Where do you rank John Cena historically?

[Kunty McPhuck]

thread is opening up an interesting topic, is your all time favorite and all time great list the same?

there seems to be a disconnect there. there's a lot of historical greats I find boring as shyt BUT I recognize their need to be placed

Did you mean just WWE? Or Pro Wrestling as a whole. I took it as the latter.

 

[WMG the 2nd]

No surprise the person with 17 posts in a thread where the next few posters have maybe four is typing away angrily at the realization that cena is one of the greatest to ever do it

That's another reason why he's one of the goats, he makes even his enemies care about any and everything he does whether they like it or not. Despite hating him for nearly 14 years they still have been engaged and watched the product and his matches and his promos even though they hate him. It's like he draws them in and keeps their butts in the seats despite himself. Untouchable
Cena = legendary

 

[puppetmaster]

Did you mean just WWE? Or Pro Wrestling as a whole. I took it as the latter.

I was thinking as a whole honestly. It's a more open ended convo but noticing a lot of all time favorites being intertwined with all time greats. Subjective topic of course but it's interesting to see

 

[Wacky D]

i get the feeling that alot of people in here don't realize that you can be objective without doing a kayfabe list.

with that said, hes not top 50.

 

[R=G]

Half of these cats don' even know what good wrestling is..as evident in most of the ppv threads over Cena and Roman matches.

Saw some nutcases put this lazy non iconic motherfukk3r as top 5 with Macho Man nowhere in sight u know what I mean? Papa Shango has bigger moments than Cena..Mr. Perfect...Arn Anderson...Demolition...Earthquake squashing the snake....Rick Martel's Arrogance shyt that blinded Jake the Snake...Dibiase creating his own title and buying refs.

John Cena just does passive aggressive promos where he is mad that the fans are split..every major program..he harps on it all the time. Nonstop. That's lazy, complacent, and why u got empty arenas today. fukk John Cena. Lazy...ULTRA LAZY main event guy. Didn't even turn heel once as a top guy. Predictable. Even Eva Marie had more character progression than that.

 

[Wacky D]

To be brutally honest, if you take away the big feuds he's had, and put in some mid-carders who never got those chances, but you know for a fact are a better performer and talent than Cena, I would not even put him in my top 100.

THIS.

I'm falling out laughing at the people in here tryna refer to cena as the hulk Hogan of this era.

He kept the industry alive after the attitude era passed so I rank him pretty high

No one carried the biggest wrestling company in the entire world for as long as he did, or even NEARLY as long as he did.

We're talking like 12 years as main event, drawing fans, selling merch, putting on great matches.

In that way he was more important than Hogan, Austin or anyone else EVER.

But his impact was not as big as guys like Hogan, Austin, as while they didn't do it as long, they grew the product bigger.

Cena carried the company for a decade +, he helped build the Netowork era

Cena didn't carry a dam thing.

he dropped the ball actually, and helped to drive a ton of fans away from the WWE.

only thing he did of historical note is sell merchandise to the little jimmies.

The big problem with Cena is that his class of guys didnt get good reactions by a lot of fans early on, and that led to madddd people not watching wrestling anymore.

I remember tuning in and I was like I dont like these guys, Orton Batista, Cena... Then I stopped watching wrestling for 13 years. It coincides with the ratings being less than half of what they used to be. Thing is those guys at that time just were not 'my guys.' And they didnt do much to fit into the puzzle. Its hard to establish new stars, and to me they failed.

THIS

the WWE pushed a bunch of hacks for an entire decade. and then people have the nerve to wonder why ratings & attendance went down.

for what its worth tho, I rank cena higher than orton, edge, JBL, batista, and all those other struggle stars that they forced down our throats. but hes nowhere near my top 50.

 

[g-ice]

thread is opening up an interesting topic, is your all time favorite and all time great list the same?

there seems to be a disconnect there. there's a lot of historical greats I find boring as shyt BUT I recognize their need to be placed

Who do you find boring and I have to place of principle?

I need to see this list.

 

[Cartier Murphy]

You'd need some barometers for ranking him.
Is he in my personal top 5, 10, etc? No
Is he top ten in WWF/E lore? Easily
All time in pro wrestling history? That's a little harder to rank and where you need stricter barometers

I will say I've softened on him and come around on him as a talent, even that he has an extensive match catalog. There's plenty of his matches I'll go rewatch (vs. RVD, Punk, Brock, etc.) but he's not a compelling character or someone I could ever personally connect to beyond the fact that I watched him for his whole career.

