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

[InstantAttitude]

Bad time indeed. WWE LITERALLY WASTED THREE YEARS of WM BUILDs to get to this point, and that's John Cena once again on top with the title. And with this injury it basically screws up all of what they planned.

My guess is that WWE is gonna have to cut Punk's vacation short and then turn him FACE ASAP.

 

[LittleJimmy]

I'm not buying it....IMO, Cena is not injured.

I think this is part of a storyline to make Cena seem vunerable to losing the title to Ryback only for SuperCena to rise above the "injury" to win the match.

If by chance he is injured.....WWE will have to do what they should've been doing all along for the last few years....pushing some guys to the main event picture.

 

[FreedomOfMan]

isnt it time for Cena to just stop? No Heel turn. just stop. For a good period and make a come back.

Now he's not pulling a Hogan with politics(who knows really though), but his presence is clearly holding back alot of talent (that is more talented, but still green, Rybackeries not included). Ihave respect for him, but I grow tired of him. Whether he realizes or not, he's hogging the spot light a bit, and when he does put someone over, its usually some sort of odd reason he loss (i.e.: he beat himself, and the Rock didn't beat him. That upset me to no end. Those words took away the credibility of the first bash between him and the Rock. As a face, should be able to give credit where its due. If he was going heel, than yeah I get it)

I was gonna make a thread of this, but I didn't know how the admins of this site would take it.

Cenas has been at the top for ten if not nearly ten years. Non-stop too. This happened with Hogan, but from what I recall, even Hogan had been gone a few times here and there, and the fans were still tired of Hogan.

I wanted to ask (maybe redundant) will the Hogan effect settle with all fans? not just sprinkles here and there where Cena loses almost his entire fan base? Fans are clearly showing disdain as it is.

I personally think if WWE keeps going this route, Cena will have his own effect that will be much, much, much,much worse. It will get to the point where a Heel turn is going to be so obvious that we'll be like "ok, what now" and staying the course will just lead to more and more disdain.

 

[tvcolosi]

I'm not buying it....IMO, Cena is not injured.

I think this is part of a storyline to make Cena seem vunerable to losing the title to Ryback only for SuperCena to rise above the "injury" to win the match.

If by chance he is injured.....WWE will have to do what they should've been doing all along for the last few years....pushing some guys to the main event picture.

You could be right, WWE has learned how to work the fans a lot better in recent years. But, if it was a work, part of me thinks he would have been working someone else. They mention that it was with Ryback, but are plugging ER as their "First Match". This reminds me of last year when Orton got hurt, and rumors went around he would be out 6 months. Turned out his back wasn't as bad. I remember saying that it was perfect, time off to heal and just refresh the character a bit. Injuries like this can help, the 3 months Cena missed with the neck back in the day, he got a great baby face pop at MSG.

 

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

If it's kayfabe, then there is no doubt that Cena will beat Ryback at Extreme Rules. Like someone else said, he'll some how rise above the injury and win. And then things will continue like normal.

If he's actually injured, and he has to vacate the title, then I can honestly see them doing some battle royale on RAW to decide the champ, like when Khali won the WHC in 2007. Personally, I'd think it would be a waste, but I don't see them cramming some kind of tournament in with the time they have. As for who wins this battle royale, I can see 4 possibilities:
Lesnar
Jericho
Christian
The Shield

If Lesnar wins, I think WWE can change Lesnar's match with Triple H to include the title, in which Lesnar wins, and goes on to carry it until Summerslam. The only problem with this is that it leaves Ryback stranded. I can't see them randomly adding Ryback to the Lesnar/HHH feud, and it won't be a triple threat because there's already Ziggler/ADR/Swagger. I think Ryback can feud with Brock for the title after the Lesnar/HHH feud is over.

If Jericho wins, then I don't see him holding onto the championship for long. He'll probably defend against Ryback in Extreme Rules because The Shield will interfere, but then Jericho will lose the title at SummerSlam. To who I don't know.

Christian returning would be nice, and if he won, I can see him holding it past Summerslam after feuding with Ryback. Again, this leaves the question: Who will Christian lose to? Punk would be back by then, so possibly him?

The Shield is also to be considered. If they win, I can see them doing some sort of Freebird rule, and it also makes the Shield look that much stronger. It kind of wrecks the feud with BOD/THN though.


So if this injury is legit, it leaves WWE in an awkward position, especially considering Punk's taking time off. Hopefully they might push some talent into title contention though in order to develop the title race.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Barrett also has a very good opportunity, as IC champ he can use the "IC is #1 contender" stip that they trot out every now and then. Especially if he ended up allied to the Shield in some way, that would be very, very sweet and when Super Cena is back, we know those two can have great matches...

BUT

Has anyone thought this could be a way for Cena to end up with the Shield? After all is Ryback taking advantage of his injury not an "injustice"?

At the end of the day, Punk will come back if needed, he'll get some concessions out of it - like holding it however long Cena is out for or a big win over Taker or Brock, but he'll come back as soon as he's needed if they are in the shit cos it'll benefit him to do so.

 

[Harthan]

Judging by his latest tweet, it's angling toward being kayfabe. I'll give the WWE credit for doing it in a more creative way than has been done in the past. Usually, an injury angle is run entirely on TV, so everyone knows it's kayfabe from the beginning. Starting it online with tweets and website articles has people questioning, which is a good move. Cena's insistence that he'll be on Monday Night and the way the whole story has been broken leads me to think that it's probably adding some spice to the Ryback match. Then again, if he is really injured, they wouldn't just not having him on TV anymore. They would probably bring him out to Raw and have someone, Shield or Ryback, annihilate him to write him off TV. Although, on the flip side of that, when he tore his pectoral muscle in 2008 they didn't write him off. On the flip flip side of that, he was actually not the prime focus of WWE television at that time, believe it or not, so they may have found it unnecessary.

