Examining John Cena's response to burial claims

Tempers flared on the August 28th edition of Monday Night Raw as John Cena and Roman Reigns signed contracts for their “WrestleMania-caliber match” at No Mercy. Social media was abuzz following the verbal assault Cena hit Reigns with, and many cited this as one of the most embarrassing moments in his career.

Though Reigns, a man known for his shortcomings on the microphone, managed to get some good insults in, it didn’t match up to the onslaught from Cena. However, in the midst of their war of words, the misconception of Cena and his history of burials came up, and Cena fired back with his usual response on the issue.

“Burying” is defined by PWTorch as lowering someone in the eyes of the fans or their peers, and many say this has been done by Cena through many of his promos and matches. This problem with Cena defeating wrestlers at their peak was originally just a fan opinion, but has since become the basis of many promos from wrestlers who attempt to one-up Cena during their verbal exchanges.

Both Cena and his opponents bring up interesting points, but leaves a question unanswered: which side is right? To get a better understanding, this article will look at Cena’s history of dominance, the burial comments, and the breakdown of Cena’s response.

#1 The history of “Cena Wins LOL”

Cena debuted on the main roster in 2002 and spent the next three years paying his dues and working his way up the rungs of the WWE. It was abundantly clear that he was being marketed as the top guy from 2005-2007 and his status as “The Face That Runs the Place” has only strengthened over the years.

However, another notion that got stronger with the passage of time was the idea that Cena’s dominance occasionally came at the expense of wrestlers on the cusp of superstardom.

Many wrestlers got themselves over prior to their programs with Cena and would work their way up the card. Unfortunately, facing Cena led to their downfall. Any momentum that these wrestlers had before they faced Cena often would be sacrificed for WWE's desire to keep the top guy as strong as possible.

The concept of keeping top guys strong makes sense, but fans feel that shouldn't be maintained at the expense of stars on the rise.

Based on what many fans have argued over the years, Cena tends to bury his opponents in two specific ways.

The first type of burial is the outright defeat where Cena dominates his opponents in promo exchanges, matches and sometimes both. Damien Sandow, Umaga and Ryback all fell to Cena in all of their encounters and were never looked twice at for main event level matches. Baron Corbin is the most recent victim, but the jury is still out on whether he will be considered for main event matches in the future.

The second type of burial, and the most common, is the overall feud supremacy in which Cena may lose one match in a highly controversial fashion, but he’s subsequently booked to win the next two or three encounters. Rusev, Dolph Ziggler and The Miz all managed to beat Cena in a big match, but those wins were marred in controversy due to interference, sneak attacks and distracted referees.

After their one controversial win, Cena went on to overcome the odds and dominate the rest of the feud with decisive wins. And after losing to Cena, regardless of which type of burial occurs, these wrestlers would also fall into lower profile programs on a more consistent basis and the company would rarely give them big opportunities again.

The only exceptions to this rule have been Bray Wyatt and Dolph Ziggler who went on to hold world championships, but those title wins were short-lived and both men immediately fell from grace once those title reigns were over.

Being doomed to the mid-card for the remainder of their career is a symptom of being buried by Cena. The only thing that made some of these burials worse in the eyes of fans was the part Cena allegedly played backstage. There have been several rumours that Cena has used backstage politics to get matches booked in his favour and although many of them haven’t been proven, the one clear cut case of Cena making a change that greatly affected the careers of his opponents was his infamous situation with The Nexus.

This is one of the few stories to have multiple testimonies from the people involved and could make even the biggest Cena fans question themselves. After all, if it happened once, it’s logical to assume that it could happen again.

#2 “Guys like you bury guys like me”

Bust out the Shovels — Bust out the shovels

It goes without saying that the WWE has been embracing a more realistic approach to their storylines since CM Punk’s pipebomb promo. Shoot promos became much more popular since the "Summer of Punk" and it’s the continued breakdown of the fourth wall that has led to some of the most interesting segments.

Punk hinted at some of the Cena burial arguments with his promos in 2012 and many others like Daniel Bryan, Ryback and Kevin Owens touched on the idea, but it wasn’t until Cena’s confrontation with AJ Styles that the term “burial” made its way to the airways.

This would become the go-to argument for many wrestlers during the 2016-2017 year and got more interesting when it was revealed that Cena would be a part-time wrestler going forward. Since the return of The Rock in 2011, some fans have expressed issues with part-time wrestlers getting all the big matches and championships.

So, with Cena’s reputation and his newfound part-time status, it made sense for wrestlers to voice those concerns in stronger ways than they did before.

This would usually have been a bigger issue for fans back in the day, but the fan’s issue with Reigns has taken precedent. Even the biggest Cena haters have stated that they would rather have Cena in the spotlight than Reigns; a point Cena brought up in his burial response.

