Second Round: Detroit - Curt Hennig vs. John Cena

[FunKay the Inevitable]

Interesting match here. John Cena takes it for me though. Cena has fought wrestlers with great wrestling ability and beaten them before. Peiople like Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels etc...On top of that, Cena has beaten the big names of his era, people like Triple H, Randy Orton, Batista etc...And to finalize this fact, Cena's taken down big men as well, people like The Great Khali, The Big Show etc...Cena wins for being dominant in his era. Hennig deserves better than this though.

 

[Papa Shango]

Now, I love both these guys, so it was hard to decide. It was a pretty even argument in my head. So Basically it came down to this.

Kurt Angle could beat Curt Hennig

John Cena has beaten Kurt Angle... many, many times.

Therefore, it stands to reason that Cena would be able to beat Hennig.

Unfortunate, because Curt Hennig would have moved on in the tourney against most others. Just a bad draw for Mr. Perfect.

 

[Tastycles]

John Cena by a country mile. Hennig probably had better matches, but he hardly wiped the floor with Cena. Put it this way: what have JBL, Batista, Randy Orton and Jack Swagger got in common? The best match of their career was against John Cena. In the case of JBL and particularly Batista, they might well have been their only good matches. Cena is brilliant in the ring, and if you can't understand that, you're ignorant.

The second bullshit factor is "only women and children shout for Cena". I went to Raw with Lee the other week, and I'm sure he'll testify to the fact that about half of the adult male audience were wearing orange t-shirts. The only group that don't like Cena as a whole are a bunch of fanboys who base the quality of matches on their ability to perform spotty bullshit.

Now, some people vastly overrate Cena, and I think he'll be closer to a Bob Backlund level than Hulk Hogan in people's estimations when all is said and done, but there is no question that he trumps Perfect in just about every category. Match quality is a two way street, and while Perfect mayhave put on more of a show, it's fucking easy to have the best match of the year against Bret Hart. What isn't easy is to have great matches with the likes of Batista and something passable with Khali. Cena wins here.

 

[pun2003hh]

John Cena by a country mile. Hennig probably had better matches, but he hardly wiped the floor with Cena. Put it this way: what have JBL, Batista, Randy Orton and Jack Swagger got in common? The best match of their career was against John Cena. In the case of JBL and particularly Batista, they might well have been their only good matches. Cena is brilliant in the ring, and if you can't understand that, you're ignorant.

The second bullshit factor is "only women and children shout for Cena". I went to Raw with Lee the other week, and I'm sure he'll testify to the fact that about half of the adult male audience were wearing orange t-shirts. The only group that don't like Cena as a whole are a bunch of fanboys who base the quality of matches on their ability to perform spotty bullshit.

Now, some people vastly overrate Cena, and I think he'll be closer to a Bob Backlund level than Hulk Hogan in people's estimations when all is said and done, but there is no question that he trumps Perfect in just about every category. Match quality is a two way street, and while Perfect mayhave put on more of a show, it's fucking easy to have the best match of the year against Bret Hart. What isn't easy is to have great matches with the likes of Batista and something passable with Khali. Cena wins here.

I have to agree 100% here. Shit on Cena all you want and blah blah, he can't wrestle, he stinks, whatever. Hey, I am one of those guys, I just don't like the guy. But that is the fan in me. Truth be told, Cena almost always delivers in big match situations. He took Batista (who it has been said over and over that he can have a great match only when he is carried by a great wrestler) and saved WrestleMania 26 at a point where the crowd was dead, and gave just enough heat to prepare the crowd for the main event. I agree with the notion that Cena has given Batista, Khali, and Swagger their best matches of their careers.

Hennig was a great great great great performer in the 90s and I agree that from a technical standpoint, he was superior to Cena. But from a kayfabe standpoint, Henning was great at losing and making his opponent look great.

I can appreciate alot of the old school posters on this forum, but, especially now in this tournament, these guys blindly support anyone that is going against the mainstream. These guys are mainstream for a reason. The wrestling style in smaller arenas and in many organizations overseas just will not fly in the mainstream American market. Look at CM Punk at the moment. His style is completely different then what it was during his ROH and IWA run, yet he is as over as ever.

Anyway, I got away from my point a bit. Be truthful to yourself and and realize that while Cena is not as technically sound as Hennig, he definitely has the power and brawling edge on Mr. Perfect. This match could have happened in 1993 during Hennig's prime and Cena would still go over any way you look at it.

Reluctantly, Vote Cena.

 

[dd23beatlesfan1]

This was another matchup in which I was biased in my vote. I won't deny it.