It's very hard to predict what's going on here, because of the entirely uncertain nature of whether the injury is real or not. My gut is telling me it's fake, but it's too hard to tell right now. While I've long been of the opinion a little time off for Cena would help everyone out, an Achilles tendon is about a year rehab minimum, and it can have long term consequences that never go away. Also, happening at a time when Punk is gone as well make for major problems. If he's legitimately about to be out for a year, WWE TV will need Punk back ASAP. In the meantime, asking Lesnar to work more dates on his contract now will become a necessity, and they may have to turn him face on the quick (something they should be doing anyway). Ryback may or may not be able to remain a main event player, since he was almost certainly going to be guided in the ring by Cena, and all of his heat (or pop) right now is really coming from the fact that it's Cena he's up against, so sub in Lesnar, or Orton, or Sheamus, and we begin to have a problem. A Cena-less and Punk-less WWE is a very talent bereft WWE, so hopefully this is indeed merely kayfabe.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

According to tweet Cena posted, he's not going to miss Raw tomorrow night. There's been no word from anyone as it pertains to how serious the injury is. I've been to various sites and many of them state that they received no fan reports of Cena suffering any sort of visible injury during the match. Cena's been doing a six man tag match in which he's teaming with Kane & Bryan against Ryback, Ziggler & Big E. Langston for a few nights during the tour. WWE.com has also been vague as to the severity of the injury, only that it's being credited to Ryback.

This is really starting to look like a work to me. Cena posted something on Twitter stating that he'd just arrived back in the states from the tour, that he was a little banged up but that he'll be at Raw tomorrow night. As I said, it's starting very much to feel like it's a work in which WWE is working an injury angle. If so, then it could be a means of protecting Cena if the idea is for Ryback to win the WWE Championship at Extreme Rules. Or if Cena really is hurt, maybe he's just simply not hurt very much or very badly at all.

If it's WWE doing an injury angle, then they're going about it in a more creative way than we've seen them, or anyone else for that matter, do them in quite a while. Usually, the "injury" takes place on television or at a ppv rather than at a house show.

Jim Ross posted a comment on his blog stating that the injury is legit and that it's something that's been bothering Cena for a little while now. However, Good ol' JR is very much from the old school so he might simply be saying that right now to help protect the angle, if it ultimately is an angle that is.

Either way, WWE has generated a lot of buzz about this and people will be tuning in tomorrow night on Raw to ultimately see what's what and how this injury, whether real or a work, will impact Cena's upcoming WWE Championship defense against Ryback at Extreme Rules.

 

[Dirk]

Do you guys think Cena will EVER turn heel again? He gets the shit booed out of him on the weekly, but his post-WM "heel turn" promo convinced me that he'll just never turn heel again.

Maybe, his reaction will just get more and more heat and eventually he'll work "face v face" matches and act like a face, but everybody will just cheer the other guy?

 

[Beeper Mcgee]

Do you guys think Cena will EVER turn heel again? He gets the shit booed out of him on the weekly, but his post-WM "heel turn" promo convinced me that he'll just never turn heel again.

Maybe, his reaction will just get more and more heat and eventually he'll work "face v face" matches and act like a face, but everybody will just cheer the other guy?

if John Cena has not turned heel again by now, don't expect him to anytime soon. also Personally, i feel that if he were to turn Heel, i dont think it would work, because he has been a face for too long. also, I want you to Look at John Cena and tell him, does he look like he would be a believable heel?

 

[The Butcher]

Do you guys think Cena will EVER turn heel again? He gets the shit booed out of him on the weekly, but his post-WM "heel turn" promo convinced me that he'll just never turn heel again.

Maybe, his reaction will just get more and more heat and eventually he'll work "face v face" matches and act like a face, but everybody will just cheer the other guy?

You just answered your own quesiton, Bear. He already gets booed out of the building. He's simultaneously the top heel and face in the company, moreso right now with Punk on the shelf. The turn is a zero-sum proposition. He'll just get cheered by those that boo him and booed by those that cheer him. They might as well keep him as he is, and just milk the mixed reaction. Sort of just like they have been.

Personally, I gave up hope long ago for a freshening up of his character. I just wish he'd go away for a while. His omnipresence is much more annoying than his character, IMO.

 

[KTID96]

If they were going to turn him then they would have done it at WrestleMania after his match with The Rock, the problem is if he did turn heel then fans would be happy with this and cheer him which just really defeat the purpose.

 

[PookiesNumber1]

I'm a new user, and in all honesty, this is my first post. But in all honesty, for the original reason this board was created, John Cena is the Hulk Hogan of this era. When Cena first won the WWE championship, he was the hottest wrestler on the market. Granted he was heel at that time, but he has turned into what he is now. He does what he is aksed to and exceeds that, he represents the WWE in the most positive way that WWE could be represented. He might not be what he was when he won the championship, but he is the best representative of the WWE at this point in time. The only problem I have with John Cena is that he has grown stale over the past few years, his comedy is what saves hime, dry humore is the best and he is great at messing with the IWC. Everyone needs to chill out and accept what John Cena is and get over themselves, John Cena will not turn heel and everyone needs to get over that. It would be the greatest moment ever if John Cena did turn heel, but he won't, the WWE has invested too much in him being the good guy and with the Make-A-Wish and all that, there is no way he will turn heel. GET OVER YOURSELF AND ENJOY THE PRODUCT FOR WHAT IT IS!