WWE: Why John Cena Does Not Have to Be the Best Wrestler

Not a day goes by without John Cena getting bashed by Internet wrestling fans, who rip “The Champ” for his gimmick and his abilities as a wrestler. 

I find much of that hatred toward Cena to be unwarranted. 

Sure, his gimmick could use some changes. But attacking his wrestling ability has become the “cool” thing to do, especially when you consider that he has a long and storied history of great matches with everyone from Edge to CM Punk to Randy Orton. 

The undying hatred toward Cena, however, remains as prevalent as ever, growing exponentially with each day that passes by. 

Cena is consistently ripped for “not being able to wrestle,” having “the five moves of doom” and “not being as good as Punk or Daniel Bryan.” 

What becomes lost in all of this anti-Cena sentiment, though, is this: Cena does not have to be the best wrestler because that’s not what makes him succeed. 

Although guys like Punk and Bryan are extremely talented all-around performers, they thrive in large part because they’re absolutely fantastic wrestlers. That’s a big chunk of their appeal.

That’s why Punk calls himself “the best in the world” and why many consider Bryan to actually hold that title. 

Cena, on the other hand, doesn’t pretend to be the world’s greatest wrestler. His main appeal isn’t that he puts on five-star matches (even though he’s done that) or that he steals the show every night. 

He actually thrives on what many older fans hate the most about him: his gimmick. 

Like him or not, Cena’s gimmick is one that fits incredibly well in today’s PG era and easily establishes him as the ideal role model in the WWE. 

He largely stays away from cursing, he never takes the easy way out, he steps up to bullies, and he—for all intents and purposes—is a great example for children. 

That’s very clear with the slogan that defines Cena so perfectly: “Hustle, Loyalty, Respect.” 

While some fans may find it cheesy and/or think it makes Cena come off as “fake,” the truth of the matter is that it doesn’t matter if Cena is being his true self (which I believe he is) or not. 

The most important thing is that Cena’s portrayal of himself as such a stand-up guy gives him a wide-ranging appeal that no other baby faces in the WWE even come close to. 

Cena is simply following in the footsteps of arguably the biggest name in wrestling history, Hulk Hogan. 

Anyone who has ever watched Hogan wrestle knows that he didn’t revolutionize the business because he went out there every night and tore the roof off with his performances as a wrestler. 

Hogan thrived because of his performances as a character. 

The vast majority of wrestling fans were able to overlook his flaws as a wrestler—like his no-selling or his awful leg drop—because he performed so well as a character and became someone that parents wanted their children to look up to. 

That’s exactly what Cena does today, 25 to 30 years after Hogan was doing it. 

Although Cena is exponentially better in the ring than Hogan ever was, it’s the aura of Cena’s character that makes his wrestling ability (or lack thereof in some people’s eyes) a secondary factor to his ability to mesmerize an audience. 

Trust me, there’s a reason why some of the WWE’s best in-ring workers can’t even get on TV while Cena has been at the top of the company for the better part of a decade. 

It’s because Cena has a mass appeal that, like Hogan, makes him draw better than anyone else currently working in the industry. 

It doesn’t matter that Cena isn’t the best in-ring performer in the WWE or that, realistically speaking, he might not even be in the top five or even the top 10. 

All that matters is that Cena the character is more over with the core of the WWE’s target audience than anyone else. 

And it’s not even close.

Drake Oz is a WWE Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter!