John Cena: Can He Reignite His Career at WWE Over the Limit 2012?

This much seems clear: as a character, John Cena's career has hit a rough patch.

Now, that may be an obvious statement, but I still think it's worth noting, because since when does John Cena hit rough patches?

For so long, he's been "Super-Cena," the almost unbeatable champion, beloved by small children and women across the world.

Now, Cena is coming off of a match at Extreme Rules where Brock Lesnar beat the ever-loving crap out of him before Cena ultimately pulled off a victory that was, to put it politely, less than decisive. Before that, he lost to the Rock at WrestleMania XXVIII, in a match that Cena  portrayed as the most important match of his life, a match that he couldn't possibly accept losing.

But Cena has been in a slump since before these last couple of months. After losing to Alberto Del Rio at Vengeance in October, Cena has stayed out of the WWE Championship picture, instead feuding with the team of R-Truth and the Miz, and then Kane, before turning his full attention to the Rock after Elimination Chamber in February.    

All of this has led up to Cena's match at Over the Limit versus John Laurinaitis, who is not an active wrestler, but the 46-year-old general manager of Raw (although this is just one of his jobs; a man of Big Johnny's talents cannot be restricted to one position). Suffice to say, this is not the kind of matchup one might expect a wrestler of Cena's caliber and history to have at a pay-per-view.

So assuming that all of this is sufficient evidence that Cena is slumping, the question is, can an extended feud versus Laurinaitis give his career a much-needed momentum boost?

Of course, "authority figure versus wrestler" feuds will inevitably be compared to Stone Cold Steve Austin versus Vince McMahon. After all, Austin vs. McMahon is the holy grail of this kind of story, and duplicating its success is probably impossible with Cena and Laurinaitis.

As great as John Cena is, he does not have the same connection with the WWE fanbase that Austin did. And that's no slight against Cena, because Austin is arguably the most popular WWE superstar of all time. Still, it's hard to imagine the fans getting behind Cena to the same degree they supported Austin. It is debatable whether Cena would even get anywhere close to as much support, especially considering the general love for Austin among adult males, and the general disdain for Cena among the same demographic.     

As for John Laurinaitis, he may have the potential to be an "evil boss" of the same caliber McMahon was, for a number of reasons.

First, he theoretically has total control as general manager of Raw and Smackdown, and as Executive Vice President of Talent Relations. Authority figures only work as heels if they actually have, you know, authority. And not just authority, but the authority necessary to impose real consequences on wrestlers with whom they have issues.

Granted, it's possible that McMahon or Triple H or some other high-ranking WWE figure could show up and overrule his decisions, but you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in the entire company who has more power than Laurinaitis (on-screen, at least). Plus, after Brock Lesnar tried to break Triple H's arm off of his body on Raw two weeks ago, it's questionable whether any WWE executive would want to get mixed up in Johnny's personal business anyway.

Second, by justifying all of his actions in the name of "People Power", it is evident that Laurinaitis has a clear vision of how the WWE should be, and that vision doesn't seem to match what the vast majority of the fans want.

Nothing makes wrestling fans angrier than having something or someone forced on them; for evidence of this, look no further than the very existence of the "Cena Sucks" t-shirt (via WWE.com). If WWE itself believes that people hate John Cena so much that they'll buy a t-shirt expressing this sentiment, then that should speak to how much certain fans want John Cena to stop being shoved down their throat, which in turn, speaks to the original point of how wrestling fans really, really, really don't like having ANYTHING shoved down their throat. 

So this is all to say, if Laurinaitis continues to brag about the greatness of People Power thirty times every Raw, the general fan reaction to him should become overwhelmingly negative. Which, of course, is the reaction that he is intended to receive. Meanwhile, as the force opposing him, the cheers for Cena should become louder and louder.

There are other reasons why Laurinaitis could become an extremely effective heel boss that could be examined in equal detail (such as that he has assembled a squad of sub-ordinates to do his dirty work), but I think those are the two most important ones.

So getting back to the original point, while Cena and Laurinaitis will almost definitely not reach the lofty standard set by Austin and McMahon, it could easily be an effective feud if extended beyond the match at Over the Limit. More importantly, it has the potential to put some juice back into John Cena's career.

Think about some of the wrestlers Cena has feuded with recently. R-Truth and Miz aren't important enough figures to be truly hated. Same thing applies to Kane. The Rock is beloved by 99% of the fanbase, and even if Lesnar was positioned as the heel while feuding with Cena, I'd wager that a good percentage of the fan-base was rooting for the former Next Big Thing.

Laurinaitis could be the first opponent for Cena that is truly loathed by most of the fans in a while, which means that the majority of the fans may be cheering for Cena for the first time in a while. Do cheering fans mean Cena's career is back on track?

Well, not necessarily. Fans cheer pretty hard for a lot of guys—Zack Ryder, for example—who aren't doing too well at this time. 

Still, fans cheering for Cena would be a solid indicator that fans care about what he's doing, as opposed to caring about the Rock's big return match that Cena just happens to be a part of, or Brock Lesnar's return match that Cena just happens to be a part of.      

Would Cena be able to ride the momentum from a feud with Big Johnny back into the world title picture? Very possibly. Perhaps getting the chance to see Cena have an extended feud with a hated opponent like Laurinaitis would remind some fans of why they loved Cena in the first place.

As mentioned earlier, Cena has been portrayed as a perennial champion and the best in the business for a while now. Putting him in a situation where he is a decided underdog would be a nice change of pace and could refresh his character to the same degree that any heel turn could.   

Of course, a lot of this is speculation. John Laurinaitis might prove to be a very effective heel authority figure, or maybe he gets cheered by adult male fans because he's feuding with Cena and because he was by far the best wrestler to ever set foot in Japan and because his voice makes it sound as if he eats ten squares of sandpaper for lunch every day.

And who even knows if Cena's feud with Laurinaitis will even last past Over the Limit? His feud with Lesnar only lasted a month. It's hard to gauge what the long-term plan for Cena is,or even if there is a long-term plan for him at this point. 

The reality is this; John Cena is an in exceptionally weird position right now, where fans are divided in their opinion over him based on gender and age. Well, he's been in the same position for a while, but it seems that these divisions have only become more pronounced over the past year.

To get out of this kind of awkward position, there needs to be less of a division in fan sentiment about him; the majority of fans need to either love him or hate him.

One way to accomplish this might be to turn Cena heel, but that also might cause him to continue to be a divisive force. Except in this scenario, the vast majority of adult men love him, and the vast majority of children and women hate him. The other way, as I've already said, is to get the majority of the fan-base back on his side, which could potentially be accomplished by pitting him against someone truly hated by most of the fan-base. 

But I think one thing is true: it's hard to create any long-term plan for John Cena in the divisive position he is currently in. One section of the fan-base is going to root for him basically no matter what. One section of the fan-base is going to root against him basically no matter what. Based on these factors, it has to be difficult for writers to gauge how the audience will react to Cena and Cena's opponent, which in turn would make it more difficult for them to formulate any long-term plans for Cena.

So the way I see it, reigniting Cena's career can be accomplished by making him a less divisive force among the fans. Maybe an extended feud with Laurinaitis accomplishes this. Maybe it doesn't. But it seems like it has a chance to get Cena out of his rough patch, and that makes it at least worth a shot.