WWE Opinon: Cena Headed for Extended Feud with Laurinaitis' Authority

If there is one thing that has been made clear over the past few weeks with the newly appointed general manager of both Raw and Smackdown John Laurinaitis, it is that Johnny likes revenge.

Let's rewind the clock back to last July when Laurinaitis first became a physical presence on Raw rather than just a man in the shadows. Johnny was brought in to be the enforcer for Vince McMahon during the CM Punk contract dispute and subsequent feud with John Cena over the WWE Championship. 

With Vince's ever-advancing age, Johnny played the perfect scapegoat to be the person who takes the physical brunt of any and all altercations that came with the storyline.  Unfortunately for Johnny, that meant trying to screw over Punk in his hometown of Chicago at Money in the Bank, something that was thought to resemble the Montreal Screwjob of old. 

Instead of allowing the injustice to happen, Cena, who at the time had the STF locked in on Punk, released his hold, exited the ring and clocked John in the face.  After the strike, Cena turned to Vince and said, "Not this way. We do it my way."

As John reentered the ring, he was met with a GTS from Punk, costing himself and the entire company the WWE Championship as Punk walked out of the arena a free man.

Fast forward to the present and little has changed. 

Punk is still the WWE Champion, Cena is still a company man and both men's popularity is higher than any other Superstar in the WWE.

What has changed, however, is John Laurinaitis' role within the company.  He is no longer just a flunky for Mr. McMahon, he is running the show.  Not just the shows mind you, he's running BOTH shows.  With this power, Laurinaitis is instilling People Power.  What that really means, we shall see in the future, but for now, it means bad news for Punk and Cena.

That's right, the very two men whom Laurinaitis first had his television presence with are the two men whom Johnny is targeting the most with his newly found power that he earned at WrestleMania.

Granted, CM Punk has not helped his own cause in the situation. 

Punk, as we all know, loves to let his opinions be known and isn't afraid of the consequences.  Regardless, GM Johnny has taken upon himself to force Punk to become a defending champion, pitting him in WWE Championship defenses three weeks in a row now against the World's Strongest Man, Mark Henry. 

Punk has retained all three times, most recently in a No Disqualification match, but that hasn't eased any of the attention he has earned from the GM.  Chris Jericho has continued his psychological mind games with Punk, which has earned him a Chicago Street Fight at Extreme Rules for the WWE Championship, which was granted to him by none other than GM Johnny himself.

Now, with Punk occupied, GM Johnny needed to come up with a way to make the man who clocked him at Money in the Bank nearly a year ago, John Cena, suffer as much as he wants Punk to.  How would he go about doing so?

Well, he came up with the idea to bring in one of Cena's fiercest rivals from his early years, Brock Lesnar, back to exact some revenge and legitimize the WWE. 

One way to look at this with the whole "legitimize the WWE" saying, is this is Johnny's way of saying what some of the Internet Wrestling Community has been saying for quite some time now.

"Cena can't wrestle. We don't want him as the face of the company.  His act is tired and stale."

By bringing back Lesnar, GM Johnny has given Cena a foe that he has never overcome.  Someone who has beaten Cena time and again when they were both in the WWE before Brock left for the UFC.  Brock is someone that can not only punish Cena physically, but he is also one of the few guys that can make Cena start to rethink his approach and his style of wrestling.

More than likely, GM Johnny isn't looking for a heel turn, but he just wants him to start doubting himself, maybe even get so far in his head that it causes him to lose a few matches that he would normally win. 

One prime example would be the match GM Johnny set up for Cena on Raw last night.  In an extreme rules stipulation match, Johnny revealed Cena's opponent to be Lord Tensai. 

Not only did Cena lose (with a little help form Tensai's manager, or whatever he is, and David Otunga) but he looked rattled and off his game the entire match.  GM Johnny had found an opponent that legitimately struck a little bit of fear in Cena.

With Johnny's new power, don't expect the poor treatment of Cena and Punk to stop anytime soon.  He hasn't said anything about it yet, but it's no coincidence that they are his two favorite targets thus far into his reign of People Power in the WWE. 

Look for some more quality matches and even a few surprises in the coming months as the WWE's top two stars get tested beyond their wildest imaginations with GM Johnny running the show.