WWE TLC 2011: Why John Cena's Absence Was Good for WWE

At the Tables, Ladders and Chairs pay-per-view, it was shocking to see one superstar left off the entire show.

No, it wasn’t the returning Kane, or the rumored return of Skip Sheffield. It was the absence of WWE’s poster boy—John Cena. 

The question is, did you even miss him? 

On the Monday Night Raws leading up to TLC, Cena did not insert himself into a storyline with another superstar to warrant a match at the PPV. Instead, what we saw was the first WWE PPV to not have Cena in a match since 2008’s Cyber Sunday. 

That was an impressive run of three years where we have seen Cena either wrestle someone or compete in a championship match. 

Without Cena, the WWE was able to let other stars shine and carry the company into their biggest stretch of PPVs in the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. 

Before the PPV, Cena tweeted out that he wasn’t going to be at the show.

Throughout the night, you could see Cena memorabilia throughout the arena. However, what you did not hear was any Cena chants. There was little to mention of Cena from the commentators or in any backstage segments.

It was like as if Cena was an afterthought of the WWE. 

Cena is a smart man. He knows that there will be a day when he cannot continue at the rate that he's working. The man goes about as hard as any professional wrestler in his business. 

However, there will be a time when his body breaks down, and he will not be able to give the same performance that he is accustomed to. 

The WWE is about creating new stars that their fans can get behind either to love or hate. Without Cena at TLC, the WWE was able to propel CM Punk as the main guy in the company. 

With the lack of Cena at TLC, it proved that the WWE could put on one of its greatest shows without their biggest star.  

However, the biggest thing to come from TLC was that it didn’t even look like the WWE Universe missed seeing Cena one bit. Which is great news for the company in building new stars to take over for ones that have become stale. 

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