John Cena is one of the best known wrestlers of all time. John has been with WWE for a decade now, starting all the way back in 2002. John Cena first burst on WWE television when he answered an open challenge from Kurt Angle on the June 27th, 2002 edition of Smackdown. It was clear early on, John had that presence and he was going to be a big deal in the company.
Soon after debuting, Cena’s stock would start to climb as he knocked off Chris Jericho, arguably one of the best to ever step inside a wrestling ring and one of my all-time favorites as well.
John Cena would soon after become a heel. John would dress up like Vanilla Ice and perform raps. Something which seemed to be a good talent of Cena, Cena would also have a run with Brock Lesnar and an attempt at the WWE Championship. It was clear that Cena was a major heel and he was not afraid of a little heat.
Fast forward to 2012, and we find John as perhaps the biggest babyface in the business. John has become the face of the company. Cena’s merchandise at one stage brought in more for WWE than Stone Cold or Hulk Hogan. This year has been the first one in about 5 years that John’s merchandise has not been the company’s top grosser. In 2010 John Cena allegedly brought in $106 Million in merchandising.
John Cena is also a movie star, a singer and has the persona to do talk shows, radio interviews and any other media appearances. John Cena also works with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, where he is the most requested person in the history of the foundation. John has granted 300 wishes at the time of the Raw 1000 episode spectacular.
So why would a publicly traded company such as WWE, who also makes so much money from Cena’s merchandise, want to turn him into a heel?
Well, wrestling fans haven’t had a real shocker in a long time. We know when somebody will be returning or leaving before it happens. We have also seen all the good angles a few times over. We need to be surprised again. We need something unexpected and something that will have us talking again.
WWE is very dependent, as any show is on the television, on ratings. If John Cena should turn heel it would be a big rating spike. Fans would tune in to see the “golden boy” turning heel. WWE needs to remember that the fans of the show, are a large part of their following and will be following the product long after those who wish to see John continue as a babyface.
As a babyface, CM Punk was over like you couldn’t believe. His merchandise was the 1st to surpass Cena’s in the last 5 years. He would have been the perfect fit for Cena’s heel turn. Couple this with the possibility of Rock vs. Cena 2, and this could have been a wave of momentum for WWE and the John Cena persona.
We all like to play guest booker, slash guest writer. So let’s see…
I would have Cena’s character be influenced by an external factor, maybe somebody who is a natural heel. I would have this person be a major role and not a wrestler, somebody like a Ric Flair, Paul Heyman or an Eric Bischoff. This person should only be seen after Cena’s heel turn.
I would book Cena in a match with an over babyface of the mid to lower card level. Maybe an Alex Riley or Santino Marella, during the match Cena should get disqualified. It should be for not stopping the assault in the corner or something where Cena loses it.
John should go out and obtain a weapon of some kind, maybe a chair and a table or something. A few chair shots and an AA through the table. When Cena is done, and standing over his fallen victim. The heel manager should appear on the stage at the entrance way. The manager will have a slightly pleased look on his face but not say a word. Just the slightest nod of the head in appreciation of what Cena has done.
This will lead us to the next week. Fans will tune in to get some form of clarity on the situation. But this time it’s the manager who takes to the microphone. The manager tells the WWE Universe that Cena is done with trying to please everybody. You know…The whole kissing the babies speech. The manager should say the Cena is done with pleasing the WWE Universe. It’s about Cena now, and that he would do as he pleases.
Later on Cena should come out and interrupt a match with a guy like Brodus Clay, leave him laid out. The Manager should be outside the ring encouraging the assault. Cena will cut a very short promo. Basically saying that he will be taking over WWE, and going after all the superstars that the WWE Universe supports. This clearly leads to his feud with CM Punk.
The next week Cena can open Raw with a promo, talking about all the things he did for WWE. He can say he was not appreciated, that he did all the media appearances, etc but that it was never enough to please the fans, as they continued to boo him and started buying more Punk gear than that of him. He can tell the fans that Punk is the ultimate hypocrite. That he tries to act all he high and mighty, but could care less about the people.
At this point Cena should be interrupted by Punk and they exchange words. This continues to lead up and the two have a big blow off match. Should the Cena vs. Rock match happen, Rock can start saying that Cena is being influenced by his Manager. That this is not John’s real feelings, he saw the real Cena at Wrestlemania and that the Cena we have seen the past few months is a brainwashed Cena.
For WWE’s merchandise and all the rest of it, Cena can turn on his manager following the match with Rock and make an apologetic promo on Raw the next night, explaining that he was under the influence of his manager and that the old and the real John Cena is back.
Might seem a bit far fetched, but I really think it could be what WWE needs to take them to the next level.
I would love to hear your responses, and your ideas. Hit me up on Twitter by following @supercraz3 or I can be found on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mr-Paul/316986281650883.
Looking forward to it, next week I will be asking the question: “Why has TNA dropped some of their original matches?” Is being more like WWE really what they need? And has it made them more popular? I will way in on this hot topic next week.
— Kyle Davidson is a guest columnist for OWW