 

[julesocean]

thread is opening up an interesting topic, is your all time favorite and all time great list the same?

there seems to be a disconnect there. there's a lot of historical greats I find boring as shyt BUT I recognize their need to be placed

If you find them boring, you aren't supposed to recognize them as a historical great. Simple as that. It's like saying "I hate this wrestler, but the consensus is he was good, so I'll give him a pass." NO. You are part of the group who thinks he wasn't shyt, so stand by your opinion.

EXAMPLE: Cena earning double digit world title captures because he earned it vs because WWE pushed it on us when more than half of his reigns weren't wanted by the fans compared to others on the roster at the time. I will not rank him as a historical great because of that.

 

[julesocean]

Mount Rushmore as in he's literally made more money for WWE than any wrestler ever, as well as been at the helm of something nuts like 8 of the 15 most profitable years in company history. I'm talking purely money. He's no where near the top for me as an actual talent or character, but money wise, he's bigger than everyone due to having such an abnormally long run on top in an era of weekly matches and monthly PPVs.

This is completely out of context, where these points are more of a factor in the "money train" than Cena being a top tier talent

-WWE being publicly traded
-WWE getting mad sponsors because of going public
-WWE monopolized the wrestling industry driving or buying out ALL competition
-the natural progression of digital media

This is why WWE are still wildly profitable despite having the shyttiest ratings of their existence.

WWE pushed him as the "hero" babyface, and he earned top merch sales from all the kids because of that. But if you peel back the curtain, it's easy to see the machine orchestrated this more than Cena's wild talent and charisma naturally gaining these fans.

 

[puppetmaster]

If you find them boring, you aren't supposed to recognize them as a historical great. Simple as that. It's like saying "I hate this wrestler, but the consensus is he was good, so I'll give him a pass." NO. You are part of the group who thinks he wasn't shyt, so stand by your opinion.

EXAMPLE: Cena earning double digit world title captures because he earned it vs because WWE pushed it on us when more than half of his reigns weren't wanted by the fans compared to others on the roster at the time. I will not rank him as a historical great because of that.

I disagree.

I'm objective enough to not weigh my opinion as fact. Sting is my favorite wrestler of all time but I recognize others as "greater" than him historically.


For instance I find Bruno Samartino by and large to be boring.

The matches, promos, angles etc are very hit or miss to ME and I've watched a LOT of his stuff

But. .. I'd be a fool to not recognize what he means to history because I don't have the ego to think my preferences and opinions should be a main driver in his historical rank. Sometimes the stats and numbers are what they are when it's time to line em up

 

[NV-ME]

15 years. top 10

and i dont wanna hear "weak era" shyt either unless you dont have jordan in your top 5, because that nigg won all his ships in the 90s when the greats got old and the young niggs hadnt come up yet.

 

[R=G]

I disagree.

I'm objective enough to not weigh my opinion as fact. Sting is my favorite wrestler of all time but I recognize others as "greater" than him historically.


For instance I find Bruno Samartino by and large to be boring.

The matches, promos, angles etc are very hit or miss to ME and I've watched a LOT of his stuff

But. .. I'd be a fool to not recognize what he means to history because I don't have the ego to think my preferences and opinions should be a main driver in his historical rank. Sometimes the stats and numbers are what they are when it's time to line em up

Bruno Sammartino is a undeniable super draw for the kayfabe era of the 60s..Hogan before there was a Hogan. Thing is..it was easier to draw in the kayfabe era no matter what which is why I have Rock, Austin, Eddie so high...it was harder to get that over after the truth came out.

 

[El Guapo]

I have Rock, Austin, Hogan, Flair, Andre, Savage, Undertaker, Bret, and HBK as for sure ahead of him on my list (those 9 aren't in order). After that is when I get into a personal debate with Sting, Jericho, Triple H, and Cena. So at best 10 and at worst 13 to me.

 

[R=G]

15 years. top 10

and i dont wanna hear "weak era" shyt either unless you dont have jordan in your top 5, because that nigg won all his ships in the 90s when the greats got old and the young niggs hadnt come up yet.

Nah..Jordan dealt with the Lakers, Pistons...He kicked everyone's ass in the end. The Clyde Trailblazers..all of them.