The Mercy Side: Attitude Adjustment

Here's my first wrestling article in nearly eight months. Enjoy.

I've been thinking of writing this article for over a week. And with an epic 1000th episode of Monday Night Raw occurring yesterday, I thought that I'd forget writing this article due to the state of wrestling changing so quickly on a weekly basis, it may not have been relevant. But after the events of the milestone episode, it's actually done the opposite. It's made this article even more relevant.

What I want to talk to you about today is this chap you might know if you watch wrestling called John Cena. What a career he has had. 35 years old, he's already a 12 time world champion and he doesn't look like he's losing steam any time soon. He's sold more merchandise in the 2000s than any wrestler, he's attracted more fans to the product more than any other wrestler. Since the days of Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, no one has come really close to the value of John Cena.

People are divided in opinion on John Cena. He's stale, he doesn't sell moves very well, or for very long, his moveset is repetitive and overdone. He's superman, never letting people get over. But he still works his absolute ass off to give as entertaining a product he can possibly give. He cares about wrestling, he cares about the WWE and the fans. There's no denying that. I have a huge amount of respect for the man, despite how certain smarter fans feel about him.

Despite all that John Cena has accomplished, there's just one thing that the man has lacked in his career, in my eyes anyway. And that's a true rivalry. Now before you drop your cereal out of your mouth (or doughnut, hamburger, or any other food you're obviously eating right now, don't deny it), there's someone you might have thought about already - Edge. There's no denying that if there's one man that John Cena can call a rival throughout his career, it's that man.

John Cena and Edge had a long term rivalry from around 2005 to 2010.

They did have some good matches, that's true. The best probably being the TLC Match at Unforgiven 2006. They helped each other become as big stars as they are; John Cena as previously mentioned was the star attraction of the naughties and Edge was one of the finer wrestlers of that decade. They both put each other over many times and had some great segments. Both Edge and John Cena have said in interviews that the other person is their greatest rival in their careers.

So why am I saying Edge isn't the true rival of John Cena? It's hard to explain in some ways. Some key points for me are, for the most part, I don't feel Edge has ever been John Cena's equal. While they did have some very good matches, they had some duds as well. And not only that, but they wrestled each other so often it, similar to Cena's career in some ways, became stale. To have a great rivalry both wrestlers need to be on equal footing in most ways, and I never felt that Edge and Cena really were. Edge was always a step below Cena for most of his career.

What is a true rivalry then? Well the most obvious one to me is Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. While it's well documented that the top star of the Attitude Era was Stone Cold, The Rock was right up there with him. Did The Rock sell as much merchandise or PPVs as Stone Cold? No, I suppose not, although his star power for last year's Wrestlemania was a true shot in that direction. But there is no denying that there were two men that were on top of the Attitude Era and that was those two guys. And they always had amazing matches. Always. Their matches are legendary in the WWE. There's no denying that.

Arguably the greatest wrestling feud in WWE history.

And one thing there is no denying is they were booked quite equally. Sure, Stone Cold didn't put The Rock over until their last match, but the feud, the promos, and the actual wrestling in itself, was equal. The line was drawn very finely; it felt that the only reason why The Rock could not beat Stone Cold was through bad luck, rather than being the inferior wrestler. And the fact that they didn't wrestle against each other very often is another reason why I think it works. John Cena and Edge had countless matches it was boring. I can only think of three or four matches of the top of my head that The Rock and Stone Cold had. I'm sure they may have had more, but it definitely wasn't as many as Edge/Cena.

Which brings me to answer your question of who I think, long term, could be John Cena's truest rival. My answer is simply CM Punk.

There are so many similarities between John Cena and CM Punk and The Rock and Stone Cold. Neither sets of wrestlers wrestled each other often. Cena and The Rock were brought into the WWE by failing at something else first, Cena with bodybuilding and The Rock with American football. CM Punk and Stone Cold had to claw their way to the top of the wrestling ladder; CM Punk had to go through Ring of Honor and had to wait until last year's Summer of Punk before he was finally given the platform to really show what he can do. Stone Cold had failed at WCW and was only brought to the WWE because he was a good technical wrestler, he was never going to be more than an enhancement talent until the amazing 3:16 promo occurred.

