John Cena - A character study till the end of time

John Cena

It began during the weeks leading to Wrestlemania. Bray Wyatt was making a Cena loss at Wrestlemania look inevitable. And Cena was struggling with this force with which Wyatt was trying to control Cena and his supporters. WWE did a good job of making Cena look insecure. Insecure about the fact that Wyatt will soon have a bigger army of people who once used to follow Cena’s footsteps. And so the kingdom of righteousness that is ‘Hustle. Loyalty. Respect.” Will see its end and there will never be a happily ever after, but to please all those kids looking for a ‘happily ever after’ John Cena came out victorious, but,alas, that wasn’t the end of it.

The Cena heel turn may never happen, but the build up to it is very interesting.

Cena looked as if he felt betrayed after the results of WWE poll were shown. He seems more and more distant from this feud. So when one feels that they can’t beat THEM what do they do? They join THEM. And WWE seems to be teasing that Cena might soon become a follower of Wyatt too. But we know, that ain’t happening.

WWE tried the same thing of showing Cena’s ‘inner demons’ in a fruitless feud with a returning masked Kane in 2012. At a time when CM Punk was trying to bring back prestige to the WWE title, Cena was given the main event attributed to the fact that he was the biggest draw of the company. A heel turn for Cena has been teased in recent years when his good guy shtick reached its saturation point. Ever since the ‘Summer of Punk’ got over and Cena and Punk moved on to other feuds, Punk was still having great matches while Cena moved on to have good build ups to his feud with Lauranitis, Kane and others but those matches were nothing home to talk about. Heck, they shouldn’t have even ended the night.

The original rebel of Cena’s Kingdom

Apart from Punk, only a handful have been able to get the best out of Cena like Daniel Bryan and Cesaro and that probable career turning point Sandow has had with his match against Cena. I mean, it turned Sandow’s career from being a MITB winner to being a jobber. Even Heath Slater hasn’t lost to an animated character like Scooby Doo.

All this has added to Cena’s persona of being one of the most powerful backstage figures and much like Triple H, he’s been accused of being very selective with pushing people and very generous in burying many. And it only adds on to his feverishly polarizing character. While kids will never bother knowing whatever goes on backstage as long as they see, meet their hero, listen to his entrance theme and watch him do his moves of doom (which will have an iconic status among these kids)- his fan following shall remain intact. He naturally looks like a good guy. And for his detractors, nothing can stop them from booing him off. They enjoy that ardently.

As I said before, Punk got the best out of Cena and the crowd joined in on the fun and almost the same happened with Daniel Bryan. In these feuds, Cena’s character seemed interesting. It seemed like he was no longer putting up the facade of being the underdog. He was the top tog. He made it clear he was no pushover and men had come before him and failed, implying at least Punk to be a passing sensation having his fifteen minutes of fame. Not many have been allowed to bring this ego to the fore. Here, a heel turn was not teased but to show that Cena was not so unadulterated was well done.

John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt

With Wyatt, the WWE seems to be going for that heel tide of things.What failed with Kane seems to be working with Wyatt. For once, he’s a new guy with really high expectations whenever he gets a mic. They are teasing a heel turn but that’ll never happen as long as the kids remain their prime consumers. Either the kids need to find a new hero equivalent to John Cena or WWE shall lose them if Cena turns heel. It has come to a point where people have expected Cena for what his character is and are enjoying booing/cheering him on.

It’s good as long as it lasts.