Why John Cena turning Heel Would Show How Poor Writers Are....

31-3-3

Ok in the build up to the 'Once In A Lifetime' Rematch all we have consistently heard from Cena is that he needs to win this match for redemption. The storyline arc is that after his defeat last year he has been on a rollercoaster ride these past 12 months and it has been one of the toughest years of his pro-wrestling career as well as his personal.

We have continuously heard how Cena has struggled in the ring this year and how the defeat has seemingly left him and others questioning whether he can win the big one.

WHAT?! Are WWE kidding.....now I realise that Wrestling is of course fake (shock horror guys I know) but at least attempt to make me believe this for one second.

The way this match has been booked we are or at least were supposed to feel for John Cena. For me this match shows why WWE can be so bad at times. If they wanted us to get behind Cena they had the perfect chance after Wrestlemania....if they had put him on some kind of losing streak I could have bought into his wave of momentum since Rumble. I could have even bought into the fact he would go over at Wrestlemania.

However....I can't! And the reason why.....because quite simply he has not had a bad 12 months. In fact if I had the kind of 'bad' 12 months he has had I would be bloody delirious. So what am I talking about....well lets take a look at his record shall we.

And remember given this storyline that has been written for the match Cena is supposed to have had it tough....

Overall Win Loss Record for Post Wrestlemania (RAW/SMACKDOWN/SAT MAIN EVENT) Dark Matches Not Included

Wins 32 ... Draws 2...Losses 2

PPV Record = Wins 4 Draws 1 Losses 5

WWE Extreme Rules '12
Apr 29th 2012 John Cena Def. (Pin) Brock Lesnar "Extreme Rules"

WWE Over The Limit '12
May 20th 2012 John Laurinaitis Def. (Pin) John Cena No Countout No Disqualification

WWE No Way Out '12
Jun 17th 2012 John Cena Def. The Big Show Steel Cage; If Big Show Loses, John Laurinaitis Is Fired; If Cena Loses, He Is Fired

WWE Money In The Bank '12
Jul 15th 2012 John Cena Def. Chris Jericho, Kane, The Big Show, The Miz "Money In The Bank" Ladder (5-Way)

WWE SummerSlam '12
Aug 19th 2012 C. M. Punk (C) Def. (Pin) John Cena, The Big Show Triple-Threat WWE Championship

WWE Night Of Champions '12
Sep 16th 2012 C. M. Punk (C) Draw (DPin) John Cena WWE Championship

WWE Survivor Series '12
Nov 18th 2012 C. M. Punk (C) Def. (Pin) John Cena, Ryback Triple-Threat WWE Championship

WWE TLC - Tables, Ladders & Chairs '12
Dec 16th 2012 Dolph Ziggler Def. John Cena "Money In The Bank"

WWE Royal Rumble '13
Jan 27th 2013 John Cena Def. Antonio Cesaro, Bo Dallas, Brodus Clay, Chris Jericho, Cody Rhodes, Damien Sandow, Daniel Bryan, Darren Young, David Otunga, Dolph Ziggler, Drew McIntyre, Goldust, Heath Slater, Jinder Mahal, Kane, Kofi Kingston, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, Ryback, Santino Marella, Sheamus, Sin Cara, Tensai, The Godfather, The Great Khali, The Miz, Titus O'Neil, Wade Barrett, Zack Ryder 30-Man Royal Rumble

WWE Elimination Chamber '13
Feb 17th 2013 Dean Ambrose & Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins Def. (Pin) John Cena & Ryback & Sheamus 6-Person Tag

Whilst his PPV record may not be as good as normal..closer inspection of it tells a slightly different story. Of those 5 losses Cena was only pinned cleanly twice. He also technically won at NOC yet the decision was reversed to a draw because both himself and Punk had their shoulders on the mat.

Let us not forget also that he won the 2 big PPV events behind Wrestlemania...both MITB and the Royal Rumble.

The fact of the matter is....even when is supposedly having a bad year, WWE have ended up booking John Cena as the Superman of the WWE. He has still come out on top when everything is stacked against him...he is still winning the big ones and once again he has barely been pinned cleanly all year. In fact just 4 times....4 times in the past 10 months!!