The Rock and Stone Cold had fluid matches; they oozed quality for upto half an hour. John Cena and Edge doesn't compare in quality to the Rock/Stone Cold series, not consistently anyway. The Rock, as good a wrestler as he was has a similar problem that John Cena has, in that he had to have the right opponent to have a true quality match. The Rock is a better wrestler overall, at least in my opinion, but still he had that same problem. Where as Stone Cold and CM Punk can have great matches with a variety of opponents. Most importantly, The Rock drove Stone Cold to having world class matches he drove him further than anyone else did in his entire career. I believe John Cena does that with CM Punk. I don't feel Edge did.

CM Punk could be Cena's true rival.

You know what made me think about this? I was so excited to hear about CM Punk vs John Cena last week. Really excited. I loved their two matches last year, at Money in the Bank and at Summerslam. They were the best matches of the year in my opinion, they were so fluid, so special, and you honestly didn't know who was going to win either match. And in the end, CM Punk won both matches. CM Punk walked away champion yesterday as well. Another thing that Stone Cold and CM Punk have in common with their rivals. You get the feeling CM Punk is the bogey wrestler to John Cena that Stone Cold was to The Rock. The Rock has said it himself many times, he didn't feel like he truly was 'the man' until he finally beat Stone Cold. I think it could make a great story to keep CM Punk as Cena's bogey wrestler.

Last night CM Punk turned heel again. At first I was thinking this was a bad move. Why? Because CM Punk is so hot right now in the WWE. He's the first wrestler to finally knock John Cena off merchandise. Sure John Cena is still king of selling the product, but CM Punk is catching up. And shirt sales going in CM Punk's favour is a sign of that. CM Punk, unlike John Cena, is cool with all ages and genders of viewership. It feels inevitable long term that CM Punk might finally be the true top guy in the WWE. The WWE definitely have him as their #2 guy now, finally knocking Randy Orton out of that position. I still feel it may be a bad move, in the respect that CM Punk might be too over to be truly booed. The smarter fans will definitely cheer for him, especially if he does go for this rematch against Cena at Summerslam, which feels inevitable.

But the heel turn, despite of my mixed feelings, means one thing. We should get another, great CM Punk and John Cena match. I don't want Cena/Punk shoved down my throat over the course of the autumn though. One match at Summerslam, and then separate them again. I want John Cena and CM Punk to be the new Rock/Stone Cold. It has truly can be. CM Punk's heel turn, the adjustment in his attitude, makes him opposite Cena again. And of course, it makes him opposite The Rock again, which is another match I desperately want to see at the Royal Rumble. CM Punk/Rock could be great as well.

I'm really looking forward to wrestling again now. John Cena vs CM Punk, Brock Lesnar vs Triple H and Chris Jericho vs Dolph Ziggler seem set for Summerslam. That's an awesome trilogy of matches. I just hope the WWE don't make Cena/Punk stale long term, it has all the ingredients for greatness.

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Mixtape: Best of WWE PPVs and TV Themes

Hello and welcome to another Mixtape entry. Here's the third of three Mixtapes in three days. Missed yesterday's Mixtape? Click here. What about Sunday's? Click here. Your welcome. Yesterday's Mixtape is my favourite licensed WWE wrestler entrance themes and Sunday's is my favourite original non-licensed WWE wrestler entrance themes.

Today I celebrate my favourite WWE themes for Pay-Per-Views and television shows. Not only do the WWE usually choose good songs for their wrestlers they choose good songs to go with their PPVs and their two major television shows, Raw and Smackdown!. They're not as consistent with these as they are with their entrance themes, but there have been some great tracks to go with certain WWE events and I'm going to share with you my favourites.

Not familiar with my Mixtapes? Here are the rules.

A Mixtape is a playlist of a certain genre, band or era. The list is generally 80 minutes long, the same length of a blank CD, with further recommendations if some of the songs aren't to your taste. Remember kids, downloading is wrong! 

So here are my favourite WWE Pay-Per-View and television themes! Enjoy!

