How do you get a superstar to john cena level
- Thread starter Dreamzeedream
- Start date
Coco Brown
All Star
Depends on what your metrics are. Talking strictly being seen as the GOAT among wrestling fans? There are probably a lot of people that come before him. Talking strictly about being one of the most popular among wrestling fans? Again, you probably got a lot of guys that get named before him.
But if you start talking mainstream stars that came from pro wrestling, that's a different conversation and Cena suddenly becomes a pretty major player. Cena maybe isn't fourth *right now* but he's closing in on that spot. You can hate Cena but what you can't do is name a lot of people that finessed their WWE popularity into mainstream pop culture popularity and then finessed that mainstream popularity into a position for bonafide Hollywood stardom or something similar (aka Ventura and politics) the way he has.
There people you can say for sure did it: Hogan, Ventura (politics not movies), The Rock, and Stone Cold. There are people you can make an argument for: Piper and Andre. But after that? You get a bunch of folks who got stuck in the mid card, so to speak.
You have a lot of guys who have made it from point A (popular WWE/wrestling figure) to point B (limited pop culture popularity) and ridden that wave to some lucrative spots (ex. Macho Man, Kevin Nash, Goldberg). You have a lot of guys who cashed in on their wrestling exposure to make moves for themselves and create their own wave (ex. John Morrison, Edge, Cody, Batista, Punk...i know you hate him too but facts are facts and facts are he rode that CM Punk popularity all the way to Marvel comics). You have a few of folks who came in with a little name recognition and built their brands from there (ex. Miz) or people who came in with already established brands and were stars before they ever hit the WWE (Ronda).
What you don't have is a lot of people who have done what Cena's managed to do.
I'm not even a Cena fan like that (he irked me about as often as he entertained me) but I'm also not gonna pretend the actual factuals don't exist.
Fact: He came in with pretty much zero fanbase to his name. Let's just be real: wasn't nobody waiting eagerly for The Prototype to make his debut.
Fact: He got over. Say whatever you want about Super Cena and all that came after, fact is there was a time when people were rocking w/Cena and riding w/The Dr. of Thugonomics. He was that dude. Period.
Fact: He rose to the level of the top guy in the company. You ain't gotta like or respect how he did it, but you can't deny that he did, in fact, do it.
Fact: He took that popularity, leveraged it outside of the niche of pro wrestling and used it to build up mainstream pop culture popularity.
Fact: He took his mainstream cache, flipped it, and got his foot in the door in Hollywood
Fact: He's now riding a bonafide Hollywood wave that *may* make him a legitimate movie star. Not just a working actor, but an actual movie star.
How many people in the WWE can claim that? You can out and out despise Cena, but unless you're just dedicated to hating on his entire existence out of personal bias you can't deny that he's done what very few in this business have managed to do. And because of that, history is going to treat his legacy with a lot more care and consideration than he may have otherwise received.
Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
You know got a special man on your hands pause when he was willing to learn a whole new language just to help expand the company.
Good man john
Truth be told..... after that whole Bella fiasco shyt.....
I’d just quietly bow out making these good “NON WWE” movies and walk the red carpet with some of Hollywood’s finest.
Come back for an occasional RR or WM match
Martha
Problem is Cena could have been even bigger than he is but his main run from 2005 to 2009 had too many ups and downs.
Dreamzeedream
Banned
You talking Hogan level?, passed austin and rock
Hahaha
Nowhere near true.its true