Did John Cena hit his prime in 2013?

[mike adamle]

I can't remember a year where I've been so impressed and eager to watch John Cena's matches. I dunno whether it's the fact that he's the biggest star they have or if he's just that good in the ring now or what, but EVERY match he has feels huge.

And the quality of these matches is right up there with the huge feeling too.

Look at his year this year.
Royal Rumble- Wins the Royal Rumble in my personal favorite Rumble ever.
Elimination Chamber- A good match at Elimination Chamber where he (and Ryback and Sheamus) made The Shield look like main eventers for beating them.
Then on Raw in Feb he has a MOTYC against CM Punk.
WrestleMania XXIX- Then he has another absolute classic against The Rock (in my opinion obviously) in an awesome main event of the biggest show of the year.
Extreme Rules & Payback- The next two ppv's he faces Ryback and gives Ryback his two best matches in WWE to date.
Money In The Bank- Then at MITB he faced Mark Henry in a match that probably wasn't a classic, but was probably the best match Mark Henry has had in his entire career.
SummerSlam- Then we go to SummerSlam where he puts on another MOTYC with Daniel Bryan in probably Bryan's best match in WWE so far and he really put Bryan over as a main event star.
Hell In A Cell- Then he takes a break and when he comes back at Hell In A Cell he has the MOTN (IMO) against ADR, stealing the show from Bryan and Orton and making the WHC look relevant again by winning it.
Survivor Series- Finally at Survivor Series he doesn't have a MOTN, but still a very good match nonetheless against ADR that still puts over the WHC and brings the importance of it up.
TLC- Then at TLC he probably had his worst match of the PPV year... against probably his most established opponent (other than The Rock.) Still, the match felt huge.
Plus on SmackDown! this week he made Seth Rollins look like a star when they faced each other.

I've heard the argument that with the roster as good as it is it isn't hard for him to be that good, but that's why I brought up the matches with him against Ryback, Mark Henry, and even Daniel Bryan. He helped these guys have their best matches in WWE to date. Of course Daniel Bryan is probably a better wrestler than Cena, but has Bryan had a match in WWE that was as good as his match against Cena?

What about you? Do you think this is Cena's best year to date? If not what was? Provide examples!

[Nowhere Man]

I dunno, I didn't enjoy Cena/Rock or Cena/ADR at all. Cena/Rock especially; it went on for what felt like an eternity and had more false finishes than a year's worth of RoH shows.

That said, his match with Punk in the buildup to Mania was glorious, as was the Summerslam match with Bryan.

[mike adamle]

I loved the match against The Rock, was into every false finish, felt like Shawn-Taker WM 25 all over again

[Kingofdaswing]

John Cena is the worst "Face of the company" the wrestling business has ever seen. Ratings at an all time low, less and less main stream media attention, nothing innovative has happened in a good 4 or 5 years. He will go down as the worst top guy in the business of professional wrestling history.

To answer your question, yea he did hit his prime but. Of because of him, because of the guys he was paired up with.

[mike adamle]

Thanks for your reply, Kingofdaswing! So what you're saying is, Mark Henry carried Cena to the best match of Henry's career at Money In The Bank this year? And Ryback carried Cena to a pretty good series of matches, something that he failed to do with CM Punk?

[Kingofdaswing]

Do me a favour and re watch Cena vs Henry at MITB. After you have done that, watch all the other matches Cena and Henry have had, they are exactly the same.

As far as Ryback goes, the series of Matches with CM Punk had nothing to do with Ryback, the story revolved around Punk and Paul. Thus the constant "Punk losing focus" crap.

Cena and Ryback matches in my opinion were the same as a Cena Henry match, big vs big. Boring. Thus the "Awesome" PPV buys for each event.

[XL]

They might have been Ryback/Henry's best outings (but they weren't) but they weren't what I'd call "great" or even "good" matches outside of that context.

[mike adamle]

What were their best matches then? I'm guessing you're gonna say Henry's matches against Orton when he was WHC champ (I thought those were his best UNTIL his Cena match.) But what about Ryback? What's Ryback done that's been better?

[James Steele]

NXT

"Yup yup yup, WHAT IT DO!?!"

[Anybody Thrilla]

I'm enjoying Cena right now as well, but Daniel Bryan's best WWE match to date was with Sheamus at Extreme Rules last year.

[The Naitch]

Did John Cena poop his pants this year?

[Swiss Ultimate]

I dunno, I didn't enjoy Cena/Rock or Cena/ADR at all. Cena/Rock especially; it went on for what felt like an eternity and had more false finishes than a year's worth of RoH shows.

That said, his match with Punk in the buildup to Mania was glorious, as was the Summerslam match with Bryan.

Let's not be silly here. Cena/Rock has less false finishes than an average 10 minutes in ROH.

[Anybody Thrilla]

Cena/Rock was pretty boring, I have to say. It's not really Cena's fault, though.

[DAMN iNATOR]

Or Rock's, either for that matter. Just a case of horrible long-term storyline booking by creative. Basically they took the great WM XXVIII match between the two and had Cena be like "OK, Rock, you beat me in Miami, but next year at WM XXIX in NY/NJ I'm gonna beat you in MY home region."