1. Propane Nightmares - Pendulum (Cyber Sunday 2008)
2. Tick Tick Boom - The Hives (Survivor Series 2007)
3. Fast Fuse - Kasabian (Cyber Sunday 2007)
4. Let it Rock - Kevin Rudolf (Royal Rumble 2009)
5. Written in the Stars - Tinie Tempah (Wrestlemania XXVII 2011)
6. Highway to Hell - AC/DC (SummerSlam 1998)
7. I Don't Wanna Stop - Ozzy Osbourne (Judgement Day 2007)
8. Know Your Enemy - Green Day (WWE Smackdown 2010 - present)
9. Bring Me to Life - Evanescence (No Way Out 2003)
10. Ladies and Gentlemen - Saliva (Wrestlemania 23 2007)
11. Let it Roll - Divide the Day (WWE Smackdown 2009 - 2010)
12. Crack Addict - Limp Bizkit (Wrestlemania XIX 2003)
13. …To Be Loved - Papa Roach (WWE Raw 2006 - 2009)
14. Twisted Transistor - KoRn (Taboo Tuesday 2005)
15. Stricken - Disturbed (New Year's Revolution 2006)
16. Feel So Numb - Rob Zombie (No Way Out 2002)
17. St. Anger - Metallica (SummerSlam 2003)
18. Across the Nation - The Union Underground (WWE Raw 2002 - 2006)
19. The Beautiful People - Marilyn Manson (WWE Smackdown 2001 - 2003)
20. Bodies - Drowning Pool (SummerSlam 2001)

Don't like some of these? Give these five a try...

1. Burn it to the Ground - Nickelback (WWE Raw 2009 - present)
2. Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd (Armageddon 2000)
3. Summertime Blues - Rush (SummerSlam 2004)
4. Crossing Borders - Rey Mysterio (No Way Out 2004)
5. All Summer Long - Kid Rock (Backlash 2008)

And that's it! I hope you enjoyed this list. I don't just do wrestling mixtapes, check out the "Music" tab above for other Mixtapes I've made. Do you want to suggest me some other Mixtapes to do? Comment below with some suggestions. That's it from me today, have a good night.

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The Mercy Side: Triple H – COO or No?

On Monday we found out who CM Punk’s opponent was going to be. All the build up so far pointed towards it being Kevin Nash, who Jackknife Powerbombed the ex champion into the mat at Summerslam. Two weeks of decent promos and altercations between the two seemed to solidify this belief amongst most fans. However in CM Punk’s ever so not discrete way, he has been making digs at Triple H week after week after week. It was inevitable that Punk and Hunter would face each other - it was never in doubt. But I don’t think many people expected them to face each other so soon, at Night of Champions, in just under three weeks.

Now feelings on this matter are mixed but edging towards unsatisfied with the change of opponent. Why? Well let’s look at the pros and cons of the situation. Being the optimist I am, I’ll start with the pros. The change of opponent is good in the respect that Triple H is a much better wrestler and worker than Kevin Nash is. Hell, Triple H has always been a better worker than Nash. Another positive is that a lot of the new generation of wrestling fans haven’t the foggiest who Kevin Nash is, where as Triple H is a huge name is wrestling, and has been for a good 12 years consistently. This on its own brings a bigger market, the PPV will sell more for having Hunter’s name on the card than Nash’s. Another? The two guys haven’t wrestled a hectic schedule for a good eighteen months, both guys that is. Nash was with TNA eighteen months ago, where as Hunter was on tour with WWE around that time. In the eighteen months that have passed, Nash left TNA and barely wrestled, where as Hunter had a few injuries and pretty much did the build up to Wrestlemania but nothing before or since. What’s my point? Well neither have wrestled a great deal, yet Triple H proved at Wrestlemania that despite not being on the road for long periods of time wrestling, he can fucking go in an instant of notice. His match against The Undertaker was a classic. It’s my personal favourite Triple H match, and he was 41, slightly passed his prime. Nash? Well he hasn’t had many great matches in his entire career, and he was 41 back in 2000, at the demise of WCW.

So in brief, the pros are Triple H is a better worker than Nash, a better wrestler than Nash, gets ‘more asses in seats’ than Nash, can work a great match despite long term absence in the ring than Nash and is 10 years younger. The cons? Well, a big con is that despite all those pros, we were lead into a storyline where Kevin Nash came back to the squared circle and laid out CM Punk at Summerslam. He made a big impact. For two weeks, there has been bickering between Punk and Nash. And yes, while Triple H has been part of the storyline, his bickering with Punk has been part of the scenery, the background. The main hook, in the fore, was Punk/Nash. Nash for two weeks managed to get his hands on Punk, while Punk has so far tried and failed to get his revenge. It was a nice little story going on. And while Hunter/Punk had their problems, they seemed to be only niggling issues at present, not issues that were blown into proportion. So from a storyline perspective, what happens to Nash now that Triple H basically knocked him off the card and took his place? It’s bad booking to build something for two weeks only for it to be completely irrelevant. You can make an argument that next week on Raw we’ll find out that Nash is actually relevant but he’s not the main man anymore. He’s now been pushed back and regardless of his input, seems pretty useless now. So that’s one con. Another? CM Punk and Triple H was bound to happen. It was never in doubt. It felt like it was going to be dragged on for months before Hunter would have enough of Punk’s pipebomb bullshit and just take his anger out on him. It was a scene I’d love to have seen done in around half a year’s time, maybe in time for Wrestlemania. All in time, Hunter would try to ignore and block CM Punk’s provocations and try to maintain his professionalism. It was being written for itself and would make fantastic television over the next few months, seeing CM Punk slowly chip through Triple H’s armour before The Game just rips him to pieces, turning heel at the same time. So now that Triple H has decided to put himself in the match only five weeks after Punk was starting to bug him. A potential feud of the year candidate has now disintegrated, as it will all come to a premature head in just over two weeks time.

But the main con with this change of direction for WWE in terms of CM Punk’s opponent at Night of Champions is actually its affect on Triple H’s role going forward. Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand and in certain ways agree with the opponent change. You can see why above. But if Triple H is the on-screen successor to Vince McMahon, the CEO of old, he needs to step away from in ring action. Yes, Triple H was, ahem, is, a wrestler and Vince wasn’t. But it doesn’t matter. Triple H, the COO of the WWE, needs to act like the man in charge. The man in charge does not take part in matches, he books them. He fires people. He sets the record straight. Yes he has an ego, but he tries to control it, for ‘the good of the business’. It doesn’t matter if it’s a storyline or kayfabe, he is the boss.

One of the main reasons Vince McMahon’s character worked so well for so long was because he rarely got involved in the ring. When Vince McMahon, le grande fromage, got in the ring shit was about to go down. Stone Cold’s feuds with Vince McMahon are legendary. But that’s because of the bickering, the bitching, and the excellent mic work. It wasn’t because of five star classics. And yes, Triple H can wrestle while Vince couldn’t, but that it doesn’t matter.

Okay, let’s look at it from a different angle. Forget wrestling is worked for a second. YOU, yes you there with the half eaten pastry in your mouth looking at my site, YOU are now the COO of the WWE. As I said forget wrestling is worked, you are in control. You’re the boss. You book the matches and sort out feuding wrestling angles. You fire the people who ‘deserve’ to get fired. What would you do if you were also a wrestler? You’d put yourself in world title matches of course! You wouldn’t go after Punk, you’d go after Alberto Del Rio who has the title. You’d book the match so it would be difficult for Del Rio to win, and take the title. Hell you’d strip him from the title and give it to yourself and then never defend it. Okay maybe this idea is a little farfetched, I mean it is YOU that would be champion. If it was me it’d make a little more sense after all, I am an incredible (yet humble and discreet) wrestler.

Okay all jokes aside; if Triple H is a wrestler AND the COO, it just doesn’t work. You can’t be both. You can’t be an active wrestler and book matches. It just doesn’t make sense. It was only four weeks ago when we were looking at a promo with CM Punk and Triple H and HHH said that he took the COO job for the fans, and with that job comes certain rules and responsibilities. He never factually said he would not compete again but he most certainly insinuated that he wouldn’t. Being a guy that can still go at a more than acceptable rate it was inevitable that Hunter would wrestle again. But as I said, it needs to be impactful. It needs to have a purpose. And with the direction it was heading in, say in six months, if Triple H was to patiently wait until that amount of pressure was built and tensions with Punk would increase on a weekly basis for that long, it would have had just that. Impact. It would have meant something. “Triple H returns! For one night only to stand up for his wife against the man with the pipebomb CM Punk!” It’s a money maker. Or it was. Now that Triple H is returning to the ring, only two months after being announced as the new COO, it’s meaningless. It lacks the edge it would have had around six months from now.

So to conclude, there are pros and cons for this change of opponent for CM Punk. The pros are Hunter is a better wrestler, worker, is better business for the company, younger and more capable of wrestling at a hands notice than Nash. The cons are it potentially makes the Nash/Punk storyline completely insignificant, it was a storyline rushed forward incredibly prematurely and the main reason, it devalues Triple H as the COO of the company. Where do I stand in this situation? I’m sure you’ve figured it out, I’m against this idea. Sure Nash won’t be able to wrestle a great match with Punk, but it’s not about a five star classic. It’s about putting CM Punk over, and believe it or not, Nash does have a certain value for Punk. Nash is a six time world heavyweight champion, and is 6’11. The match would have simply been booked for long periods of a beatdown for Punk while he overcomes the odds and bullishly defeats Nash clean with the Go to Sleep. It would have boosted Punk’s credibility amongst the marks (although the smarks are more than aware that Punk is gold at the moment and has been for sometime, some of the marks are still not convinced). It makes Punk look stronger. So there would have been value in that match.

As for Triple H, I say he can’t be an active wrestler too often (rare matches are fine, as long as they are that, rare) and be the COO of the company. So it has to be one or the other. COO or no? I say COO. Thanks for reading.

Bitesize: #4

Hey everyone,

This is my first Bitesize post since December. I basically just run down a few things that are on my mind about anything. It's just a merge of interests into one.

First I'd like to talk about the Liverpool vs Sunderland match that was on today. In our first match in the Premier League we drew 1-1, with Suarez getting our goal. He missed a penalty earlier in what was a god awful miss. He redeemed himself though. Our first half performance was excellent, you wouldn't have thought that four of the eleven players on the pitch were making their official debut. We passed the ball around nicely and Charlie Adam was definitely the catalyst in the middle which makes me happy. But the second half performance left a lot to be desired and we conceded a goal which should have been avoided. Don't get me wrong it was an excellent goal that they scored, but we probably could have done something about it before it got to their player. We're going against Arsenal next week and we really could have done with a win here. Getting three points next week is going to be a harder task, and to think about us drawing or losing against the Gunners is horrible considering it would mean a pretty bad start to the campaign. Let's remain optimistic though.

In wrestling news Summerslam is on Sunday and I can't wait to watch it on Monday. John Cena vs CM Punk is obviously the main event and rightfully so. But let's not take anything away from Randy Orton and Christian, who have definitely had the feud of the year so far. I've talked a lot about Cena and Punk, here and here to be exact. Christian and Randy Orton have been having stellar ****+ star matches for months now and this match, which could possibly end the entire feud, could be the pick of the bunch. The No Holds Barred element makes it a fresh encounter and as a fan I desperately want to see Christian retain. Edge could be involved in the match, who knows. Summerslam is a PPV I'm really looking forward to, although it's unlikely as a 3 hour production, to match last month's Money in the Bank PPV. It should be good nevertheless.

In video games, the game I'm looking to getting next is the full HD port of Resident Evil 4 on the XBox 360. I've played it on the PS2 and the Wii already, yet now that I have a full HD TV, I really look forward to playing that game on it, it's easily one of the best games ever made and to see the graphics polished up and to get achievements on it is worth the pennies I'll put towards it. Who knows, I might review it? I haven't reviewed a Resi game ever before. I've been thinking of doing a Resi 5 review but it's never been done for one reason or another. In article news, I'm preparing a Resident Evil article, it should be up in the next week or so. I'm not going to reveal anything else on it yet though. Stay tuned.

In music, I have an abundance of music albums that I want to review. The first being Radiohead's King of Limbs, but I also have albums by the Foo Fighters, Saul Williams and Jon Fratelli that I'd like to put my thoughts to soon. Writing album reviews is always the hardest thing for me personally. I always struggle to write how I feel about the sound of music. I can easily tell the difference between a good and a bad album in my head, but getting it down in text isn't always an easy thing. But these pieces should be done at some point or another, with the Radiohead album review up first, once again, in the next week or so.

I haven't felt too good recently, I've been ill with some coldy fluey thing. Again. In the middle of summer it really sucks. But writing isn't too much of a problem, as long as I keep the keyboard clean naturally. It's just contagious, as I know a few people have had this before me. Hey ho.

Well that's my bitesize post done.  I'll be back in a few days with either the Resident Evil article, or the Radiohead one. Who knows what will come first, I've got them both pretty much finished, I just need to touch them up a bit before releasing them into the wild. What? You're all savage wolves! Don't deny it! Anyway, until next time, take care.

The Mercy Side: We Need To Talk About John (Cena)

Hey everyone, I hope you’re enjoying munching on whatever food you’re munching on while you’re reading this. What, am I being stereotypical? Maybe. But you are eating aren’t you!

Anyhoo, the title of this article is a pun on the award winning book by Lionel Shriver that’s soon to be made into a film. But it is true, we do need to talk about John, John Cena that is. What other John would we be talking about? John Morrison? Well he is being depushed as he’s been spending too much time in Relationshipville in the eyes of the WWE.

No, this is an article about John Cena, and most particularly the promo he did on Monday. Now everyone involved in that promo played a decent part, John Laurinaitis, Triple H, most certainly CM Punk, but Cena impressed me most. I mean, CM Punk had the funny lines, he was possibly the best on the mic overall. But not for the first time, Cena was impressive here. He really is underrated on the mic. When given the platform to be himself, to talk on the spot, he can be quite incredible. In recent memory Cena has only done another promo like the one on Monday, and that was when he finally had his face to face promo with The Rock pre-Wrestlemania. What do the two promos have in common? Well naturally, The Rock was part of both. But… what both promos have in common is John Cena in both scenarios was verbally backed to a wall, and was put on the spot to answer to his critic(s). Let’s analyse the two first.

In the pre-Wrestlemania promo, The Rock had been calling him out for some time about comments Cena initially made to the commitment The Rock lacked to the wrestling company. Cena was mocked because of his wrestling attire, his appeal to children and his love of rap music amongst other things. John Cena responded by confirming that his target audience is kids and he says “he’s damn proud of it”. John Cena says that he has worked hard to get to where he is and is there live every week, and says, straight in the eyes of The Rock - “Who are you to judge me?” He’s right in a certain way, as Cena works hard all the time in the name of the WWE he shouldn’t be brought down to easily. He criticises The Rock’s “Team Bring It” slogan. The Rock dislikes rap, Cena’s target audience and his ‘colours’; basically The Rock is critical of things that someone else likes. Cena says if he has a problem with someone liking a different genre of music, dresses in a different way or talks in a different way, and that’s what “Team Bring It” is about, then The Rock “can keep the application to join because he doesn’t want to”.

He’s spot on in certain ways. The Rock bullied him to a corner about his style and appeal to children. But Cena backed up his words well. He did it with passion when he was criticised. You could see it in his face that it bothered him. But the highlight for me? Was the fact that Cena’s first words on the mic was applauding The Rock. The Rock brought his electricity; he got the fans off their feet. Cena, say what you want about him, is a huge fan of the business. You might see where I’m going with this but I want to analyse the promo from Monday as well.

Monday’s promo was a combination of CM Punk live, and a promo The Rock did on his Facebook account a few weeks ago. CM Punk introduced the video, where The Rock once again criticised Cena’s appeal to children, but more accurately, his lack of appeal to the men in the audience. He says the fact that the kids yell “Let’s go Cena” followed by men shouting “Cena sucks!” will haunt John Cena his entire life. He criticised his ring attire again. He says men don’t like Cena because he’s a phony, and they can see through the bullshit. CM Punk then spoke, agreeing with The Rock with regards to Cena being a phony. Cena then responded. He said he doesn’t understand how The Rock can have such a problem with him as he’s done it all in the WWE and is a huge movie star now. He praised The Rock for his accomplishments. CM Punk cut him off saying that he didn’t show Cena the video for him to criticise The Rock. Cena agreed and said he knew why Punk had a problem with him. Cena lists what he believes CM Punk’s problems are with him, from the the fact that Punk thinks he is “too PG” – a modern Hulk Hogan. Punk agrees with that statement. John Cena then says that regardless of what he does, he’ll never win over The Rock’s ‘millions’, nor will he win over Punk’s fans. He starts using the Internet Wrestling Community’s lingo by referring to the fact that he’ll never win them over, even if he ‘increases his work rate’, if he adds to his ‘5 moves of doom’, or if he lets his ‘heel persona’ shine through, he says he’ll never ‘win’ over certain fans. But the children that he attracts, and anyone else that like him, his target audience that he has already gathered – they’re the people he cares about. He wants to entertain them, and please the fans who have been there for him through thick and thin. He said he hated the fact that CM Punk called him the WWE equivalent of the New York Yankees, but that after thinking about it, he was spot on. He appreciates that loads of people love him and loads of people hate him, so it’s a good comparison. He says there’s nothing phony about his love for his target audience.

I brought these two promos up because of the fact that Cena, in both scenarios, backs up his television character up incredibly well. Everyone is going on about CM Punk and the potential new ‘reality era’ that may be upon us.  But the promo Cena did with The Rock back in March was as real as the one this week. CM Punk might be the new leader of the potential new era, but he didn’t start this all off. The Cena/Rock altercations have been real, and they are in theory what started everything off. Cena’s two promos were as real as anything CM Punk has been doing recently. He’s really good on the mic when he’s talking like this. I really hope that if this new ‘era’ is kicking off, that Cena won’t be doing those annoying scripted promos anymore, and his character takes a turn to this slightly harder edged face it currently has. Cena’s character has been stale for sometime and if there’s no heel turn imminent (which is still an unlikely possibility at Summerslam), this tweak in his character will do him the world of good.

But do you know what I loved most about Cena on Monday? His body language and facial reactions. You can say what you want about John Cena but I’m a huge believer that he fucking loves this business, arguably as much as anyone. He loved The Rock’s promos dissing him all the weeks before Wrestlemania. His on screen character and parts of his real life persona had to respond in a professional manner, but truth his, he was ENTERTAINED by them. And he said on Monday too. He was ENTERTAINED by CM Punk’s promo. He said it verbally, but you could see it in his body language. He kept laughing at CM Punk’s jokes, about Cena, and about other things. He loved it. He fed off how great Punk’s promo was, and commended him at the end for it. And he wasn’t in character when he did, trust me. He thought Punk’s promo was fantastic. I remember the first promo The Rock did upon his return. Cena responded in the form of rap the week afterwards. But Cena said before he ‘went down to business’ that he was “just going to let it slide – it’s The Rock! It’s what he does!” I honestly felt John Cena would have let it slide if he had a choice. His on screen character couldn’t, otherwise Cena’s character would have seen as a coward. So he had to respond, and did. But you can see the WWE fan in Cena. He says he’s a fan in his promos all the time, but that’s reality as well. He’s just like all the fans who come to see the WWE perform, just doing it himself.

John Cena is a great human being. He really is. Yes his ‘five moves of doom’ annoy me as much as the next person, and I do think he needs to let his ‘heel persona’ take over, as Cena as a heel was what got him his worldwide fame in the first place. It’d also be fresh at this point, as he hasn’t done it for a good 6 years. But John needs to stop being that modern ‘Hulk Hogan’ – that’s what needs to change. John Cena is not a phony, but it’s slightly hypocritical to this moral beam of greatness. Cena’s character at present is that he respects every opponent, loves the fans with all his heart, and he works hard every day to reach his goals. This routine worked in the eighties perfectly with Hulk Hogan. But certain fans, the ‘men’ as The Rock puts it, hate that old school routine. And why? Simple answer really is because it’s not reality. And if this new reality era does come into full force, that Cena needs to die (metaphorically of course). The John Cena we saw on Monday, the one we saw in March before Wrestlemania, where Cena can answer his critics and accept that he is human, instead of a superhero, needs to start fleshing out. He accepted that he’ll never win over every fan and that for me is great.

Not all wrestlers can appeal to all fan bases, there’s just too many diverse fans to even contemplate it. Yet you always had the feeling Cena did, he tried to reach out to everyone, and that in itself annoyed the ‘IWC’, or smarks as they’re also known as. There are the casual fans, the ones who like to see the shows live and love the spectacle of the event. These fans like to see these larger than life superstars tussle and cheer on the good guys and boo the bad guys. These fans tend to be fans of Cena. There’s the fans who love promos but aren’t too bothered about the in-ring action. A lot of these fans love The Rock. Then you have the small percentage of fans who love the in-ring action, the technical ability of certain wrestlers, who can do unique wrestling holds and do moves that not many others can. A lot of these fans love CM Punk. The smark fans love a complete wrestler who can talk on the mic AND deliver in the ring. These fans tend to like CM Punk and Chris Jericho most, but dislike John Cena. These are the fans that Cena is referring to.

There was a point where people didn’t think Cena even acknowledged these fans, they wondered if he ever read the online reports and the dirtsheets that he is often criticised in. Well you got your answer on Monday, and he responded to you and I. And for that I’m happy. I’m happy with his answer. And I think if Cena tweaks his character to have the edge, the passion and the natural ability to deliver a composed response on a microphone on the spot, and he uses these skills in a new ‘era’ where reality and wrestling entwine, I think John Cena will slowly but surely start to win over the fans he thinks will never like or respect him. Thanks for reading and have a good day.