John Cena is the current RAW champion and arguably one of the biggest stars the WWE has ever produced. Some will argue that he isn't as talented as former champions; others would argue that he's the best ever. Love him or hate him there is no denying his popularity. But is there a chance that there could be a backlash against Cena" I believe that there could be and the blame is going to fall on the WWE. Wrestling fans are unpredictable and fickle creatures. What they may cheer today they will boo tomorrow. The Rock is a perfect example of this. After he made The Scorpion King and returned to RAW after a lengthy sabbatical, people were booing him. Not because he was portraying a heel, but because the fans had felt that he had betrayed them. He left wrestling to do movies. People tend to like their wrestlers when they wrestle. Any kind of success outside of the ring is usually viewed as selling out. The Rock was able to get the crowd to put away those feelings because of his charisma and the matches he put on were still of the same caliber as they were before he left to make motion pictures. Now I'm not comparing John Cena to the Rock, I was just addressing that fans can be fickle at times.

What I believe could be John Cena's potential downfall is the way the WWE is promoting him. In my opinion he's been far too overexposed far to quickly. You can't escape an episode of RAW without hearing about John Cena's CD, or watching the newest John Cena music video. On a recent episode of RAW he even performs a song for the audience. Now trying to sell merchandise is nothing new, but it was usually regulated to the commercial breaks and not the broadcast itself. Never before has the WWE gone to such lengths to promote a wrestler's talent that was not wrestling related. John Cena may not be seen as a sell out but it's only a matter of time before people will get tired of having the Cena CD crammed down their throats.

The WWE is spending far too much time promoting Cena the "artist" and not Cena the wrestler. This is only going to hurt his credibility in the future. Sure this CD may be a hit with the fans, but what if the follow up isn't" Cena's CD is a gimmick that paid off well, for the WWE but they shouldn't rely on it to promote him. He got to where he was because of his talent as a wrestler and not as that of a rapper. If they continue to promote him as a big musical sensation, he'll only go the route of other once popular musicians. (Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer does anyone take them seriously") Once the fans begin to reject his music they are going to reject his ring work.

So far the crowds are still reacting positively to Cena, but recently at the RAW airing from Pittsburgh there was a very audible boo emanating from the crowd after John Cena's latest video. Is this just the beginning of the end of Cena's popularity"

by Ken Lord ..