This for me is a major reason behind him not getting the sympathy they perhaps wanted him to gain heading into a rematch with The Rock. The problem WWE have is that turning him heel may work for one night at Mania but given the history around him I would fully expect even a Heel Cena to be booked strong....bucking the trend of the 'Weasel' Heel who is sneeky and lucky....thus given fans even more reasons to hate him.

I do not want to see a Cena heel turn at Wrestlemania for the simple reason...in my mind at least it makes no sense for him to do so. He hasn't had a bad year....he hasn't had it tough and he hasn't been losing all the time. He has been the focal point for almost the whole year...main evented almost every PPV even ahead of the former WWE Champion Punk for the vast majority of his reign. The simple question is....what's he got to whine about?! Nothing!!

If Cena is to win.....let him do it clean and be booed out of the building for the simple reason that people don't like what he has become...which is lazy...go to booking performer..who the WWE don't need to change or re-invigorate because he sells merchandise and does his bit for charity. I would much rather that than them turn him heel for a logical reason which actually has no logic behind it and makes little sense!

The thing is ozzy, i understand what you say about him still being booked strong by not losing cleanly, but the fact is usually he would over come the odds and manage to find a win so by those standards he has failed.

Also another key point is that its his personaly life that has suffered aswel, im sure one of the videos pluggin the match on raw, had a clip of a news paper headline about Cenas divorce being down to the rock also.

I think for John Cena it has been a bad year, of course it has, the main reason being that he hasn't held the WWE Championship all year which I think is the first year this has happened since he first won it in 2004 and I don't think for a second that he's been the focal point of WWE, for one he missed TLC completely. He was the first person to cash in the Money in the Bank and fail to win the title, he really became relevant again at the Rumble.

I think WWE have done a good job at keeping Cena looking like a threat, but having a relatively bad year. Also, it doesn't matter how you view the year, the point is supposed to be that Cena thinks he's had a bad year, that Cena has struggled all year.

I'm also not sure your final points make sense, why would it be a problem for Cena to be booked as a strong heel, rather than a sneaky, whiny one? That would be perfect, we've had enough sneaky, whiny heels. Why would you rather he doesn't turn heel in what is a perfectly logical storyline, but just fails to get cheers as a face? It really doesn't make sense.

If he had gone on a huge losing streak, Cena stops looking like a threat, the idea is that Cena just can't get over the final hurdle, while in the past Cena has overcome everything, this year he's failed to do the final part, and that's what's important in the match with The Rock, and that is what could/should trigger the heel turn.

I will respond to you both in due course (dissertation editing is taking place at the moment)...

Crimey I probably haven't worded it to well as it was slightly rushed but I will attempt to emphasise my point in my response.

Have Big Show, Swagger, Mark Henry, Cesaro, Lesnar etc been often portrayed as sneaky whiny heels?

Hero - No they haven't but then again in the last 5 years how long have each held the main title on either Raw or Smackdown?

Big Show usually always has a small title reign in terms of length whilst it remains to be seen how Swagger will look if he wins the title at Mania....in fact should he do so I would bet my house on it not being an all too clean a win.

If you look at the vast majority of CM Punks title reign I wouldn't say he was booked to look all that strong. Ok he got the job done and retained the title on plenty of occasions but how many times did he do so without some kind of aid....distraction or just generally fortunate manner?

Remember when Christian held the World Heavyweight Title...once again he was depicted as a weak champion who had to do all he could to hold onto the title.

I get the fact that as a heel the character is supposed to go to any lengths to retain or win a title....but far to often once a heel has hold of a portion of either two 'major' belts in WWE they are booked as cowardly.

Some people need that type of booking. Others do not!! CM Punk was someone who did not need to be booked in that manner....and by booking him in that sense I actually think WWE have devalued the feud he now has with Taker.

My point is that you just know that as soon as Cena gets hold of the belt you will suddenly have the writers coming up with the idea ''oh we can have a heel champion who just dominates the competition''

Crimey - I will respond I promise!!

My point is that you just know that as soon as Cena gets hold of the belt you will suddenly have the writers coming up with the idea ''oh we can have a heel champion who just dominates the competition''

Exactly. Why would that be a problem? If you don't like how they've booked heel champions in the past, why would you be annoyed if that changes, even if it takes a Cena heel turn for it to change?

Because it would be another show of one rule for John Cena and another for everyone else.

