Who Has the Potential to be the "John Cena" of TNA?

[Terry Gyimah]

If anything who in your opinion has the potential to be the "John Cena" of TNA? In the sense of who could TNA build their company around to become the face of their company? Like who would be the "top guy" or who has the potential to be the "top guy" here in TNA especially if TNA sticks around long enough to reach a new deal with either Spike or another network? There are so many superstars in TNA right now that they could have become "The Man" of this company the franchise of this company such as:

Jeff Hardy, Bobby Roode, Austin Aries, etc.

 

[Slash-LN]

If I were TNA and I was building around one wrestler to be the man it would be Bobby Roode.

He obviously wouldn't be on top as long as Cena has been but he'd be a great placeholder until they find that person. Everything about him screams star.

If I were going with a younger guy I'd say Magnus and EC3 would be their top bet. I'm not sure how well either one could work as a top face but they're both money heel wise.

 

[Terry Gyimah]

Yes but in terms of being a babyface that TNA can market their company around, doing movies, Make a Wish, representing the company all around the world like how John Cena does for WWE, then in terms of talking potential like that, then it would definitely have to be "The It Factor" Bobby Roode as the "man" of this company and he has the look, the charisma, and the wrestling ability to pull it off but in terms of money heel-wise then yes definitely Magnus, EC3 hell even Bram do heel wise but babyface wise it would be Roode undisputedly

 

[WBL]

They had a guy they could center the entire product around, a guy who worked his ass off, and was their brand and their brand only. His name was AJ Styles. And they screwed that all to hell.

Roode is the only guy I can see right now.

 

[Terry Gyimah]

They had a guy they could center the entire product around, a guy who worked his ass off, and was their brand and their brand only. His name was AJ Styles. And they screwed that all to hell.

Roode is the only guy I can see right now.

Yes they had that with AJ Styles but yes they let him go and now he is in Japan, well ROH technically and he is becoming even more of a success but yes Roode is perhaps the only guy, could it be Eric Young? I doubt it, could it be Aries? Aries has the potential and he has the credibility for sure to be TNA's top guy

 

[Vintage]

Trouble trouble trouble trouble trouble trouble trouble....
Trouble trouble trouble

This is the guy who you center the company around. This is your star of Impact Wrestling. He's young, hasn't reached his prime and he's hungry. You can see it in his eyes. You give a guy like this the ball, you'll be cashing checks from here to Boca

 

[Creepy Old Man]

No home-grown TNA guy will ever have the X factor, because the guys who do make their name in WWE (or WCW in Sting's case). Vince gets hold of and develops the elite in the industry, while the faceless spot monkeys and other generic, boring people fritter their lives away in the indies and TNA.

The only elite players TNA ever had made their names in the big leagues and then took a (huge) step down for whatever reason. A CM Punk might have passed through, but he peaked in WWE, where top-flight guys belong. TNA will never have a Cena equivalent; AJ Styles was the closest, a guy who was quite good but never WWE-worthy.

 

[LiarsDice]

Yes they had that with AJ Styles but yes they let him go and now he is in Japan, well ROH technically and he is becoming even more of a success but yes Roode is perhaps the only guy, could it be Eric Young? I doubt it, could it be Aries? Aries has the potential and he has the credibility for sure to be TNA's top guy

It can only be Roode, I think. Austin Aries has too many heelish attributes. He could be the guy at Punk's level, the number 2, but never THE guy.

And AJ is part of the NJPW roster. Hes there more than he's not.

 

[Terry Gyimah]

Then Roode being the guy who carries TNA on his back, the guy that carries the flagship banner of this company well it makes sense considering he was the longest-reigning TNA World Heavyweight Champion in history but also he is a multiple-time TNA Tag Team Champion he has pretty much done it all in TNA that yes if anyone deserves to be THE guy it is definitely Roode

 

[RenegadeDX]

I would say Manik.

 

[Terry Gyimah]

How about Samoa Joe? He is another guy who has the potential to be the face of the company considering how long he has been with the company but also he has been the one constant

 

[Theoneandseven]

The only way TNA could make a Cena type character work is if they signed him from WWE, which isnt ever going to happen. TNA creative should be trying to offer something different since they're not going be able to make a bigger or better version of him. This being said it doesnt mean they cant have their own authentic talent that shares certain attributes with Cena.

I think to many of the big names in the company like Samoa Joe, Bobby Roode, Jeff Hardy and Mr Anderson are already to well known to the fans and I dont think putting Cena's gimmick on any of them would do much good because I doubt the fans would accept it. The man to push and invest at least 3 years in is EC3 because he's great on the mic, can perform in the ring and the fans respond to him. A decent switch from Dixie Carter's brat nephew to man of the people after bound for glory wouldnt be a bad start, its a chance for TNA to tell a credible coming of age story using someone that they can trust and would look good as a product and representative of TNA. I personally wouldnt be looking to copy Cena tho as I think that a character similar to the Rock's 'people's champion' might be a better fit. A casual reference now and again about how TNA is giving him and opportunity that he knows he wouldnt have got elsewhere wont do any harm either. As a gateway character he's got all the tools

 

[Slash-LN]

I would say Manik.

