TSC Evaluation #58: John Cena

[NoMorePie]

Jeff Hardy was unreliable even though he was getting monster pops in 2009
CM Punk was a headcase
Daniel Bryan had injury issues
Edge was better off as a heel
Randy Orton was better off as a heel
Batista was better off as a heel
Lashley didn't want to deal with the shyt
AJ Styles.. Didn't he say he he had plans to retire by age 42?
Christian? lol
Cesaro would have been nice... But Vince don't think he has it...

 

[Playaz Eyez]

He gets a pretty unenthusiastic 8 from me, cause I recognize that he's done everything you could possibly imagine as far as success goes, but has literally been the same character since 2006. Not a single change. Every other person considered great has had multiple changes and general evolution of character. Bret, Eddie, Taker, Rock, HBK....HULK fukkING HOGAN EVEN CHANGED after like 8 years of being eat your vitamins Hulk Hogan. Jeff Hardy had early heel signs in his 09 feud with Taker, and as Immortal Jeff in TNA. STING....STING went from surfer, to crow, to Wolfpac Sting, to Heath Ledger Sting in TNA, but Cena has been the SAME GUY for ELEVEN YEARS straight

To stay with the positive, Thuganomics Cena was nice, was cutting dope promos even if his wrestling wasn't all there. The promos against Brock in 04 were hilarious, as was rapping his entire entrance at the RR. Parking Lot Brawl with Eddie is still one of my favorite matches from him, as well as stuff later on with Edge, Bryan, CM Punk, and Brock matches in 2012/13 (even though he should NOT have won first). I also enjoyed his US Open matches. I said an unenthusiastic 8, cause Cena is fresh on my mind after years of never truly being off TV. I'm 30 now, and Cena has been a catapulted mainstay since 2004/5, and on my screen in general since 2002. That is almost 16 years of pure Cena. I'm practically numb to him now. I would have him slightly higher if he wasn't so bad at selling, and simply wasn't such a focal point they made him to be. The WWE got all they could out of Cena, made him a mule, while cutting the legs from under other guys, and they wonder why they're in the shape they're in now.

EDIT: And how could i forget them trying to force Cena vs Orton as an epic Rock/Austin-like encounter Royal Rumble 2014's standoff to complete silence

 

[Francis White]

10.
Big Match John is a model citizen with the make a wish foundation and a work horse for the company for a good 15 years. Yes he has the highest mania buy rate of all time with his only mania classic with HBGOAT.
Classic feuds with DB and Punk. An excellent worker when he has to level up. Can step his in ring performance when matched with elite tier talent like.
Punk
DB
HBGOAT
Owens and Rocky.
Can also work well average talent like Orton, Edge and Umaga.
The man moves merchandise and is without a doubt a first ballot hall of fame member.
Let’s also not forget he made Randy Orton and Edge careers. Cena is the face of the ruthless aggression era.

 

[CM_Burns]

Let's add up the factors

Charisma/Star Quality- 10. Looks like a star, star entrance, controls the crowd. The guy's a star bro.

Mic- 10. One of the GOATs on the mic. He had a lot of corny promos, but they got the crowd hype nonetheless, and when he wanted to he was as good on the mic as anyone at hyping up a match and making it seem like a lot was at stake (VS Rock, Brock in 2014).

Ring- 8. A lot of his selling looks like sh1t, but I have to give him an 8 off his catalog of matches, and his feats of strength make his matches more interesting than some guy who can competently do all the generic sh1t.

Overall- 10.

 

[CM_Burns]

As for who could've been Cena, everyone will say Punk's push was fukked up and he didn't get enough of a chance. I don't know if I buy that, but Batista was probably bigger and hotter with the crowd for the first half of 05 than Cena, and then they moved him to SD and killed his momentum.

Putting Batista on SD after it was clearly the #2 was choosing to make Cena THE guy over Batista, when Batista hadn't failed on his own to carry the torch.

 

[mrken12]

Mic work/promos: 9
The main objective of promos is to build anticipation for a match and make a feud more compelling. Cena does this consistently and is good enough to trade shots with top mic workers like The Rock and CM Punk. I can't give him a 10 because of his blatant pandering to crowds and his tendency to lay on heavy the different promo personas (Preacher Cena, Boston accent Cena, Hip-Hop Cena, etc.)

