At what point in John Cena’s career did people start hating him, and what caused it?
At what point in John Cena’s career did people start hating him, and what caused it?
At what point in John Cena’s career did people start hating him, and what caused it?
…sameness?
for me it was around the start of 2006 i think when he started using that crappy STFU (they made it seem so unstoppable but it looked so shity) but i think for most it would be mid 2005 when he went to raw and people just started to get bored of him
I can’t pinpoint exactly when it was for me, I know it was early on in his face turn, when he started throwing “Deez Nuts” bags at people.
Like, I thought he was funny and creative as an evil rapping guy, but then he became the goody two shoes boring rapper. Then he made that crappy Marine movie, adopted that whole hustle, loyalty, respect mantra (which made no sense for a rapper).
He just kept getting more and more stale in and out of the ring.
I don’t hate Cena. I’m just tired of Cena.
I respect him a great deal, actually. The last few months have been a master-level class on How To Make An Undercard Title Important Again as well as How To Put Rookies Over Without Losing.
I started watching in 2003/2004 and smarks already hated him for being an unstoppable superman who always wins.
I think he historically has had the largest difference between how smart fans view him and how “casual” fans (for lack of a better term) view him, and it’s only since the Summer of Punk that the whole “some of you love me, some of you hate me” thing really became part of his actual on-screen personae, acknowledging that split.
But man, keep him away from the main event scene and I will watch him all the goddam day. He’s great, but seeing him with the WWE Title is literally the most boring thing in the world.
I have been nothing short of amazed at how entertaining the Cena/Rusev feud has been and the guy earned mad props from me when he let Brock Lesnar toss him around like a rag doll without him getting almost any offense in. I cannot, CANNOT, imagine Hulk Hogan putting someone over like that despite all the comparison between Hogan/Cena.
I’ll bet Cena merch is probably moving at the same pace as always, which may mean that WWE has figured out that Cena does not need the big strap to sell, but that the rest of the product does get a boost from being in the WWE title hunt. It’s brilliant and getting back to the idea that a good wrestling show will have a little bit for everyone – when Cena was main event, he was so much of EVERYTHING that it hurt the product. Now, he’s in the right dose on the actual shows, and I don’t care that his face is disproportionately on merch because he’s basically subsidizing what’s been a really fun and interesting title picture over the last year or so.
I think I kind of strayed away from the question but maybe that helps somewhat?
I’ve had an on again, of again relationship with wrestling since the end of the Wars (I was too young to actually know what was up with wrestling during the New Generation, even if I did watch more often than not then). I was, however on when Cena started to become a thing. Now, in my opinion, it was roughly the time he finished out his feud with Carlito and starting it up with JBL (which I believe coincides with the Marine movie tapings/release mentioned earlier) that people started to turn on Cena. By this time, he had been a super man baby face for long enough, and been beating enough early-IWC-darling heels to get people to notice and start complaining. It was also at the time when JBL was used to do one of two things: bury those that Vince didn’t like, and enhance those that he did like. The writing was on the wall as to which one Cena was now, so his first U.S. title run was boring to the smarts, and they hated it. Thus began the ever flowing river of Cena Sucks chants.
Having said that, I am entirely in the same boat as Eric and James. Cena is best right where he is, right now. He is the current JBL, to HHH’s Vince. Plus, a lighter schedule in the mid card means more time to do Make-a-Wish events (which he said he wants to get to the THOUSAND mark before he stops, and he’s about half way there) and or to do movies, like Dwayne, and that has worked out spectacularly for the WWE, so why not emulate it with one of the few people that can?
This is the Cena we need, not the Cena Vince wants.