When did you start liking OR hating John Cena?

[SMKM]

Well it seems to me that these series of threads keep getting a lot of replies. Seems like I've hit internet gold? all jokes aside this here is the 3rd part of what will probably be an ongoing series of questions. So here's the simple question. I've asked the same thing for CM Punk, and Zack Ryder, now it's time to ask. However in my Zack Ryder question it seems like opinions were mixed as half of the replies were either you loved the guy or hated. So, without further ado, here's the question with a little twist.

When did you start liking OR hating John Cena?

What better guy to start the new hate part of the question than the man everyone loves to hate. Of course, if you've noticed I've picked 2 people who have been getting way over with the fans as of late, so me picking Cena isn't out of hate, rather, I picked him first because it seems relevant since WWE is hinting at a heel turn and keep acknowledging the fact he's getting booed. Btw did anyone else mark out when Roddy Piper slapped cena?

To answer my own question, I don't hate Cena the man. I respect what he does for the business, I admire his ambition, his goals, and the guy seems pretty down to earth when not in character. Now that that's out of the way I NEVER was a fan of Cena the wrestler. Sure, I can admit his rap gimmick wasn't bad, some of his raps were pretty damn good, but I never liked his Marine gimmick, Hustle, Loyalty, Respect, etc, it's all shit, and then there's Super Cena. I hate all of it, and even if he does a heel turn and changes his character I really doubt my opinion of him will change. Anything Cena related in ring sucks in my opinion, and I'll probably never enjoy Cena the character like I do Punk, or Orton pre-face turn. So now what do you guys think. DO you like him? Hate him? Maybe both? When did you start liking or hating him?

 

[Headman]

Honestly, I was luke warm on him when he debuted. I remember people marking out for him in the old WWF chat rooms claiming he was he 2nd coming of Sting of all people. I thought this was a stupid comparison based soley on the fact that he used a splash in his arsenal.

Then he won me over with the heel rapper thing. Going after Lesnar was great and so was his work with Angle.


Then the WWE title reign... I was fine with it. I thought he probably should have chased JBL a little longer, but oh well. What's done is done. This was a time where the WWE was looking for that big star to take the reigns and fill the void that Brock created and was filled by place holder champions like Eddie Guerrero (Sorry people, but that's what he was.). This is when the Cena hate started popping up. I myself never hated him, I took more of a "Wait and see" attitude.

The boos continued and I was convinced they were going to kill his push and job him to Triple H at Wrestlemania. One night Triple H cut a promo that in my mind all but buried the young WWE champion.

And then... it happened.

John Cena made Triple H tap out, pissing off an entire arena of fans and half the internet in the process. That night the verdict was in... I was a fan.

 

[GameOver]

When he dropped the Doctor of Thuganomics gimmick and went full fledged face was my meh!!! there goes that moment.

Never "hated" him, just don't find his goody two shoes i respect everyone promo's in the least bit entertaining for the most part. When he gets a bit shitty he gets interesting again.

well that and the whole bugger all selling any moves while doing his thing, but yeah i realise alot of that is the gimmick same as Hogan and Warrior use to do, Super Cena just does it at the wrong times and far too often, still think he's only just started to improve his in ring storytelling and it took 5 yrs.

They have tempted pulling the plug several times and when that moment comes and he gets edge again or even some Ruthless Agression i'll be back with interest, til then he's just a guy that's there all the time and deserves some respect but not adulation.