Cena is a bigger star and name in wrestling than Hennig no doubt. He's accomplished more. I won't deny that. I don't however believe he will go down as one of the greatest wrestlers of all-time though like I've read some people say. I like John Cena. He can have good matches, he's had a pretty good amount of them actually. He's good on the mic. He's a very professional, respectable wrestler and he deserves to be at the top. But people say he's going to be as big as Hogan, Austin, Rock, etc. No he's not. Even though he's the top guy in the WWE right now, he's still not near the level those guys were at in their peak. I don't care what anyone says. He's just not. He's not as big a draw, he's not as big a cultural icon. And he's not as good a worker as Austin and Rock, and even Hogan. He's more athletic than Hogan true, but I don't believe there's any wrestler in history who knew how to work the crowd better than Hogan. And Austin and the Rock were both far greater in-ring performers and 10 times better on the mic. Cena is good, but when people say he's as big a star and good as Hogan, Austin, Rock, no way. He's at the top of the company. But Triple H was in the early 2000's, Shawn Michaels was in 1996, Bret Hart was in the early 1990's, etc. Hogan, Rock, and Austin are in a class to themselves when it comes to star power. John Cena is not in their league. Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and Bret Hart weren't either.

With that aside, I acknoweldge that John Cena is a bigger star and in a kayfabe match, Cena would beat Mr. Perfect. But I went with a biased vote here as I'm a bigger fan of Curt Hennig, and feel he was a better in-ring performer. Simple as that. I don't think any John Cena match is better than the Bret Hart/Curt Hennig matches. John Cena's current character isn't near as entertaining as Mr. Perfect was. Now when Cena was the white guy rapper early in his career, that was one darn entertaining character and when I feel Cena was at his best on the mic. Cena now is very good for his style of character, but it just doesn't appeal to me. If I had the choice of watching an hour of John Cena promos in his current incarnation of his character or an hour of Mr. Perfect promos, I'd take the Mr. Perfect promos easily.

And if I had the choice of watching 2 hours of John Cena matches or 2 hours of Curt Hennig matches, I'd also take the Curt Hennig matches. I like Curt Hennig more than John Cena. We're allowed to vote for wrestlers we like more. That's what I did here. Sorry to the Cena fans. I'm not a Cena hater by no means. He's a great wrestler for this era. But I'm just more partial to Mr. Perfect.

 

[Sparky]

Mr Perfect wins this for me. Why, you may ask? Because He is Simply perfect. His Gimmick is better then Cena's, "the champ is here" compared to "Mr Perfect" is more interesting. Mr perfect does everything perfectly No matter what it is. His Promo's are better, In a promo vs Curt and Cena Curt would kill him. His moves are more entertaining and most of all,


Cena used to be a rapper. you know how Mr Perfect feels about that?
[youtube]HHihfxE0ZTk[/youtube]

 

[Bernkastel]

I like Curt Hennig; I think he was an excellent showmen, who deserves his spot in the Hall of Fame. However; Hennig lost last year in the third round against Kane; IMO another great entertainer.

John Cena is miles above Kane's level as an entertainer; and now people are clamoring for Hennig to go over, when he couldn't even beat Kane last year?

That's ridiculous, vote John Cena

 

[dd23beatlesfan1]

I like Curt Hennig; I think he was an excellent showmen, who deserves his spot in the Hall of Fame. However; Hennig lost last year in the third round against Kane; IMO another great entertainer.

John Cena is miles above Kane's level as an entertainer; and now people are clamoring for Hennig to go over, when he couldn't even beat Kane last year?

That's ridiculous, vote John Cena

This argument can't be used for everyone here voting. Why? I'll use me as an example.

1. I wasn't here so I didn't vote in the tournament. I'm sure there are other people on here like myself who didn't participate in last year's tournament.

2. If I had been there, I would've voted for Mr. Perfect over Kane as well.

3. People's minds can change. Greatness of anything can either go down or go up in someone's view over time. Maybe people's views have simply changed compared to last year. I've even read some people asking to get Bret Hart out of the tournament simply because he won last year. So yeah some people are going to vote differently from how they voted last year.


But anyways, yeah this argument sure doesn't apply for me, because Hennig would have my vote against both Kane and Cena. For my personal opinion.

Mr. Perfect > Kane and John Cena

 

[Bernkastel]

If I had been there, I would've voted for Mr. Perfect over Kane as well.

If memory serves me Hennig lost a sizable margin; your vote would not have changed anything.

People's minds can change. Greatness of anything can either go down or go up in someone's view over time. Maybe people's views have simply changed compared to last year. I've even read some people asking to get Bret Hart out of the tournament simply because he won last year. So yeah some people are going to vote differently from how they voted last year.

I've had the same voting critera for two years running; whichever wrestler I find to be more entertaining wins; it's pretty simple. There's no sense in trying to hash out whose better than who by saying blah blah blah titles this or innovation that. I tried doing this the first year, and it just makes a huge mess.

I find Cena to be more entertaining to watch than Hennig, so I voted for him; if you feel the opposite, that's fine and dandy.

 

[D-Man]

Even though this poll ended already, I would've chosen Cena.

First off, this would've been a dream match for me. I'm a HUGE Curt Henning mark and I believe that he and Cena would've put on a tremendous match. But let's face it, one of them is an indisputable WWE world champion and the other one isn't.

Henning won the AWA title, but it was at a time when the title lost most of its meaning and the promotion was almost in the shitter. Plus, he lost it to Jerry Lawler, and if you put Cena against Lawler, there would be no contest... Cena would dominate.

So Cena will top another legend in this business, and rightfully so.

 

[mo2018]

Hard but I go For the Champ John Cena.
Hennig was great but IMO Cena is better.