Why I’m Slowly Becoming a Cena Hater

At Night of Champions last Sunday, one of the things that had the Internet Wrestling Community going insane on Twitter was the WWE Championship between Alberto Del Rio and John Cena. Del Rio, who had been destined to win a World title since January, finally won it after cashing in his MITB contract at Summerslam on CM Punk. With the WWE holding RAW in Mexico in a couple of weeks, a lot of people were expecting Del Rio to retain the title. Unfortunately, Del Rio lost after submitting to the STF and Cena became the WWE Champion. I don’t see why they had to give Cena a 12th(!!) world title reign, 3 this year alone. I have nothing against Cena as I think he’s a good and entertaining wrestler. However, over the last 12 months, his actions have slowly started to turn me into a Cena hater. Let’s look at the evidence:

The Nexus

The Nexus, at the beginning, was an excellent storyline. They did seem to lose a lot of momentum after losing at Summerslam last year and they focused their attentions on Cena, the face of the company. Cena, through stipulations in matches, was forced to join the Nexus and then got fired by them at Survivor Series. I thought it was a good storyline and I honestly believed that it started to turn some of those people who were not diehard Cena haters back into Cena lovers. Unfortunately, that was all ruined soon after Cena gave his farewell speech. He attacked Wade Barrett during his WWE Championship match with Randy Orton. The next week, he was attacking other members of the Nexus virtually provoked, making Cena seem like a dick, especially since he was going back on his word. This resulted in more of a split than ever.

The Royal Rumble

The Royal Rumble had a good start to it with CM Punk and the Nexus entering early and ganging up on the other wrestlers. Occasionally, a wrestler might briefly fight back but the end result would be them getting eliminated and Punk and the Nexus being the dominant force in the Rumble. That all changed when Cena came in. He came in and eliminated all of the Nexus, except for Punk, within 30 seconds and, while I enjoyed bits of the Rumble match, it is unfortunately overshadowed by that moment.

Super Cena

Can you name me one time that Cena has lost a match by quitting or tapping out? You can’t? That’s because he hasn’t or, if he has, it must have been very early in his WWE career. It seems to be one of the cardinal rules in the WWE: John Cena does not quit. Ever. Not occasionally or once in a blue moon; ever. Knowing that rule does make some of his matches a bit predictable because, if he is facing someone like Del Rio or Daniel Bryan, who have submission moves as finishers, there’s a good chance that they might not win. Although, Cena hasn’t mastered the art of winning table matches so, if you’re challenging Cena, don’t go for a match involving you having Cena do any form of giving up, do a table match.

Never Loses Cleanly

In every PPV this calendar year, Cena has been in involved in the WWE Championship picture. He was involved in the Royal Rumble and then was in the Elimination Chamber to determine the No 1 contender at Wrestlemania, which he won. After that, he was been either challenging or defending the WWE title. The PPV matches that Cena has lost have not been clean wins for his opponent. His losses were:

·         The Royal Rumble – Gets eliminated by the Miz who was not taking part in the Rumble.

·         Wrestlemania – Loses to the Miz after getting Rock Bottomed by the Rock.

·         Money in the Bank – Loses the WWE title to CM Punk after stopping Vince McMahon and John Laurinatis from attempting to screw Punk over.

·         Summerslam – Loses again to CM Punk after the referee Triple H misses Cena’s foot on the rope.

Playing by the Hulk Hogan Rules

Hulk Hogan was the face of the WWE throughout the 80s and early 90s. The fans loved him, although they were times where he would behave in a way that a heel would and yet the fans would cheer him for it. Two examples that spring to mind are Wrestlemania IV where he hit The Million Dollar Man with a steel chair to help Macho Man Randy Savage win the WWE title; and the Royal Rumble 1992 where Hogan, after getting eliminated by Sid Justice, help him get eliminated by Ric Flair. Cena this year has been behaving a bit like Hogan this year. Firstly, he was using gay slurs on the Miz and Alex “Virgil” Riley during their feud, to the point of the WWE getting complaints from gay rights charities. Secondly, so far with his feud with Alberto Del Rio, he was practically bullying Del Rio’s personal ring announcer, Ricardo Rodriguez, and then at Night of Champions, robs Del Rio’s car. While the fans loved it, I always believed that Cena is a person who plays by the rules, and he sometimes acts the way that would make a heel proud.

While I’ve listed all the evidence that is making me into a Cena hater, I will give credit where it’s due. He’s had some good matches this year and was the perfect foil to CM Punk in July and August. In that feud, he is the face of the company and therefore, the perfect person to try and stop Punk from leaving with the WWE Championship.

Whilst I’m slowly becoming a Cena hater, I can never see myself being a diehard one. As I have mentioned in an earlier article, Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Ken Shamrock are the only two wrestlers that I hate. The WWE need to realise that Cena doesn’t need to always win and be involved in the WWE title picture and, barring a heel turn of Hogan proportions, will always be cheered by the fans. If you make Cena a bit more human by losing cleanly or, god forbid, him submitting, I think those Cena haters might respect him more and maybe turn some of them away from the Cena hater camp.