Thread: Is "The Cena Generation" the last new fan base?
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Old 10-27-2019, 12:59 AM   #33
Tom Guycott
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DAMN iNATOR View Post
Other names that spring to mind that they had chances to make something special out of are Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura.
Quote:
Originally Posted by James Steele View Post
They have bungled Finn Balor and Ricochet.
The list is far deeper and the timeframe is far longer.

Shinsuke is a special case. On one hand, he's kinda like Owen Hart, in that he is good enough to be considered one of the best ever if he took it more seriously... but he apparently doesn't give a shit as long as he makes his money and can go surfing, he's happy. Good for him personally.

On the other, there is zero reason why he couldn't have been top tier and possibly helped carry the company. He has that intangible charisma. He has that "it" factor in spades. Even with his imperfect English promos, he wasn't getting drowned in "WHAT?" chants or other bullshit; he had the crowd quiet down to understand and absorb what the fuck he was saying, and got huge pops after. People who knew who he was from NJPW could turn to the uninitiated and be like "Hey, watch THIS shit... it's about to be an awesome match!" And the company did fuck all with it.

They have a deep roster full of talent with their own strengths that they aren't allowed to play to or show off. Everyone is background and filler and folks they just want to hold under contract so that they can't go elsewhere and generate any buzz. They ironically call people they don't want to push "flavor of the month" no matter how much they might get over, but will actually pick their own "flavor" to try to beat people over the head with. They break gimmicks with promise. They bury workhorses under piles of bullshit. And like so many of us have repeated to ourselves, they have made us lose faith.

It is hard to keep faith when you know that anyone called up from NXT will eventually mean nothing no matter how much they're cultivated and pushed and supported in Orlando. I keep thinking to the Velveteen Dream "Call Me Up Vince" tights, and hope to any god that will listen that McMahon doesn't take him up on that. He's flourishing in NXT, and main roster will inevitably fuck that all the way up in short order.
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