#3 Cena’s Response

The Cena Shoot Promo has been his greatest weapon

Following the burial promo by his opponents, Cena’s rebuttals would always come during the course of their feud. Sometimes it would take a few weeks or it could be directly after the promo in question, but Cena’s response would always boil down to these talking points.

Step one for Cena generally would be to remind people that those arguments have been around for years. This is usually done to dismiss the claims and argue that it’s been said so long by so many people that it’s become the go-to excuse for those who can’t hack it.

This point may be followed up with the list of superstars who benefited from making these claims and defeating him like CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, and others.

Step two would be to dismiss the claims of burials and backstage manipulating by discussing what he could’ve done versus what happened. Cena brought this up when he claimed he let Styles hold the belt for so long, but was especially noticeable in the buildup to Cena's WrestleMania 33 match where he said the following to The Miz.

“If I was really this black arts manipulator pulling all the strings this close to WrestleMania, you think I would be standing in a ring toe-to-toe, face-to-face with you? Hell no, I’d be standing face-to-face with The Undertaker.”

The final step in Cena's promos would be to remove the credibility of his opponents by shooting on them. This is when Cena exposed every flaw in his opponents and hit them over the head with some thought-provoking points; some exaggerated for storyline purposes, some 100 percent true.

Cena may include some corny insults in these promos, but the overall promo comes across as serious. There is a very distinct difference between Cena's insults against The Nexus and his promo against CM Punk before Night of Champions 2012.

Cena's promos have only gotten more personal over time and blur the lines between reality and kayfabe. There was a gradual increase in his controversial talking points from his promos in 2012 to 2016.

But the inclusion of the burial and part-time arguments called for stronger rebuttals as seen in his responses to The Miz, AJ Styles, and Roman Reigns.

#4 “Corporately Created John Cena Bootleg”

Several fans feel that Cena's mic work is what has kept him at the top of the WWE, but fans also believe he has more freedom on the microphone. It's well-known that wrestlers in WWE recite scripts for their promos, but a select few in WWE are allowed to speak off the cuff. While most wrestlers are told to stick to their scripts, Cena is believed to have a lot more freedom on the microphone which allows him to cut loose, while other wrestlers can’t.

To be fair, it's worth noting that wrestlers like Chris Jericho, Dean Ambrose and other good talkers have said they are given this freedom as well, but fans have argued that because Cena is such an integral part of the company, he doesn't have to toe the line as much as everybody else.

There's been nothing to confirm this idea, but what Cena said to Reigns on the August 28th edition of Raw may be the closest thing to an example... unless you believe any other member of the roster would get away with saying these things.

Reigns got some good jabs in at Cena suggesting that being like Cena would be an insult to his bloodline and he was the one guy Cena won’t bury, but this prompted Cena to cut one of the most brutal promos of the year.

Cena came back with his usual response but it was turned up so many notches that one would believe that he has a genuine hatred for his heir apparent.

He cited the difference between their United States Championship reigns, used the same line about “every other person before you” commenting on the burial, and closed with the big zinger that had everyone talking:

“You should be ashamed I’m a part-timer because I can do this part-time better than you can ever do this full-time.”

#5 The Truth

So what does this argument boil down to?

While Cena’s last words did make Reigns look foolish, the fact remains that his response to this type of promo never necessarily addressed the issue discussed. Cena said that everyone says these things about him and runs down his opponent, but he never actually addresses the burials on WWE programming.

The closest Cena has ever come to answering whether he buries talent came in his interview with Tony Maglio of The Wrap where he said the following.

"It's not that I sink their ship, it’s that they fail to operate at an elite level."

He turns the criticisms of his alleged burials on its head by saying that nobody’s ever been able to keep up with him when the opportunity knocks. Yet, the argument from fans is that the opportunity has come for many wrestlers, but that Cena’s words backstage, coupled with the company’s desire to keep their top guy strong is what leads to them “not keeping up.”

It's easy for a big main eventer like Cena to say the wrestlers just aren't keeping up with him, but there's a big difference between the era he became a star in and the current climate wrestlers operate under.

Cena became a star in the Ruthless Aggression Era; an era that wasn't as raunchy as the Attitude Era, but was far from PG. He also didn't have to deal with a big team of writers scripting his lines word by word, and he didn't have to deal with a top guy potentially holding him back.

After all, SmackDown didn't have any big names in the main event and Triple H's reign of terror ended long before Cena even made it to Monday Night Raw.

Whether he wants to admit it or not, Cena's booking over the years has caused the downfall of a few wrestlers. And as for his idea of wrestlers keeping up, I pose this question: how can you be expected to keep up with a man with a head start?