WWE: The Growth of Hate for John Cena (2010-Present)

If you've clicked on this link just to scream out that you don't want another Cena heel article, please don't.

I'm not here to cry for a Cena heel turn. I'm here to analyze as to why John Cena is suddenly the best heel in the company at the moment (he gets the most reaction—more than all heels combined I'll say).

Around two years back, faint echoes of "Cena Sucks!" used to accompany the resounding "Let's Go Cena!" chants. Forward to 2011-12 and a stark role reversal is observed.

So what did go wrong? 

If the Creative reads this article, they'll know what not to do with the face of the company.

Nexus (2nd Half of 2010)

I know that Cena has been booed ever since he stepped into the ring, but it wasn't that prominent. I remember up to 2010, where people used to go crazy for each and every thing the leader of Cenation did.

...and then came the Nexus.

The Nexus was a formidable threat and they did provide some interesting angles in the weekly shows and their feud with Cena was interesting. 

The seeds of disaster were sown when Cena got "fired." Yes, he's competing with Jim Ross in this category for next year's Slammys.

He didn't even leave for a week—coming from a guy who prides his integrity and dignity. He was there every week and ended up getting hired back in two to three weeks and then destroyed Wade Barrett. At this point, all those who slavishly supported John Cena (including me) got a glimpse of the mighty Super Cena.

Feud with CM Punk (December 2010— January 2010)

CM Punk ended his brief commentary stint and entered into a feud with Cena. Punk was a heel at that time, and Cena was, well... guess guess?

As seen in the video, Punk voices out what he feels which includes words like phony and John Cena and is true to an extent but is, rather unfortunately, neglected by the fans because he was heel. If you're a heel you'll get booed at sporadic intervals, no matter if you make sense or not (one recent exception would be the June shoot of course).

The words put out by Punk appealed to a few more fans and strengthened the gradually forming base for the tower of hatred.

The Rock

The return of the Great One brought with it one of the two biggest reasons why John Cena is hated today.

It's simple really. Not many feuds have fans supporting both wrestlers equally—cheering each and every move. Of course, Triple H and Undertaker, legends in their own right, are notable exceptions. But John Cena is not.

From the moment John Cena and The Rock started exchanging verbal blows, all the hardcore fans who have been watching since the Attitude Era immediately and understandably became one of Rock's millions. The Rock, I'll remind you, is no Eric Escobar—which meant John Cena now had to face The People head on.

The boos got louder and louder every time he taunted the Rock. You don't insult an Attitude Era icon, John.. not when people are annoyed with you for being the symbol of the PG era. They immediately started comparing the two faces of the eras, and you had to lose to The Brahma Bull. You could never win.

The only reason this isn't the biggest factor is that a good section of the WWE Universe still stuck with Cena through this feud because he actually made a lot of sense. The Rock did leave the WWE to make movies and brought it via satellite. The fact that Cena rapped all this out in crowd favourite Dr. Thuganomics character made sure this wasn't a one-sided verbal attack.

CM Punk (June 2011—August 2011)

Mr. Cena proved to be the wrong person at the wrong time here. 

All those fans getting deeply frustrated over the poor wrestling quality in the ring, lack of gripping gimmicks and promos and PG era in general found their messiah in the form of CM Punk—the guy who shook things up for a while and actually promoted professional wrestling rather than sports entertainment.

This got the entire fanbase buzzing and awakened the wrestling enthusiast in all of them.

Cena, like always, symbolized sports entertainment over wrestling.

No one wanted that.

The dire consequences were seen when Cena got a mixed reaction in his own hometown of Boston a week before Money in the Bank.

But at Money in the Bank, I'm pretty sure he had a hellish flash of Him versus RVD a few years back. You thought that was loud, you should have heard the Chicago crowd. Jerry Lawler called it 'surreal.' Michael Cole was smart enough to tell us that "Tonight, John Cena is in enemy territory!" So he was, and so he remained ever since.

Stale Promos

Frankly, ever since MITB, I believe a part of the fans (men especially) began jeering Cena not because they specifically hated him but because others were doing it. It became a norm that women and kids scream for Cena and tough men don't. 

... and every day of the week, Cena made sure he'd come out and tell us that all our opinions matter and how it doesn't effect him and how he loves our opinions but it won't effect him and he'll remain and then point his mike to the crowd and point his finger to his shirt and keep smiling like an idiot.

We know he's worked his ass off for the company. We know he grants wishes every week. We know some people like him and some people don't. Can you please just wrestle or talk something else? 

Conclusion

Kane might or might not bring out the demons lying dormant in John Cena, but it does make for some compelling television for now. You can blame bad booking or just luck in the curious case of John Cena's gimmick or maybe his lack of exceptional wrestling ability. He can talk and he has charisma, which is why he's here today. He can't ride on this forever, not at a time when professional wrestling is finally being appreciated.

Happy New Year folks!