Hot Take: Why John Cena Is Wrong on WWE's Need to Build New Faces of the Company

It's always interesting when WWE or a top Superstar gives an unfiltered look into the behind-the-scenes happenings or thought processes behind the greater product itself.

But it also can provide reason for pause.

John Cena himself did so recently on Corey Graves' After the Bell podcast (h/t Douglas Canavin of Wrestling Inc). While the overarching theme is brilliant and is a surefire excellent listen, which is always the case when Cena gets any sort of microphone, there was a notable hiccup: the topic of new faces of WWE.

Cena seemingly suggested WWE has problems building new faces of the company—which it needs—in part because of fan reaction:

"It needs what I'm not sure it can produce, and that's...just the state of where everything is now, which is weird because it kind of always corrects itself so we're in a day and age where it needs a frontman or woman.

"It needs one, maybe two, definable characters to absolutely be the reason, and that's what will be able to define what the era is because it takes on those personality traits of its top star. Like I said it before I don't know if, all things considered, the crowd is so mixed, that if the company puts its faith behind an individual, the knee-jerk reaction of the audience, even if they liked the guy last week, is to say 'f--k you, you're not going to tell me who I like.'"

Cena or not, it's unfair to pass this buck of responsibility to fans. Maybe that isn't 100 percent what the intent was, but suggesting fans have a "knee-jerk reaction" to dislike guys just isn't right.

And look, Cena deserves every shred of respect a person could possibly give him. He goes above and beyond outside of the ring to the point it borders on absurd. But he was also the Hulk Hogan of his generation who carried the company on his back. And Cena probably took some risks too, which would explain characters like Doctor of Thuganomics. His position didn't just get handed to him.

But it doesn't seem so simple in today's WWE. Cena or otherwise can't just tell Superstars to take risks while seeking out a position as a top guy or woman. Call it a success bias. Just because rolling the dice worked for Cena and CM Punk doesn't mean it should overshadow the likely hundreds of risks Superstars took only to be shot down—or worse.

And the obvious background conversation here is Seth Rollins. His run was doomed to fail from the start given WWE's history. He won the title from Lesnar at 'Mania on a low blow to start the show, got shoved into boring matches with Baron Corbin, had the awkward couple's run with Becky Lynch and collapsed in the largely horrific feud with Bray Wyatt.

That was an awful string of events for Rollins and not based on the fans just up and choosing to dislike him. It wasn't working, and WWE pulled the title off him and went with the organic rise of Wyatt (then fed him to part-timer Bill Goldberg in a sloppy match in Saudi Arabia).

Here's the kicker: Fans haven't turned on Becky Lynch. They didn't turn on Daniel Bryan during his special run. They didn't turn on Bray Wyatt's Fiend. They didn't turn on CM Punk. The didn't turn on Kofi Kingston.

We can go on with this endlessly. Fans aren't going to turn on Drew McIntyre if he takes down Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. They will turn on him if the booking after his big win is terrible. They w'll turn on him if he's not allowed to keep being this guy. If he's in boring feuds or doing something ludicrous like reforming 3MB, yeah, fans will get sick of him.

This can go the other way too. Fans don't make Cena main-event over a champion Punk all the time. Fans don't make Kofi Kingston get brutalized in seconds by Lesnar because SmackDown is going to Fox, rarely mentioning it again. Fans don't force Roman Reigns over other Superstars into repeated 'Mania main events while pretending he's an underdog. Fans don't force Dean Ambrose to get a needle in his butt during a live promo and "pee-yew" the fans.

Glance over at All Elite Wrestling for a moment. The promotion is young. But nobody is going to end up turning on Jon Moxley. Global stars like Cody Rhodes and Kenny Omega haven't had fans turning on them. Barring something epically changing, AEW won't run face-first into this issue.

This is a WWE problem; the company might need top stars, but it has to want to build top stars.

Maybe the biggest issue is that, long ago, WWE shifted its goal from big stars to big moments. The big bad heel runs rampant, the babyface has his moment and then there's this terrible gap wherein the company acts like it doesn't know what to do with a top star anymore.

WWE needs a top guy and top woman. But continual issues with pulling the trigger at the right time or going with the right person at all and botching the booking after the big win indeed sours fans.

So once again, WWE has a chance to forever anoint a new top guy with Drew McIntyre. Fans aren't turning on him yet, but the question is simple: Will WWE end up giving them a reason to turn on him?