One of my favorites:

But you want these championships because you're selfish, because you feel you deserve it. And maybe, just maybe, if you hold on to this you can finally walk around the rest of the superstars and say 'Hey guys, look! I'm finally what I was supposed to be ten years ago.'."

Personality/gimmicks: 6
His best gimmick was his hip-hop persona. As a rapper he actually was pretty decent. My one complaint is that he made WAY too many references.
However, once he fully made the transition to Face Of The Company/company friendly Cena, he kept the same persona for over a decade. On top of that, he starred in ONE movie as a Marine and ever since then he's been acting like he really served in the military. To say his character has been stale would be an understatement. The fact that he never had his main event heel turn is a shame because seeing a heel Cena would be a great change to his character. He's already shown heel tendencies throughout his career so why not go all the way with it?

Ring work: 7
Feuds/Matches: vs AJ Styles, vs Edge, vs CM Punk, vs Umaga, vs Rob Van Dam, vs JBL, vs Batista, vs The Miz, vs Daniel Bryan, vs Cesaro,

Cena was an OK worker early in his career but later in his career he became too formulaic and spot crazy. His finisher spamming has reduced the AA to a basic non-impactful move. He also started incorporating indy moves into his repertoire when he was way too old for them. Seeing a nearly 40 year old Cena break out Hurricanranas, jumping sunset flip powerbombs, and springboard Stunners is not going to give him indy cred. Luckily he stopped doing those moves when he started getting injuries. However, he steps up in main event matches and can hang with great wrestlers. Another major weakness in his matches is the lack of selling. It's one of the reasons why he's earned the Super Cena moniker. The most egregious example being his elimination tag team match with The Nexus at Summerslam 2010.



Overall rating (which doesn't have to be an average of the above scores): 8

People forget how big of a draw Cena was.

3 of the top 5 highest all-time Wrestlemania buyrates had Cena in the main event.

Top 10 Most Bought WrestleMania PPVs of All Time

The top draw for WWE in this generation and one of the most dedicated wrestlers to ever work for WWE. He's obviously not on the level of Rock, Stone Cold, Hogan, etc. but he's earned his spot as a wrestling legend. I wish that we could have seen a major heel turn from him to see his versatility as a performer but he's still brought many memorable moments, feuds, and matches throughout his career. I'm also disappointed that we didn't get an Undertaker Wrestlemania match.

 

[Notorious 1 E.Y.E.]

hes a 7

 

[Cartier Murphy]

I'm going probably between a 7-8. The thing for me with John Cena is that he should be a ten, easily. With his talent, longevity, and status he should maybe be the easiest ten ever. But there's so many things about him that leave a bad taste in my mouth regarding his career. His stale, boring character that never changed, even when he was presented with new opportunities to freshen up, but would immediately after snap back into the status quo. His shooting in promos against guys who couldn't or wouldn't fire back, his weird accent and tone shifts he'd randomly do (Boston accent Cena, serious Denzel voice Cena, etc.) his bad comedy. For a dude who has a 15+ year career and a decade on top, I can really only think of like 4 promos off hand that I would consider memorable.

Where my opinion on him picks up is his match catalog. This guy has a boatload of enjoyable, memorable, high profile matches. Vs. Rock, Brock, RVD, Bryan, Batista, HBK, HHH, Punk, Styles, Edge, Umaga, his early battles with Orton before they played that out, etc. He gave Khali and JBL some of the biggest and best matches of their careers, which speaks volumes considering neither guy is renowned for their in-ring ability. I can knock his spotty selling, his Wizard of Oz Scarecrow legs when he gets hit, his sad dog faces, etc. but I rewatch his matches regularly so clearly it works. The biggest knock on him in this category is the many scust endings to big matches, but even these matches before the finish are still very watchable.


Overall I give him an 8 but it's a real rating to me for a guy with his career.

 

[Jmare007]

He's most likely a 9 but this current run of PWG Cena has left me a couple of years from now I'll probably dismiss it and remember the good stuff he's done for all these years

 

[DamienWayne]

Oh boy....




