John Cena Equals U.S.A.

Its a very well known fact that John Cena is disliked by most of the older wrestling fans. Some attribute this to his excessive dominance which leads to predictive match outcomes and long or too constant title reigns; others point out his lack of  Benoit/Guerrero/Angle/Hart/Jericho-like wrestling abilities as the problem. There's a third group emphasising Cena's gimmick as the ultimate reason...but Cena is supposed to represent the pinnacle of American young adults, the moral and physical ideal of what a young USA male should be.

So, my question: if John Cena's character is the embodiment of what every young, male USA citizen is aspiring to be, why do so many people dislike him?

My guess.

John Cena is constantly paired with Hulk Hogan's character and antagonized by the Stone Cold Steve Austin persona.

Cena's similarities with Hogan's have been underlined several times. Hogan was portrayed as a working-class hero; Hogan was pretty much unstoppable; Hogan was über-charismatic; Hogan had the physique of most action movie/cartoon heroes of the time; most importantly, Hogan was constantly showcased as an All-American symbol. He represented what most Americans aspired to be: an unstoppable force that worked hard day by day in order to reach the top of the world, always in the name and sake of his country (aka, the people).

John Cena, in spite of being the wrestler of the new age, stands for a set of seemingly old-school ideals: loyalty, respect, hard work, humbleness ect., and although Hogan's sense of patriotism and "all-americanicity" is not so explicitly portrayed in Cena, the marine-esque part of his gimmick is a small tribute to the fighting troops and thus carries an extremely patriotic sense in it.

Just like kids in the 80's wanted to ingest their vitamins and say their prayers in order to be humongous, strong and unstoppable like Hulk Hogan, today's kids are willing to work hard, fight harder and never back down (perhaps enlisting in the army in the process) to be like John Cena. I guess several old-school USA mommies and daddies are more than happy to know their kids are growing into becoming a future John Cena figure: lady-attracting, respectful, patriotic and hard working young, strong American stallions.

Yet, for some reason, Hogan's character worked virtually at a global level (in term of age segmentation), while Cena's only striking the way he should be on kids and, in some cases, ladies.

Again I ask: If he's supposed to symbolize America's golden boy, why?

Enter The Rattlesnake.

Stone Cold also represents the working class hero in some way; Austin's character is the truck-driving, beer-drinking redneck. Hell, he's Hank Hill minus the awkward behaviour....but he's also infused with a heavy load of pure chaos that flows and pumps frenetically under his skin, which drives him into a bird-flipping, hell-raising, stone cold-stunning frenzy.

Steve is the embodiment of the other side of America's population; he's the more realistic face, if you will. Austin is that in-your-face inner self that most people hold back whenever having a chance to project it in any given situation.

Austin symbolizes the degeneration and decadence of a whole nation (and generation)...yeah, Austin is the REAL decade of decadence stuffed into a fleshy, bloody, beery, bald piece matter.

Hogan/Cena and Stone Cold exhibit two opposite sides of a character spectrum, yet, both kinds of characters are so extreme in the scale of things that they're positioned in the "almost unreachable for average people" classification. Yet, Austin's character is a bit closer to what average people do (or would like to do)...besides, his seems far more entertaining and fun than Hogan's or Cena's.

Maybe times play a very important role too, yet after being exposed to the original anti-hero, agent of chaos, toughest SOB, most fans still prefer him over the old- school Hogan archetype hero that's somehow represented on Cena right now.

Perfection is boring most times,just ask those who prefer Batman or any other superhero character over Superman; and, come on, guys like Cena makes us look bad...

That's my guess.

Thanks for the read.