He is the one full-time performer they cherish over any other. He is the one man they continue to feature in the main event storylines whether or not he actually has the WWE Title belt around his waist. And for that reason, and that reason alone, he has to be the man who has his hand raised in victory as WrestleMania 29 comes to a close. But this article isn’t about my feelings on John Cena, per se. Whether you or I like the man, his act or his matches, the fact remains that he is THE man in the promotion as far as Vince McMahon and the bookers are concerned.
For a man who is the face of the WWE, John Cena is not a very popular man. You can trawl virtually any wrestling site on the internet and it won’t be too long before you find a number of people who are all too quick to point out Cena’s faults. And to be fair, there are a number of them. His biggest “crimes” in my eyes are the total lack of regret his character generally shows even when he has lost an important match and the fact that after all these years he still hasn’t got a grasp on how to sell a move.
At WrestleMania 27, Cena did the j-o-b to The Miz (one of the least exciting World Champions in years) largely due to the actions of The Rock. One year later, at WrestleMania 28, Cena laid down for the Rock in a match which many people (although not me) thought John would win. At WrestleMania 29, with Cena having what you might call a 0-2 record against Rock, they meet again. Should the full-time face of the company and the man who has been largely protected against anyone and everyone lose clean to the man who will soon be off shooting another one of his hugely successful movies and probably will only wrestle one more match, at most, in the WWE until next year’s WrestleMania?
No. And anyone who argues otherwise is letting their hatred of Cena blind them to the facts of business.
The fate of Cena may not matter to you. You may argue that a loss here would do nothing to hurt him. But that would be wrong. Cena has a lot of supporters and even though a lot of them may be 12 and under they are still a portion of the audience that matters. They believe in Cena and now is not the time to let them down. They have seen “their” man come off worse against The Rock for two consecutive ‘Mania’s. All laws of logic mean that this HAS to be the moment that Cena gets revenge and proves that he is the “best”, especially as the one thing that would make a loss logical and actually mean something special (a post ‘Mania heel turn by Cena) is simply not going to happen.
Cena isn’t a fading legend on his way out. He is likely to be the face of Raw for years to come. He is the full-time member of the roster with the most money, time and effort invested in him. He is the man Vince McMahon has chosen to be THE star of his company. For that reason alone, WrestleMania 29 has to be “his night”.
– By Matthew Roberts