But he's a 9 anything less would be disrespectful. Remember it like it was yesterday when he debuted. He made wrestling cool after the top guys left in 02-03 Changed the business( for the worse in retrospect but no fault of his) he made jbl edge sheamus , punk, miz and probably a few more. Carried this shyt on his back for 9 solid years. Great matches, great promos, unmatched intensity that made it feel real. Moments u will always remember, yea the act got old but when u being a good guy is literally giving kids the internal strength to beat cancer , who cares wat middle aged smarks have to say, The Franchise, leader of the ceNation/ chain gang click, the champ, dude is the man period.

 

[jackswstd]

7. Never was a favorite of mine even during the culture appropriation days of Word Life. Very good in the ring, solid promos, great feuds but he got stale a very long time ago.

 

[ALTRUISM]

Surprised at all the 10's he's getting


Anyway he's an 8 for me. He had a unique character in the thuganomics gimmick; interesting feuds and matches, some cool standout moments, and finally a recognizable moveset/theme song (though stale over the years) that transcendent past wrestling. He's not Rock, Austin, or Hogan levels of stardom; though I can at least grant that I will remember him in the next ten years or so. What really keeps him from what reaching any higher (like many here have already said) is that he never evolved his character - no heel turn or added depth whatsoever. That aside, his initial rise to the top was at least organic and not at all like the Reigns situation that WWE compared him to - that was just absurd.

I'll just end this with some Cena moments of mine:

 

[Berniewood Hogan]

Marks.



Without simply using catchphrases, do a Hulk impression.

Now do a Macho impression.

Do a Vince impression.





Okay?

Now do a Cena impression.




Get it?



2.

 

[R=G]

Surprised at all the 10's he's getting


Anyway he's an 8 for me. He had a unique character in the thuganomics gimmick; interesting feuds and matches, some cool standout moments, and finally a recognizable moveset/theme song (though stale over the years) that transcendent past wrestling. He's not Rock, Austin, or Hogan levels of stardom; though I can at least grant that I will remember him in the next ten years or so. What really keeps him from what reaching any higher (like many here have already said) is that he never evolved his character - no heel turn or added depth whatsoever. That aside, his initial rise to the top was at least organic and not at all like the Reigns situation that WWE compared him to - that was just absurd.

I'll just end this with some Cena moments of mine:

Don't be surprised..there is alot of c00ning, worshipping of Philip Brooks(crybaby era), and the like. About what anyone would expect.

 

[2CT]

This will be spectacular. My rating is based solely on his talents of being a wrestler.

Mic Work/ Promos: 8. This is the first time I feel like these categories should be split. Dude is able to spit hot fire when motivated, yet he lacks a catalog of great or even memorable promos after his rapping phase.

Personality/Gimmicks: 7. Dude was on fire as a rapper and right after his face turn but fell the fukk off 11 years ago. He could and should have been head and shoulders above the guys that he has faced yet he somehow doesn’t have but a handful of memorable moments in his prime. When you really think about it, most of the “big” moments he’s been involved in were him taking an L (Rock, Punk, Daniel Bryan, Edge, etc.). He’s been the same character since 2005 and had shown 0 growth or ability to evolve. Heel turns are often called for too often, but dude could have been Hollywood Hogan good if he would have turned.

Ring Work: 8. He’s not going to carry a match. He can keep up when he feels like it though. At one point, he didn’t have bad matches though they were ridiculously formulaic. From a match quality standpoint he’s probably an overachiever given his blocky awkward style. His match resume is kind of underrated for the number of good to great matches he’s had. He and Punk were made for each other. He and AJ can literally fight nightly and it’s surprisingly not just because AJ is an all time great. His feud with Batista is surprisingly great for two guys not known as stereotypical workers.

Overall: 8 that could and should have been an 10. From ONLY an entertainment and on screen perspective, he can’t be mentioned in the same breath as the 10+ tier 0 greats (Rock, Austin, Savage, Flair) or the 9+ tier 1 guys (Jericho, Angle, etc) who were critical to the success of their eras from an entertainment perspective. I said in another thread that in 10 years nobody is going to accidentally spend hours on YouTube watching John Cena promos and moments because his work largely doesn’t hold up.

this is pretty much how i feel except i had to bump him up to a 9 for his work with Make-A-Wish and the fact he dropped a legitimately dope hip hop album