(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Why is a guy like John Cena the top guy in the WWE? I think it is time someone analyzed the factors involved in the emergence of "Cena-Mania"...
The Super Hero Factor
Cena is like a Super Hero. He always fights the "good fight". He never backs down from a challenge. He always beats the villain in a fair fight. He never loses clean to a "bad guy"...in other words...he is the Hulk Hogan of this generation.
The Freak Show Factor
Does anyone think Hulk Hogan would have won over any fans had he been 6ft. tall and 220lbs.? The answer is no. But (at the time) he was one of the largest guys in wrestling. He had no technical ability to speak of. He wasn't really all that strong for his size. But he was a freak purely based on size.
Cena is a freak. He does freakish things. He picks up guys like Khali and Big Show, squats/deadlifts, and tosses them around like giant bails of hay. When he gets bored of that, he does things like picking up Edge and Big Show double-stacked like a 735lbs. double cheeseburger, and tosses them! Putting 735lbs. up on your shoulders and carrying it is impressive for any man, let alone a man who is really only around 6foot1inch, 245lbs.!!! Do the math...that is literally 3 times his body weight! A normal human being in good shape should be able to bench his weight and squat about double his weight (or at least lift off the ground about double his weight). Cena can toss 3 times his body weight on his shoulders!
The Charisma Factor
Cena has charisma, whether you like him or not. He can work the mic. When he is "mad", he really looks mad. When he is in "pain", he really looks in pain. When he is "fired up", he looks fired up. Like it or not, the guy is a good actor. His movies are pretty decent action movies.
The Ratings Factor
Many watch cause they love him. Many watch cause they hate him. Many watch cause they are secretly jealous of him. Whatever the reason, he brings viewers.
The Ability to Adapt
Cena can adapt his style. His first televised match was against Kurt Angle. His technical wrestling was decent (considering he was in the ring against the best PURE technical wrestler EVER). His brawling and power style are exquisite. Many rip on his submissions, but in reality, his STFU is much more believable to me than Taker's cheap rip-offs from the world of MMA. Any real MMA/Brazilian Jiu Jitsu guy would laugh at Taker's submits. His gogoplata (his current favorite) would NEVER work in a real match...you would have to be like 100 times stronger than the other guy to keep him in that position. His original triangle choke, which is a great MMA/BJJ submission, was extremely slow and technically sloppy. Yet, everyone marks over his cheap MMA rip-offs and complains about Cena doing a sloppy STF???
How can Shawn Michaels be in wrestling over 20 years and still not know how to do a figure 4 leg lock right? His figure 4 is the worst I've ever seen...he doesn't even have the legs locked in.
And HHH and the Rock, as great as they are/were, never did the Sharpshooter (or for Sting fans, the Scorpion Death Lock) correctly.
The Jealousy Factor
It is like Hogan after awhile. Hogan came to the point where people simply watched because they were sick of him and wanted to see SOMEONE finally beat him clean. The hatred became so strong, that he finally turned heel and made on of the best heel turns in the history of wrestling with the NWO.
Cena will eventually come to this. With his mic skill and rapping ability, I think he could be a very entertaining heel. For now, I think he will stay where he is...at the top of "Face Mountain" (not "space mountain", for Ric Flair fans!)...
Bring on the Heat...
40 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete