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Long-time visitor Kyle brought up some interesting points and questions over in the comments section of my LIVE Raw thoughts this past week. Let me answer some of the questions he asked...
I'm not convinced this idea that the Rock is pushing anyone out is accurate. There are, in the end, going to be MAYBE two people I think can have a legitimate gripe. One is Punk, because he's been on a huge roll but now has to play third from the top despite being in a big WWE title match (however, HHH and Undertaker are just as much to blame as Rock...for the record, no problem with HHH/Undertaker, just saying). The other is MAYBE whichever random midcarder gets bumped.
I’ve been pretty outspoken about the Rock lately and I don’t want it to be misinterpreted (I’ll do a whole long blog post on that another time). As a fan, I love the fact that the Rock is back and I have no complaints about his WrestleMania placement whatsoever. As a person who understands business, I totally understand why WWE offered the spot to him and I don’t condemn them for that either. And as a person who loves performing, I don’t fault Rock for taking the spot.
BUT, I have always said that I understand why some Superstars might be annoyed. Are Superstars being actively bumped? No, probably not. But Rock’s presence is certainly impacting them. Like Kyle said, there’s CM Punk. Even during the Summer of Punk, where it seemed like Punk might be the second coming of Stone Cold Steve Austin, he knew that he had zero chance of closing the show at WrestleMania. And that is a huge deal.
And to all the people who say “but they’ll make more money because Rock is there!” should consider the possibility that it’s not all about money. I don’t have the numbers, but I’d venture to say that Austin made more money from his WrestleMania X-8 match with Scott Hall than he did with his WrestleMania XIV match with Shawn Michaels. But I’m guessing the Michaels match meant much more to him.
More than anything else, these guys are beating up their bodies and traveling all over the world all year with the hope of being able to showcase their abilities at WrestleMania. Who are we to tell them that they don’t have a right to be upset, as we sit comfortably at home?
Here's a question for you...who do you think SHOULD (not will) win at Wrestlemania between Cena and Rock?
Here's my take (and I know this is coming from a Rock fan who isn't a big Cena fan, but I'm trying to be fair here ;) ). Originally I thought Rock, then I thought Cena because I didn't know if Rock would wrestle again at any point after and I didn't think Cena should be made to look inferior to the Rock.
Now I've gone back to Rock and here's why. First off, I think Rock does wrestle again. He'll never be anything remotely close to a regular again, but I could see, say, a Summerslam rematch against Cena (I think a WM 29 rematch is less likely). Or perhaps Rock wrestles Punk or Orton in the future and puts them over. My only concern would be putting Rock over Cena, Rock never wrestles again, and it appears Rock > everyone in the company as a result.
Who SHOULD win? In my opinion, John Cena. Not because I like him more or I think he’s better or because the storyline demands it. I just don’t see any advantage, from a business standpoint, of giving Rock the win.
It’s not as if either guy “needs” the win, they’ll both survive just fine despite the big loss. But at the end of the day, John Cena is still going to be with your company on a day-to-day basis, and for better or worse he’s the horse you’ve hitched your company wagon to. In a nutshell, it’s more important to make him look strong. The Rock is such a big star, and people will always be so excited to see him, that they really won’t care if he loses the match. Do people even remember that he lost his last match before his return at WrestleMania XX? He’ll be an attraction – and thus draw – no matter what. Cena doesn’t have that luxury.
The only justification for a Rock win, in my view, is if they use it as the catalyst for Cena turning heel.
Also, I disagree with the notion that the fan hostility towards Cena has much to do with his win/loss record. When Cena returned from his pec injury he suffered pretty clean losses to Orton, Triple H, Batista, JBL, Big Show, and pretty much every other big name that put him over during his year plus reign. It didn’t really impact the crowd reaction towards him….it just made their biggest star and babyface look like a loser. Fine tuning his character will go much further than adjusting his win/loss record. And building up believable challengers would go a long way too.
Just curious as to what your thoughts are...not necessarily who you think WILL win but who should win?
On the converse side, if you’re wondering who I think WILL win…..at the moment, I think I’m going with Rock.
2 comments:
I don't disagree with your final two points, but here's the problem.
You say fine tuning his character would help fix it. 100% agree! Except so far this year we've gotten no less than 2 or 3 speeches from Cena about how he will NEVER EVER change and will be the same FOREVER, and while it seemed like they might be using that as part of a storyline to at least make him edgier, that storyline ended with Smiley John Cena beating Kane through the power of Goodness. He's been much better with Rock the last two weeks, but that's a feud that was built up for a long time (even longer than a year since they're going back to interviews Cena did knocking Rock). Once Rock is gone, I have a hard time believing this Cena, showing fire and passion for a legitimate (at least in his head) reason is going to be around all the time. We're more likely to go right back to "Tell corny jokes" or "show a completely unreasonable amount of anger for no apparent reason" like the night after Summerslam when he flipped out on Del Rio and ranted about how Del Rio is a terrible wrestler (when he wasn't even the one Del Rio cashed in on!) and then bashed his cars.
You mention building up believable challengers, and again I agree...but let's be honest here. What makes you think they'll do that? I can't really speak from before around the WM 25 area, since I was only watching occasionally from WM 21-WM 25. But in the past almost 3 years now, EVERYONE looks inferior to Cena (again, sole exceptions being Orton and Punk, I'll get to them in a second). I don't mean that Cena is slightly better and they need just that little bit of an edge to win...I mean they're steaming piles of crap and Cena destroys them unless there are crazy shenanigans. He beat the hell out of Del Rio. He absolutely destroyed Miz (Miz managed to retain once solely because Rock got involved, something Miz didn't plan...pet peeve of mine when a heel who is supposed to retain due to dastardly plans retains only because of crazy outside stuff he has no control over, like when Jericho only beat Austin because Booker T. or the nWo randomly showed up). The I Quit match was perhaps the very worst display of burial I've ever seen...Miz and Alex Riley double teamed Cena with weapons for TWENTY MINUTES, with Cena getting virtually no offense...he suddenly pops up, AA's Riley, chases Miz all the way up the ramp, makes him tap, and sells like he just beat the Brooklyn Brawler in a 30 second squash. I was really into the Nexus storyline until Summerslam, ending when Wade Barrett and Justin Gabriel DDTed Cena onto the concrete, and Cena suddenly popped up and beat them both in 30 seconds. Now I am not entirely blaming Cena here. He doesn't decide who wins or loses and I don't believe he plays backstage politics like others have to ensure he wins. I blame him partially because I assume it's his choice to never sell the fact that he was just in a long match against someone who is supposed to be on the same level as him, but the main blame would go to the writers. Regardless, they have shown ZERO interest in building up any heel whatsoever to be anywhere near Cena's level. I thought they might be going there with Mark Henry, but now he's back to jobbing in a minute to whoever he gets in the ring with.
(Curse you character limits and me being long winded!)
Which, in the end, is my point. One reason I've liked the Rock thing being announced a year in advance is because I finally felt like I was able to enjoy watching, say, Punk do his thing without constantly thinking "He's got about 3 weeks before Cena wins the title back". Of course they kinda did that anyway, but it didn't last long. Once this is over, if Cena goes over Rock and looks even MORE dominant, what honest reason do I have to think anyone will EVER beat him cleanly again? Orton and Punk are the only guys booked close to his level (Punk was a little bit of starting and stopping with the HHH feud, but he seems back on track now), and they're both faces. And somehow, I bet if they turned heel they'd mysteriously lose the ability to beat Cena without crazy shenanigans. I've used this example before, but if I'm, say, a Mike Tyson in his prime fan, I wanted to watch him fight Evander Holyfield because I thought it was going to give me a great boxing match where I could root for my guy. I would not buy a PPV where Mike Tyson fights the homeless guy down the street from me. WWE logic, however, seems to be "You like Mike Tyson, therefore you'd rather buy the second match on PPV since you know Tyson will win!". That's not how it works, for anyone. Just because wrestling is openly predetermined doesn't mean people don't want to suspend their disbelief. It's why Punk/Cena was such a breath of fresh air (where Cena was STILL given outs in both matches, but it was much cleaner than usual and Punk was booked on his level the whole match so I'll let it go), but they seem totally unwilling to do it with any heels. They're all weaselly heels who suck at wrestling (most of the time) and need to cheat to win. Orton used to be just as bad as Cena, but since going to Smackdown has been MUCH better, jobbing clean to Henry, always beating Christian but making Christian look like he was on Orton's level in the process. Punk has been making his opponents look like they're on his level everytime...watch his match with Del Rio and watch Cena's match with Del Rio from last year, Del Rio looked very good in one and looked like crap in the other. Bryan is booked to take Punk to the limit everytime and we still, in three matches, do not have a clear winner. But against everyone else, all of these heels look awful. It's a aerious problem, and my overall (very long) point is that while those two are ideal ways to fix the Cena situation, I don't see any indication at all that WWE has ANY interest in building up credible heels that could actually win clean, or in tweaking Cena's character (not even talking about a heel turn here) long term.
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