on tv for a bit. Give some other guys matches to hype up instead. Make it a better ppv because all we got so far is cm punk/cena and ADR/sheamus for the 50th time. Probably another tag team match, another womans match and i guess ryback/miz.

Oh, because Cena takes up so much time every Monday night. Nobody else can get air time besides Cena, Punk, Del Rio, and Sheamus. I think I see them every minute of all five hours of Raw and Smackdown.

Cena can just cut promos and stuff until he's healthy. It's been done before. I'm not worried about it at all.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

Surprised no one has mentioned the psuedo retired HHH. He has kind of made a name for himself in HitC. He still should have beef with Heyman. It would be a great rub to Punk if he can get the win. The arm can be magically fully healed by then. It doesn't have to be for the title. HHH is still a draw. It may give us some Punk/HBK interaction.

I don't know how this would fit in with WWE's longer term plans but I love this idea as a quick fill in until Cena is ready to resume.

Otherwise they could possibly dig up Foley or UT.

 

[MayorMcCheese]

I wish Cena all the best in his recovery for a start. He is a dedicated professional even if he is a poor wrestler.

I think he will still be on TV from Monday with his arm in a sling and taking up airtime that could be used to elevate Ziggler.

WWE could throw a curve ball here - have Punk defend the title at HIAC against someone like (god knows- wwe have so few main event ready stars) -

then have Ziggler interfere - give Ziggler the Rock at Rumble, and let Punk interfere costing the Rock the belt- and have Rock V Punk, and Ziggler v Cena at WM 29.

You are massively over-rating Ziggler.

WWE is not going to screw up it's two money matches, Rock/Punk, Rock/Cena by involving Ziggler.

Ziggler is NOT ready yet, fans seem to want him to be pushed down our throats, he needs more time or he'll end up like the Miz.

 

[Kelso1ftw]

I'm sure now that they announced that he will only be out of action for 2-3 weeks, I'm almost guaranteeing that he won't be in action until HIAC or until the week before. I'm sure we will see punk "boycott" competing until Cena can and then get their HIAC match but I don't see this being the end. I think this will end at survivor series with an Iron Man match, its basically trying to have Punk show Cena he can go the distance and he will really have to earn it. Plus we haven't seen one since Cena vs Orton I believe.

 

[Xkimo]

I think if Cena is out until HIAC, one of the most overlooked opponents could be found in Christian. They've had encounters that date back to ECW, and more recently back when Christian was a Heel and Punk a face in the summer of 2011. Punk ridiculed Christian about bitching and bitching and bitching...it went on for awhile about having one more match.

Punk also kayfabe put Christian on the shelf causing him to miss Wrestlemania due to a very damaging Anaconda Vice that Punk locked in on him back in March this year. Christian never really addressed that Punk had injured him when he returned at Over the Limit as a face.

With Christian being in the World Heavyweight Title picture just over a year ago, and having won the Intercontinental Championship this year, Christian could be seen as a legitimate contender to Punk (definitely not winning), but also having a problem with Punk after the injury that Face Punk caused Heel Christian. Now their roles are conveniently still opposed and this could give Christian a bit of the spotlight to give a talented worker a well deserved opportunity.

 

[zhaff2004]

You should save punk/cena for later, build it up a bit more, if the E could and this is a big IF, have Punk talk about respect and what not on monday, have him take out Cena and make it seem permanent, later in the show, have him come out and talk about how he took out cena and that there is no one else who can challenge him and now he has earned the respect of the entire WWE universe for taking out their "biggest" star...

Then have the lights go off, the gong sounds and out comes taker.... leading to a taker/punk feud til HIAC, which then leads Heyman and Punk to get Lesnar to interfere on Punk's behalf thus setting up Lesnar/Taker for Mania and allows punk and cena to resume their rivalry after HIAC as Lesnar will claim to be the man who ended not just HHH but also Taker's careers, this could then lead to the SS tag match, Punk/Lesnar vs Cena/HHH which then boils over to rematches for both Cena/Punk at the next ppv in december and HHH/Lesnar II for maybe the Rumble...

 

[sTyLnK]

It's been slashed in half now, but even then if it wasn't, 4-6 weeks is absolutely nothing. You blink and it's gone. Now if he was gone 4-6 months, different story.

 

[d_henderson1810]

Surprised no one has mentioned the psuedo retired HHH. He has kind of made a name for himself in HitC. He still should have beef with Heyman. It would be a great rub to Punk if he can get the win. The arm can be magically fully healed by then. It doesn't have to be for the title. HHH is still a draw. It may give us some Punk/HBK interaction.