I hate jumping on the John Cena bandwagon but when looking at the overall picture it is hard not too....

The fact is that CM Punk was red hot following the pipe bomb and the WWE had the perfect opportunity to put the belt on CM Punk...steer clear of the typical heel fashion of winning and make both Punk and the WWE title feel important.

Whilst Punk does to a degree look strong I would say that is more down to him as a performer than the way he has been booked. A WWE title that played second fiddle to a performer who was apparantely 'lost' this year is not the way to add prestige to the major belt in the company.

I suppose my frustration is in the feeling that even when WWE are pushing someone new to the forefront of the company (i.e. Punk in the past two years) they do so whilst never really pushing them above Cena....and whilst this is understadable in the sense of John being the face of the company..I think the pay off would ultimately be much bigger if they stopped protecting him so much.

But can a heel really, Heel with only five moves? I mean imagine red kryptonite Superman winning every fight with a laser and a toss across the galaxy. People would get bored really quickly. And the, believe it or not, he would still get booed. Unless you are A freak of nature, it is difficult to go over as an underdog, heel. Even Orton, probably the best heel in the last 10 years (sorry punk) has a pretty wide moveset, along with being (probably) the most athletic upper-card in the E.

He doesn't have only five moves though. A long running story of heel dominance ended by a hero is a long build. It would be even more memorable than the CM Punk reign ending cos he was a heel of inconsistencies as well as being a face for a good long time.

Plus, the point is that whilst his personal life has broken down, it's the pressure of not being able to best The Rock that he struggles with. So, much of his dominance over the card since is pretty irrelevant. Even his win over CM Punk could play mental havoc as he can think to himself that even after conquering one major foe he still can't stop The Rock.

On a sidenote, there's advertisements all over the place here in NYC for it, all based on the rock vs Cena. We walked by some quite hot girls who saw the ads on the big screens in time square and said how annoyed they were that they weren't going to Mania. Contrast that to the UK.

Also, surely you can see that if John Cena does turn heel that leaves a spot for somebody to become the face of the company and freshen things up.

chris.wilkerson13 wrote:
On a sidenote, there's advertisements all over the place here in NYC for it, all based on the rock vs Cena. We walked by some quite hot girls who saw the ads on the big screens in time square and said how annoyed they were that they weren't going to Mania. Contrast that to the UK.

Now that's just showing off.

The punk was reign was always overshadowed by Cena. How many times did punk main event the ppv's? Not many. Purely because Cena was the guy. For all punks efforts it was always going to lead back to Cena.

Said it for years until Cena retires you won't see anybody level pegging with him or indeed above him.

Look at punk now,going to lose for 3rd straight ppv. Would you that happen to Cena? Not a prayer.

Hero wrote:

chris.wilkerson13 wrote:
On a sidenote, there's advertisements all over the place here in NYC for it, all based on the rock vs Cena. We walked by some quite hot girls who saw the ads on the big screens in time square and said how annoyed they were that they weren't going to Mania. Contrast that to the UK.

Now that's just showing off.

Should I send it three times? Still only seen Cena fans

3 times? That'd have been light relief!

The WWE fans scoreboard now shows Cena fans 2 CM Punk fans 1.

What about the legions of Dean Ambrose fans?

I have yet to see anyone with a fannypack

From freekin Zeus!

Update: 3 The Rock, 2 Cena, 2 Edge, 1 CM Punk and 1 Mark Henry

2 Edge & 1 Mark Henry?

It's surprising how popular Mark Henry is in American due to his background before he got into Wrestling and well Edge is just awesome one of the wrestlers that had a shirt you could wear in public and not look a complete Muppet like i did in my Eugene shirt

I add CM Punk "Best In The World" to the list of t-shirts you can get away with in public, main reason I got it was that I'm straight edge and it's better than most band t-shirts.

#bull2.0

I assume that Bull was the guy who told me that I couldn't be straight edge because he was? haha

Yeah he's travels a lot so much he's now in Germany many suspect he is actually Angela Merkel

#YouDidn'tHearThisFromMe

A third for Cena, one dx and a y2j one to add to the tally

6 rock, 4 Cena, 4 CM Punk, 2 Edge, 1 Y2J, 1 Mark Henry, 1 DX, 1 Zack Ryder is now the tally.

Agreed TC