Royal Rumble 2012: Why John Cena Must Make Big Impact at Rumble

Due to his general dominance, it isn't often that wrestling fans would say that John Cena has to come away from a pay-per-view looking strong. Nevertheless, no superstar is in need of a bigger performance at the Royal Rumble than the leader of the Cenation.

I certainly understand that the majority of adult wrestling fans love to see Cena fail, but it's important to realize how lame he has been made to look in recent months. For starters, Cena has received the short end of the stick at almost every turn during his feud with The Rock.

Survivor Series is the perfect example, when he teamed with The Rock to take on The Miz and R-Truth. Cena was dominated for the vast majority of the match before The Rock came in, cleaned house and won the match for himself and Cena with relative ease.

If that weren't enough, The Rock gave Cena a Rock Bottom for his troubles following the match. Things haven't got any better for Cena from a storyline perspective, either. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper slapping Cena in the face made him look like a chump as well.

Furthermore, Cena was left off the card at TLC, and he has been getting pummeled during his short feud with Kane. With all of that said, if we look at things strictly in a kayfabe sense, Cena's stock right now is lower than it has been in quite some time.

The Royal Rumble marks the first stop on the road to WrestleMania, so Cena absolutely needs a strong performance in order to look like a credible threat against The Rock. I think the creative team took the first step toward that on Monday, when Cena mercilessly battered new United States Champion Jack Swagger.

That was an example of Cena "embracing hate," which is what Kane has been imploring him to do since his return. It's possible that embracing the hate will eventually lead to a Cena heel turn, but for now I see it being more of a shift in character than anything else.

Cena needs to further his character development at the Royal Rumble in his match with Kane. He has to be ruthless, heartless and willing to do anything to destroy Kane. That doesn't necessarily mean Cena has to win. I don't even think he should, since a brutal no contest would do the job of making both competitors look credible.

I highly doubt that Cena will be involved in the Rumble match itself since he is already locked into a match with The Rock at WrestleMania. However, interfering in the match by eliminating Kane and assaulting him would make him look like the no-nonsense tough guy that a lot of people have been clamoring for.

Perhaps the WWE's goal right now is to make Cena look like the ultimate underdog heading into WrestleMania. I suppose they've done a nice job of that so far, but Cena has such a track record of success that I doubt anybody is going to buy him as an underdog against a guy who has wrestled a single tag-team match since 2004.

The better route is to make The Rock and Cena look like equals so that the match can live up to its billing as one of the biggest of all time. For that to happen, though, Cena needs to start looking the part, and the Royal Rumble is the best opportunity to do it.