I don't know how this would fit in with WWE's longer term plans but I love this idea as a quick fill in until Cena is ready to resume.

Otherwise they could possibly dig up Foley or UT.

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I like your suggestion, but you forgot to mention something.

Paul Heyman is currently managing C.M. Punk. Well, Punk could retain in HIAC, beating Triple H when Heyman's OTHER client, Brock Lesnar, breaks into the cell, beats down HHH, and gives him an F-5.

This would create a great HIAC match, it would keep the belt on Punk, and would further the Triple H v Brock Lesnar feud.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Stupidly, I could even see Kane and D/Bry added to a HIAC match with Punk - Sure it's been done but with their current dynamic of "I'm the champions" then it could be an interesting way to squeeze one more match out of the combination.

Cena I think will stay out of the ring the full time, cos this will have been planned in advance. Bone spurs is not a sudden injury or a "must operate" so I think he'll remain on TV and probably be doing a lot of work on the talk shows etc for the cancer campaign. They need to focus time on Punk, his respect campaign and Brock's next opponent, so a few Cena lite weeks works well for WWE.

If they went the battle Royal route for HIAC, I think most likely the winner would be Kofi Kingston - He's just come off the tag titles and could face Punk in a "one off, close but no cigar" type situation, cue Punk locking him in a vise and screaming at him to respect him etc and Cena or Rock making a save!

It could also be a good way for Swagger to return for his face push!

 

[George Steele's Barber]

My biggest surprise in all of this is that they didn't use this opportunity to have someone take Cena out and then send him off for surgery and a pseudo-vacation. Their working their asses off to convince the world that Punk is a heel, a sneak attack injurying Cena seems to be the logical move to explain why Cena is out for a while.

Oh well.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

My biggest surprise in all of this is that they didn't use this opportunity to have someone take Cena out and then send him off for surgery and a pseudo-vacation. Their working their asses off to convince the world that Punk is a heel, a sneak attack injurying Cena seems to be the logical move to explain why Cena is out for a while.

Oh well.

I thought the same, like a Brock...Kimura moment? would have been the perfect way to do it. Guess those dates are REALLY tight on Brock. Hell they could have even had Barrett do it if they wanted to kick-start him again.

 

[SacredMesa]

My biggest surprise in all of this is that they didn't use this opportunity to have someone take Cena out and then send him off for surgery and a pseudo-vacation. Their working their asses off to convince the world that Punk is a heel, a sneak attack injurying Cena seems to be the logical move to explain why Cena is out for a while.

Oh well.

Because having Cena put over a submission hold like the Anaconda Vice would make to much sense, after all superman can be shown to be human you know.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

Because having Cena put over a submission hold like the Anaconda Vice would make to much sense, after all superman can be shown to be human you know.

I wasn't thinking AV, more along the lines of a baseball bat, tire iron, ring steps or sledge hammer.

Stay bitter.

 

[CraigThe13th]

Poor wrestler? WTF are you on abiout? He is 50 times better than any Ryback, Tensai, (insert name of generic hoss who only knows 2 moves but gets pushed to the moon anyway).

I mean seriously, Cena bashing was cool in 2007, 5 years ago people.

Serious dude, you need to get over this 'he only knows 2 moves' shit

1. Tensai,Ryback etc have more than 2 moves, if you watched properly you would know this.

2. The best wrestler isn't the one who knows the most holds, otherwise Dean Malenko would be the most popular wrestler of all time. You must think Stone Cold 'only had 1 move' too.

I'll agree, Cena bashing is getting old, but so is hating on any wrestler who isn't a 220lb high spot machine.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

According to the latest report, it's now being said that Cena will be out for 6 to 8 weeks. Cena himself wrote on Twitter that six weeks is a safer time table for recovery before ripping into WWE.com for not getting the facts straight.

So it's almost a certainty that Punk vs. Cena won't happen at HIAC as Cena simply won't be medically cleared by then. Last I read, if it's accurate, the idea was to keep Cena on Raw as a tv presence during his recovery but that's all up in the air now that he himself has written that he'll be out for at least 6 weeks.

 

[workhorse]

Hell in a Cell is October 28th, so that would give Cena pretty much 6 weeks to fully recover. If I was the blokes in charge this is what I'd be thinking:

*As a given, try and further the Punk vs Cena feud or at least the Punk heel run over the next 2/3 weeks without mentioning Hell in a Cell in detail.