Care to elaborate on this?

 

[SpecialFNK]

John Cena?

Sam Shaw? he has that Cena type look that Cena had early in his career. I don't know how they would go from Samuel Shaw the creepy bastard to Sam Shaw as a face.

what about turning Mgnus back to face?

the problem with TNA is that they don't get the same type of coverage. those in TNA who are stars don't become enough house hold names to all wrestling fans.

 

[Reflection]

Unfortunately, nobody.

First of all, they never have full confidence in a wrestler, nor do they construct a slow but steady build-up for anyone these days. One month, they will be pushing this guy; couple of months later, they will be pushing another guy; sometimes they give the World Title to wrestlers in a way to persuade them to stay back (Styles, Sabin, Sting in the past), or they try to imitate or capitalize on what is hot commodity in the WWE (Randy/Magnus, Authority/Dixie, Bryan/Eric). When the momentum wears off (less often), or they simply find out that people didn't dig that crap (more often), they move on to the next guy and it's an endless circle.

Stars like Bobby Roode, James Storm, Austin Aries and Bully Ray could have been much bigger if they were constantly kept in the main event picture, hunting for the World Title. Along with them, TNA had Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe, Jeff Hardy and Abyss. Total 8 veteran wrestlers in the upper-midcard and main event of a 2-hour show. More than enough. No need for any part-timer, no need for any Bellator fighter, no need for any stable trying to take over the company each year. Instead, they went with those worthless reigns from Styles, Sabin, Magnus and Eric- which didn't do anything for anybody. The current one from Lashley will soon follow the list. Everything is a clusterfuck, but there is still time to improve.

Also, their wrestlers lack character development and a backstory. There is no repackaging either.
Almost all of their wrestlers these days debut either (a) as a part of an existing stable (Knux, Snitsky, Ezekiel etc.) and their role is limited to that, or (b) carry forward their character used in another company (wrestlers from Japan, ROH or HOH) or (c) simply debut randomly and start fighting (mainly X-Division stars). They come and go, but nobody cares.

Apart from their wrestling skills, they don't give the audience much to care for, cheer for or to tune in for. Like J.R. keeps saying, their main strength is wrestling from bell to bell. But wrestling alone is not enough. You need an interesting character and/or a strong story for anyone above mid-card at least. Samuel Shaw has a character and story, he is someone worth watching. So is Ethan Carter III. 5 years ago, "The Pope" was an awesome gimmick and people loved it. EC 3 and Sam Shaw are valuable additions to the mid-card and could serve as main-eventers someday. But TNA being TNA will probably screw them up too.

 

[Theoneandseven]

I totally agree with your post, TNA have to develop stars the right way which means improving on consistency. Keep the title on Lashley for the foreseeable future and build him into the type of champion that carries the impression that it will be almost impossible to defeat him for the title, MVP and Kenny King with assists. One major attribute of a top face is overcoming the odds when it matters, using the energy from the crowd to rise to the occasion, which again I agree that TNA needs someone the fans can really cheer for. I'm glad you brought up the Pope because he is a great example of someone who had the look, the skills, the music and was able to get his message across (the pope's congregation to describe his fans was an excellent idea) its unfortunate that creative couldnt see the potential. Keep the bigger stars in the title picture for the next 6 months and feed them all to Lashley then have <wrestler x> build momentum and finally earn a shot. The bigger the mountain the more compelling it is to watch someone climb it, which makes it all the more impressive to see them reach the summit.

 

[stonecoldhell]

Read my lips: No one.

TNA is a disaster and need to change their whole managment.

0.65 rating tells it all really.

WCW need to resurected if they want something to happen.

 

[TDFG]

I think at one stage Matt Morgan would have been ideal. We know they dropped the ball with Styles.

But TNA needs to do more promotion, it always seemed to be about Angle, Sting, Styles etc, they should be promoting ECIII & Magnus as the men who ended Sting, Angle & Styles in ring TNA careers.

Unless you were a hard-core TNA fan you probably wouldn't know Roode has the longest title reign etc, the entrance videos or vt's could easily incorporate this.

 

[Whap Me Jungles]

To be quite honest, I'd hate to see them go full on "John Cena" with anyone.

In terms of being the top go-to guy, Bobby Roode is the only one I can think of right now. He is seriously a guy to build a company around. The program he had with Storm (who is a decent face himself) was huge until Bruce Pritchard, being Bruce Pritchard, made a complete mess of the payoff at Lockdown. He can play face or straight-up heel effectively, which is something very few wrestlers today can do.

However, it may be too late for anyone currently in the company to carry them in the future, with the Spike TV fiasco threatening to finish TNA off.

 

[Jonyboyuk2]

I do not believe the TNA product takes itself seriously enough to have a genuine attempt at letting their talents get over. Everyone is trying to be "gritty" but everyone needs a "brand" to their character. The 2 stars in TNA I have only ever noticed is AJ Styles because he is a great talent, and Abyss, who is a great talent and has a mask. Nobody else has a brand.

