John Cena--Respect and Disappointment

John Cena is not a wrestler. Doesn’t matter if you love him, dig his cool t-shirts and think he’s tougher than leather. Facts are facts. John Cena is the World Champion of the biggest pro wrestling promotion on the planet, and he is not a wrestler.

Now, here’s the funny part. John Cena CAN wrestle. I know it. I’ve seen it. Granted, it’s been a while. I remember when he came into the WWE, back when he actually wore gear, and was getting his first matches on TV. He had the fundamentals down, he could sell, he moved fairly smooth for a guy with his tremendous physique. At first glance, this John Cena kid looked pretty good. Nothing to get excited about, but, he had a good blank canvass to work with.

Then Vince McMahon dumped about five gallons of the crappiest low quality paint that money can buy onto said canvass and helped produce the John Cena we know today.

I hated the whole “white homeboy” gimmick. I mean, here’s a white guy from Massachusetts wearing baggy shorts and oversized basketball jerseys, attempting to rap. It was a hard sell to me, and apparently it didn’t fly with anyone else at first. He was pretty much hated and booed every time he was on the air, which was fine, he was a heel after all. But then something familiar happened.

John started getting more and more mic time. The more he talked, the more he rapped, the more fans slowly began to sway in his direction. It’s happened before. Everyone knows that The Crock (yes, that’s what I call him) was nothing until he started talking. Then, before you knew it, he practically had the whole audience eating out of his hand.

The common thread with the average WWE fan seems to be “hey, I don’t know you, so I don’t care, and I hate you. WAIT! You’re entertaining on the mic? I love you!!”

This, to me, is John Cena. Not the greatest worker, not much in the way of charisma, but, he connects with the crowd when he talks. A proven formula for what it takes to be WWE Champion, and John drank a 2 liter vial of it.

The unfortunate part for me, as an actual wrestling fan, is that as Cena’s character began to take off with the fans and he was pushed up the ladder, his in ring work began to deteriorate. Arm drags, hip tosses and reverse chinlocks soon gave way to punching, kicking, and shoulder tackles. Not to mention the ridiculous “five finger shuffle”, ala the “people’s elbow.” I mean, come on, what do you tell the guy you’re wrestling? “Hey man, just lay there for thirty seconds while I showboat, and don’t worry that this technically gives you more than enough time to recover and move.”

The sad truth is that Cena may well have been told to change his style to suit his character. The never say die street fighter gimmick evolved, and his move set devolved to match it. I’m just speculating here, but for me, nothing else makes sense. One minute he could work, the next minute he can’t.

Perhaps it’s not Cena’s fault after all. Instead of pushing John to continue to improve in the ring, keep working on his timing and ring psychology, maybe the WWE forced him to focus on his character and what he could say to make the crowd love him.

The WWE knew he couldn’t work that well. They obviously didn’t care that he hadn’t progressed beyond just the fundamentals of pro wrestling. But rather than work with John, they instead shifted the focus onto the whole- he has no fear and will go down fighting- shtick. I suppose they thought that by doing that, we would all forget the fact that he wasn’t that good in the ring. Besides, what did it matter? They had other plans for him in mind--namely the WWE Title.

I don’t know if anyone was truly shocked when he won his first World Title. I think we all probably saw it coming, mostly because we have seen it from the WWE so many times before.

Chump Hogan (yes, that’s what I call him) was a sub-par wrestler who stayed sub-par his entire career, though he was always in the main event and was World Champion more times than ever deserved--which was not at all. Some Cena fans get upset when this comparison is made. Why is that, exactly?

There is one very important difference between the two, however, and it’s something that I do not believe Cena has ever received the proper credit for. Cena is all about the business. Hogan is all about himself.

All you need is to hear one interview with John, read one Q and A with him, something that’s not controlled by the WWE, and you’ll see that the guy truly loves the sport. He’s still a fan himself, and you can hear it in his voice. He says all the right things, about having respect for the business, even going as far as criticizing the Crock because he doesn’t give anything back to the sport he claims to love. That much about John is admirable. I love that he cares that deeply about what he does. My problem is how he does it.

Then again, this attitude of his--his love for the business, his respect for what it means…is all of that legit? Having been in the business myself, I can tell you this for certain: EVERYTHING is a work. There is absolutely nothing that has ever come out of a wrestling promotion that you could ever fully believe. That’s just the nature of the beast, the way it’s always been.

I like John Cena. I do. I believe that if I ever met him that we could sit down and shoot the bull about the business for hours. He just seems like that kind of guy. I suppose that’s what makes this all the more disappointing for me as a wrestling fan. I want a wrestler with John’s passion for the business to be Champion. Instead I got a fan.

Tom Clark June 14 2010