*After 3 weeks they can re-assess how Cena's rehab is doing, in which case you would be left with 3 viable options (in my opinion)

- If Cena's rehab is looking good and he looks like he'll be right for Hell in a Cell, bite the bullet and run with it. This would be the perfect end to a feud that started just after Money in the Bank.
- If Cena needs to sit out the full 8 weeks, have him (Cena) proclaim that he can't compete but that he has found an opponent for Punk, an opponent that knows a lot about Hell in a Cell. You would have two options from here:
^Undertaker - Great way to put over Punk as a heel even further. Not many people can proclaim that they have beaten Taker inside HiaC. You could also add in a Brock Lesnar attack after the match, laying the ground work for Lesnar/Taker @ WM
^Triple H - A little bit of a reach considering he not long ago 'left' the WWE. But, same as above, could put Punk over by beating a HiaC veteran and continue the Lesnar/HHH/Heyman angle.

Hell in a Cell needs to mean something. If it's not Cena (who Punk is in a big feud with) than it needs to be someone that will make the match meaningful. Taker or Triple H are the only two because beating them in Hell in a Cell would mean something. Beating Christian or Wade Barrett or Daniel Bryan and Kane in a meaningless Hell in a Cell match would do nothing but cause fans to waste their money.

 

[CM Steel]

Everybody is comparing John Cena to Hulk Hogan in today's wrestling era. Footprint by footprint wrestling fans will always find a way to link them together in that PG era sence. John Cena has done almost everything there is to do outside the wrestling ring. Movies, Music, TV, Award Show's, ECT. like Hogan. But John Cena never had that celebrity friend to share the spotlight with inside the WWE.

Remember the very first Wrestlemania, where Hulk Hogan tagged with celebrity Mr. T in a tag team? Where they won as a team. And years later Hogan would tag with more celebrity's like Shaquille O'Neal and Dennis Rodman and other's in other wrestling promotions.

So does John Cena need to expand his circle and bring in one of his celebrity friends in from Hollywood to tag with in the near future? Could it work if done right?

 

[DetectiveZelix]

No not particularly. Cena doesnt have the attitude of someone who even considers the "Outside of Wrestling" world. He seems to care soley for WWE and charity organizations. I just think having Celebrity friends will give the impression that Cena wants to be like The Rock which I think he doesnt want

 

[dtroppe]

Oh yeah- here's a guy who is one of the top 4 biggest names in the history of professional wrestling. Already made it to the top, already sold tons of tickets and merchandise, already had a major WM main event but you dont think he has quite gotten over yet. Lets tag him with a celebrity to get his exposure up. John Cena is a celebrity- millions of non-wrestling fans know who he is- even if they dont know his name, they know he is a wrestler. There are only a few people in the world that could be tagged with Cena and contribute to a major draw- and 3 of them are Pro wrestlers.

 

[DJS92491]

Since John Cena said that he will be out 6-8 weeks due to his arm injury, I believe that a logical way to keep Cena on TV would be to have him work as a commentator.

It's something that WWE has never done before with the top face of their company, and it would be great for Punk to work with since he believes that the commentating is terrible in the first place.

For Cena fans, it may seem like the best idea ever. Three hours of John Cena being John Cena, but behind an announcers' table? I'd be very interested to see whether or not it would effect the ratings in a positive way.

What I'd be the most interested in is the top guy in the company giving his insight on the talent in the ring each match. Being John Cena, his feelings towards each Superstar can be both kayfabe and candid.

For detractors, three hours of Cena talking could be unbearable, but I believe that an opportunity like this is a once in a blue moon kind of deal. I hope WWE will allow this to happen.

 

[Foshinzo]

I think this is a good idea.
People will hate on Cena, but the man has his style. I also think that he's much better on the mic than the IWC wants to give him credit for. Not trying to put words in other people's mouths, Cena has his supporters. I just mean on the whole, people don't want to admit when he does well.

This would also work for the story, for the reasons that you've listed. With a character like Punk that worships the history of the WWF, Cena knows his stuff, too. I think it was shitty for Cena to accuse Punk of, "stealing," the elbow drop from Savage, even though it was just for kayfabe, but Cena knows his wrestling history. He could add to that, by a lot.

In the end, I suppose I've just gotten used to Cena. Hell, I may even start to like him, eventually, but I think that for this week, he could definitely add to the program by commentating.

 

[pita323]

I think John Cena is legitimately happy with the military and the "Make-A-Wish" groups as his "celebrity" friends.

With as much as he does for them, getting a celebrity involved with him might make his work with the organizations look more "booked" rather than showing that he cares!