Think back to wrestlers from the past and then think about the first thing about their "brand" you think of when you think of them; IRS (White shirt, Briefcase), Jake the Snake (Damien/Evil Smirk), Ultimate Warrior (Intensity, shaking the ropes), Bret Hart (Pink with a jacket and pink shades), The Rock 1997/1998 (the eyebrow, the shirts, the promos), Stone Cold (beers, the finger), Dudley Boyz (Table/Wassssup), Yokozuna (sumo size) - all of these stars are examples of branding and marketing themselves. I cannot think of anyone apart from Abyss and AJ Styles that TNA have ever been close to branding. I am aware of Aces and 8s but do not know anything about them cos I have no desire to watch TNA (even though its free on tv in the UK including PPV's).

TNA need to make people care about their talent, need to get them to care about the actions of their talent so they can become emotionally involved in the storylines and then pay money to watch them in their feuds. But to do that they need to establish the brands of their stars.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

There are multiple versions of &#8220;John Cena&#8221;. That phrase is a buzz word phrase that really doesn&#8217;t have meaning unless you are clarifying and qualifying it to a more refined state that people can actually express an opinion on. Cena the &#8220;face of the company&#8221; is an invention that&#8217;s largely fueled by the size of the company he&#8217;s in. Without it &#8212; without &#8220;the WWE machine&#8221;, I&#8217;m not all that sold he&#8217;s the character/man he is.

That said, TNA do have their own internal options if they wanted to go down this path. Namely Roode, Aries and Hardy &#8212; all of whom have spent considerable amounts of time in the company. Enough to allow them to skirt the &#8220;WWE guy&#8221; label. If I were a betting man, however, I&#8217;d put more money on Roode than anyone, based on a combination of age, exposure and charisma/personality.

There is the potential for a monkey wrench here though&#8230; and that wrench is named Ethan Carter III. He&#8217;s stepped onto the TNA roster, nearly devoid of any WWE stink, and has established his character entirely in a TNA ring. While the pedants will remind you that he was WWE property, the fact of the matter is he was never a WWE product. That&#8217;s to say, they simply never managed to get him off the ground long enough for any sort of echo to follow him into the future. Fast forward ten years from now, and no one is going to be bringing up the fact he had a cup of coffee in WWE&#8217;s developmental &#8220;territory&#8221; (well, the pedants still might). They&#8217;ll be talking about his multiple reigns as TNA World Champion, and about him being one of the most successful ground-up builds in company history. Provided they&#8217;re still in business, of course.

 

[Vintage]

Read my lips: No one.

TNA is a disaster and need to change their whole managment.

0.65 rating tells it all really.

WCW need to resurected if they want something to happen.

I'll trade you the low rating for the timeslot change which was called Hardcore Justice for the epically low rating for the Raw that just passed. Now that we've shown that both shows have trouble keeping viewers, WWE's issue is that the 3 hour WWE Network infomercial (Still only just 9.99)is just boring and full of fail. Hardcore Justice on the other hand was an entertaining 2 hour show. According to the rules of the IWC, that shouldn't be a remote possibility but just to let you in on a secret.. Impact has been consistantly better than Raw since the beginning of this year. Most noticeably, post wrestlemania

 

[Hit with Dirty Deeds]

Bobby Roode and only Bobby Roode. Ec3 and Aries can be tna version of Daniel Bryan....nothing wrong with being the no. 2 company face

 

[BigBombB]

Robert Roode is that 'solid hand' who works in the main event, excels even, but is never going to have that mainstream appeal.

Here are a few wildcards...

Ethan Carter III has a good look, 'gets' the business, and already looks like the kind of guy you expect to find in the middle of any frat party. It would be easy to make him popular as a face now that he is established as a top guy in the company, it is a matter of finding that right formula to make it mean even more.

Robbie E...I know, WHAT? But seriously, he gets a bum wrap for how well he plays the Jersey Shore type character but he is another guy who genuinely 'gets' the business. I think with a complete character overhaul and the right feud he could turn face without too much trouble. The fact he has excelled with the gimmick he has plus continues to be relevant despite how low on the card they place him is a testament that that is something there if TNA were to explore it.

 

[akathelaw]

Matt Morgan was the #1 candidate, because he could do it all and he had a main event look. His mic work was always good, but it just needed the direction and storyline planning to make it immense. I would have booked Samoa Joe and Bobby Roode as my top 2 heels with AJ Styles and Morgan as the top 2 faces. Morgan and AJ generally have each other's back but are aware that they are both going for the top title and when they clash they respectfully give their all against the other top guy. The mutual respect aspect would make Morgan likable and acknowledge the fact that AJ was the better wrestler. I would have made Samoa Joe the top heel and made a serious long term program out of Joe continually clawing to the top to challenge for the TNA World Title. By pairing Morgan with more technical wrestlers you get better matches plus the big man spectacle, making for a great main event.