 

[RJJ]

When he 1st made his debut, was like "Ok, he got some potenial", I wasn't a fan or a hater at that point. Then he started doing the rap thing, I thought "hey, he's pretty good on the mic", but I didn't take him seriously. I thought he was an eminem wannabe, and I also thought that his gimmick is not suitable for a world champion(Atleast, not at that time). Later on, he turned face and then def show for the US title at mania(IMO, cena's greatest WM victory in his career). Less than 1yr later, he went against angle at NWO 2005. Since angle is my 2nd all time fave superstar, I was rooting for him. He lost, and cena advanced to WM to face JBL for the wwe title. At that time, jbl was beating everyone on smackdown. His title reign lasted for like 6mon. Cena walked out mania the champion. I think it was the right decision, but it was too early. He got drafted to raw. Shortly after that he started fueding with jericho, and a match between the two was set at smmerslam. Not only I was rooting for jericho, but I thought he MUST win the title, considering the fact that he never won a world champion since WM 18. Jericho lost the match, and I was really pissed. And the "You're fired" was just icing on the cake. Then comes his "over a year" title reign. The way I saw it, it was a big slap to the face of all the great champions of the past generation(Austn, HHH, Taker, Rock, HBK, Angle, Jericho). What makes him worthy to hold the title longer than any of the people I mentioned?(Beside his in-ring skills were exposed the moment he got drafted to raw, since smackdown was full of great wrestlers) From that point, I became a hater.

 

[trashboy]

Just like everyone else will probably say.. I lost interest in him after the Thuganomics gimmick.. I was a big fan of Cena when he was doing the freestyle stuff and I hate rap.. A friend of mine went to a ppv during that time and brought me back a shirt, so yeah, i was a fan of his for a little while.. now I don't hate him like every one on the internet does, I'm just not a huge fan of his anymore.. and it depends on who he's wrestling for me to cheer for him or against him.. I'm not going to boo him just because it's the cool thing to do these days.. he's really not bad, and i'm tired of everyone saying "5 moves of doom," let's face it, everyone's favorite wrestlers had their "5 moves."

 

[FearMyBeard]

As once a member of the "Little Jimmy" portion of the viewers, I "hated" his heel-character because he was hatin' on the good guys. Buuuuuhuhuhuhuhu...... (Really, I did hate heels and cheered faces back then. No matter how sucky/good they actually were, I just blindly cheered/booed.)

I liked Cena when I realized that he was gradually being built up as a star. Then he won the title from JBL and never looked back. He's currently(And has been for 5 or more years now) the face of the WWE and I give credit where credit is due. Well done, Mr. Cena for capitalizing on the push and showcasing your talents, and well done creative team/Vince for giving him the ball.

If there's anything I hate at all about Cena is the content of his promos. (Content =/= Delivery)

Cena is a great talker(Arguably the best) but there are times when he says stuff that are just..... lame. I respect the hell out of Cena the character(I don't know shit about him real life though) because he's a consistently good performer and deserving of his status as a megastar. If there's one thing I do know about him real life is that he's a model employee. He's always there and so far, I haven't read anything about him using his backstage influence to bring someone down.

It's not Cena's fault that he's been involved with some lame bookings(Both storylines and matches), he just goes out there and performs.

 

[iceman90]

I've like cena since he debuted so since then I've aways liked and respected cena.

 

[Machianzo]

Between 2002 and 2010, I stopped watching wrestling. So when I returned to the fold and saw this John Cena character, regrettably, I joined the IWC hate machine pretty quickly.

However, the more I have watched, the more I have come to appreciate Cena for what he does. I first started seriously watching again when he was feuding with Nexus, and at the time, it would suffice to say I hated his characters guts (it didn't help that he was feuding with my fellow Englishman, Wade Barrett.) When The Rock came back, my hate intensified. When he pretty much single handedly dismantled the Nexus, he pretty much became a mega heel in my eyes. However, that was the nadir.

The point where I actively started liking Cena though, has come relatively recently. The end of Survivor Series, to be precise. The more I thought about what Cena said to the Rock over the duration of their feud, the more it started to sink in and make sense. Between 1997-2002, The Rock was easily my favorite wrestler, and yet by the end of Survivor Series, I was in Cena's corner for the first time since I started watching again. This weeks Raw only reinforced that.

So, to put all of that in a concise form. I started hated Cena when I didn't appreciate just how much he busts his ass for the WWE, and I started liking Cena when I realized that Cena works his ass off to entertain the fans.

 

[Nate DaMac]

Duplicate thread. Closed.