In short, what I'm trying to say is the Rock-Cena rematch @ WM XXIX seemingly happened for no other reason than "CENA MAD! WANT REVENGE!" and it just felt really forced and extremely uninspired and was good enough for TWO piss breaks and inducing naps longer than Rip Van Winkle's.

[#1-norm-fan]

Ratings at an all time low

Well this is just a blatant lie.

[#1-norm-fan]

What were their best matches then? I'm guessing you're gonna say Henry's matches against Orton when he was WHC champ (I thought those were his best UNTIL his Cena match.)

I do think Cena may be better in the ring now than he's ever been but I don't think his match with Henry holds a candle to those Orton-Henry matches. Fucking loved both of them.

[Kingofdaswing]

Well this is just a blatant lie.

Sorry, I should have clarified, but the ratings are at a level not seen in many years. However, if wrestling was available like it is today, the WWE during the 80s would have had better ratings than they do now. Austin/Rock era was more than double the amount of viewers.

Hope that helps clarify

[Anybody Thrilla]

Or Rock's, either for that matter. Just a case of horrible long-term storyline booking by creative. Basically they took the great WM XXVIII match between the two and had Cena be like "OK, Rock, you beat me in Miami, but next year at WM XXIX in NY/NJ I'm gonna beat you in MY home region."

In short, what I'm trying to say is the Rock-Cena rematch @ WM XXIX seemingly happened for no other reason than "CENA MAD! WANT REVENGE!" and it just felt really forced and extremely uninspired and was good enough for TWO piss breaks and inducing naps longer than Rip Van Winkle's.

Pretty much my feelings.

[Lock Jaw]

I enjoyed the Cena/Ryback series of matches, I just wish they would have let Ryback come out on top, or at the very least still come out of it looking like a badass.

[Anybody Thrilla]

That stage light wall finish was a complete cop out, and it didn't even look that painful.

[#1-norm-fan]

Sorry, I should have clarified, but the ratings are at a level not seen in many years. However, if wrestling was available like it is today, the WWE during the 80s would have had better ratings than they do now. Austin/Rock era was more than double the amount of viewers.

Hope that helps clarify

In the 80's during the Hogan era, sure. Mid 90's not so much.

Rock and Austin were clearly bigger stars but I don't know how much blame I'd put on Cena for the company not approaching attitude era numbers. It's a MUCH more bland product without as much mainstream appeal in general.

[Anybody Thrilla]

This is only loosely related to anything we're discussing here, but I wonder how things would have been had Brock Lesnar never left.

[Kingofdaswing]

I personally believe we are where we are in this industry because there are no places for young wrestlers to go and learn how to actually wrestle. Once the territories died, it was pretty much game over.

They bring in guys that are so green, and throw them on national tv, with guys that are just as green, if not greener. Recipe for disaster. The territories allowed the guys to go out and find themselves, while perfecting their craft, so when it was time to go on TV they could atleast put on a good match. WWE has killed the business, and although it will never completely die, it will never be as popular as it was.

[Ruien]

When was the time Cena came out on top of an actual feud? Orton won, DB won, Punk won. ADR does not count. It was thrown together to get the belt on Cena.

[mike adamle]

I hope we see some semblance of a changing of the guard over 2014-2015.

We started to see it in 2011 when CM Punk beat him at Money In The Bank and again at SummerSlam this year when Daniel Bryan beat him.

[Emperor Smeat]

Leaning towards yes mostly because it seemed like he's been a lot more motivated this year than in the past and it carried over to several feuds and matches.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Cena has been a lot of fun in the ring lately. Busting his ass to put on a good show.

[Lock Jaw]

More motivated because of Nikki Bella's boobs

[Anybody Thrilla]

I personally believe we are where we are in this industry because there are no places for young wrestlers to go and learn how to actually wrestle. Once the territories died, it was pretty much game over.

They bring in guys that are so green, and throw them on national tv, with guys that are just as green, if not greener. Recipe for disaster. The territories allowed the guys to go out and find themselves, while perfecting their craft, so when it was time to go on TV they could atleast put on a good match. WWE has killed the business, and although it will never completely die, it will never be as popular as it was.

It seems like the Performance Center is a plan to remedy this.

[Impeccable]

I think if you set out not to like a John Cena match, you are not going to like a John Cena match, regardless of performance.

I was neutral to John at the beginning of this year. Didn't hate, didn't like. However, take his matches in isolation and they are good. Probably one of his best years, yes. However, as much as that is down to Cena, I do feel that much of that is also down to who they paired him with.

Last year, he was paired with Big Show, John Laurinitis and Kane. The pace of these matches was slow and lumbering, which I don't think matches Cena's style.

This year he wrestled CM Punk in a great match on Raw, Daniel Bryan, Alberto Del Rio, The Shield (who can all "go"). The match with Henry was slow, but Henry absolutely made that match interesting with his swerve of the year and gave it an added spice.

His promo work this year has been much better. This is something where he does have to stand alone and not work with an opponent. He has brought the intensity when needed, he brings a touch of comedy if required. Whether the writers have now given him free reign to say what he wants or he has just reached down and been more creative himself, I'm not sure.

His injury seemed to come at the wrong time, and on his way out, he put over Daniel Bryan, legit. He obviously worked hard to get back as fast as he could.

I would say I am now a fan of Cena.

[Black Widow]

Cena's best year was 05 before he became a whole new level of annoying.