What could of been...

[seapig4]

Right this maybe a null point by now but after seeing The Rock own the crowd and everyone else on RAW it got me thinking about Cena.

Now im not a Cena fan but i can appreciate that he has his fans, However it got me thinking, Cena has had the entire WWE machine behind him for about 6 years now and in my opinion has been pushed down our throats more than any wrestler i can think of but still can't own a crowd the way The Rock did on RAW. Now i know that The Rock is a special case and shouldn't really be compared with anybody of this era but i was thinking who else could they have pushed over that time period instead of Cena?

[#BROKEN Hasney]

It's the booking more than Cena himself.

They could have pushed even babyface Jericho the same way and while we would have had better matches, the result would have been the same.

[seapig4]

It's the booking more than Cena himself.

They could have pushed even babyface Jericho the same way and while we would have had better matches, the result would have been the same.

Thats what I'm saying. I think you could litteraly put any babyface into that role and push him to the moon for 6 years.

[Wolfpack423]

I don't agree. Nobody elicits more of a reaction from the audience whether it be positive or negative in the wrestling industry more than John Cena. People react to his promos and his matches. Alot of times people are just silent and don't react to anything but when Cena is out there, people are reacting and I'm not just saying that because I am a Cena fan. It's a fact, watch a PPV, RAW, or Smackdown. Plus, I would rather have a respectful human being as the top guy than a jackass. He is a genuine good person, believe me about that one. He's a class act and I have always been a fan of his in ring work/promos (yeah I know sometimes his jokes are a little cheesy. I still think some of that is fed to him and he just likes to support the company).

[seapig4]

I don't agree. Nobody elicits more of a reaction from the audience whether it be positive or negative in the wrestling industry more than John Cena. People react to his promos and his matches. Alot of times people are just silent and don't react to anything but when Cena is out there, people are reacting and I'm not just saying that because I am a Cena fan. It's a fact, watch a PPV, RAW, or Smackdown. Plus, I would rather have a respectful human being as the top guy than a jackass. He is a genuine good person, believe me about that one. He's a class act and I have always been a fan of his in ring work/promos (yeah I know sometimes his jokes are a little cheesy. I still think some of that is fed to him and he just likes to support the company).

Fair enough and I used to like the heel Cena and when he first turned face but was still rapping. But i just don't see anything special about him, to me he is just very bland but i guess that is what the E wants from a top babyface.

[ooTin]

The only problem I see with cena is his PG attitude. When he was a "thug", sure his character was lame but he was funny as shit. Thats when I liked him. If they bring that guy back and feud him with the Rock.... epic right there. Turn Cena heel, give him that getto appeal and have the rock kick his ass.

[dhellova guy]

I don't agree. Nobody elicits more of a reaction from the audience whether it be positive or negative in the wrestling industry more than John Cena.

I agree with this statement.

However, I also agree that he has been booked as an unbeatable superman. They tried SOOOOO hard to make him into the Hogan of this generation: Limited inring ability, but could talk (at first) and had the look, but not the attitude of Austin or Rock. So lets push him to the moon as the ultimate face and make him this generations top guy. It got old. It got old with Hogan, but he would go away from time to time and give people a little break. Cena is there day in and day out.

I still think a lot of people just dont like him cause hes a pretty boy, though.

[seapig4]

My point is that you could push ANYONE to the moon for 6 years and they would be a star.

[ron the dial]

well that's just not true at all. cena continued to get the push because he continued to garner great crowd reactions, both positive and negative. the same cannot be said for every wrestler that would step foot in the squared circle. if they didn't have that certain "something" that all major stars have, the crowds would have lost interest a long time ago.

[McLegend]

My point is that you could push ANYONE to the moon for 6 years and they would be a star.

I disagree with this, and I'm going to tell you what's the problem with Cena.

I think Cena is probably the only one in the WWE who come to close to cutting a promo like The Rock did on Monday. Cena has the talent to do it. However the biggest difference between The Rock and Cena is delivery and conviction. I don't think Cena really believes the things he says, and has trouble getting behind them. The Rock was 100% behind everything he said on Monday night, and probably had a lot of control over everything he said. That definitely makes a huge difference. Cena needs some of that.

Cutting poop jokes is fine, but you have to actually make me believe you want to cut poop jokes in order for them to work.

[Troelar]

I would agree with the majority of posters on here so far.

The problem isn't so much Cena (although I still have my doubts about him), but more the material he's given and the fact that he doesn't seem to do much to make it... better (one of the points where we can fault him)

One of the main reasons _everyone_ (except 10 kids) marked out monday was not just because The Rock can cut an awesome promo - he can - but also because he broke the rules, he made his own rules - he was as we've always known him.
Cena can't (or won't) break the rules like that, and it limits him.

'Laying the smackdown on all their candy behinds' just doesn't have the same ring to it.

I think The Rock would've taken more charge of his character and made his promos better than 'CM Sucks' (gotta make it explicit that it's Cena's bit, and NOT that I'm calling CM Punk, CM Sucks -cause that kinda got me Neg repped in the past) or some of the other less interesting bits we've seen from Cena (then again it might just be a case of 'back when your momma was a young boy things were a lot better').

eeh.. not sure I've answered the question of the OP or made any sense (which is what happens after red wine and beer in sufficient amounts) - but to sum up: The Rock is prolly better than Cena at cutting a promo, even if Cena is limited by the current PG standards. Also Jericho could've pulled of anything he wanted to!

(Lastly - I've gotten into a nasty habit of using way to many parantheses when I write. For that I apologize)

[Shadrick]

Fuck you, parentheses' are awesome.

[Troelar]

Fuck you, parentheses' are awesome.

:yes:

[addy2hotty]

'CM Sucks' vs 'Slap the taste right so far out your mouth so fast you'll never get it back'

[XL]

Fuck you, parentheses' are awesome.
Fuckin' A they are!

[Xero]

"Quotation marks" are double the "fun".

[Disco Apocalypse]

Chicken and egg here. I don't think you could push someone for 6 years unless they were a star, and most people become a star after a 6 year push...

In terms of a hard-working, reliable, magazine-cover, press conference kind of guy, I think it's hard to pick anyone but Cena to be the top guy from his generation. I don't necessarily like it, but who are the other options from the generation? The three that spring to mind are Edge, Orton and Batista, two of whom seemed more comfortable as heels. Batista may have been the other option, but he seemed to go stale pretty quickly.

Cena seems, in hindsight, like the right choice.

[XL]

At the end of the day it was the fans that made the choice.

Cena was getting over huge in the midcard with his rapper gimmick, WWE actually capitalized on this for once. They needed someone to push given that Austin and Rock had left in recent years.

Then they went overboard and shoved him down our throats with year long title reigns, etc. Hence where the hate came from.

[XL]

Also, "What could have been...". ;)

[Tom Guycott]

Fuck you, parentheses' are awesome.

More importantly, are they dashing?

[Shadrick]

More importantly, are they dashing?

Hmm. Great question.

[MoFo]

Bobby Lashley got a Cena-like push and didn't get a Cena-like reaction.

Pretty sure everyone was "meh" towards him, despite him squashing every heel in the company.

[dingdongyo]

Bobby Lashley got a Cena-like push and didn't get a Cena-like reaction.

Pretty sure everyone was "meh" towards him, despite him squashing every heel in the company.
agreed. the before the elimination chamber yesterday, they showed the chamber from december to dismember when he won the ecw title. the crowd was dead before the celebratory pyro went off.