McGuire’s Mondays: John Cena is the biggest victim coming out of WrestleMania

By Colin McGuire, ProWrestling.net Staffer

I tend to want to lean away from immediately dismissing pro wrestling developments on the basis of merely saying … “Well, that’s not what we wanted! That’s not what the fans want! That’s not what any of us thought should happen!” Especially in today’s age, when wrestling criticism is at an all-time high and Paul Levesque gives us our monthly scolding on why we shouldn’t have thoughts or opinions, it always feels a little too reactionary to watch something and instantly go, “That sucked. Why don’t you care about your audience?”

Pro wrestling bookers have ideas for the stories they want to tell. I respect that. I maintain the idea that the industry wouldn’t be enjoying this boom period if it at least somewhat wasn’t for the rise in pro wrestling discourse, for better or worse. Folks love to fantasy book the hell out of everything, debate stories, stick up for companies, offer overanalyzed commentaries … the list goes on. Still, the booker has the pen and the booker has a vision. Love it or hate it. That’s the business.

Now, with all of that said …

… Man, I thought the ending to this year’s WrestleMania sucked.

And it’s not for the obvious reasons – a la the things we thought would happen but did not happen. There was no Rock appearance. No real shenanigans, save for another Travis Scott appearance (which, it turns out, is pretty dull unless he actually punches the shit out of someone, which he didn’t do this time). No huge reveal or swerve or twist. These things contributed to the disappointment, but they weren’t front and center when it comes to why the weekend ended with a dud.

Instead, as John Cena raised his world title for the 17th time, breaking that (maybe?) record previously held by Rick Flair, the pyro shot off and the main show went off the air, I realized something: John Cena as a heel isn’t very good. He’s one note. He gives us his frown face. He repeats himself. He still works his style, albeit with some tweaks catered to heel-ing it up that were clever in their own way. But nobody hates him. And I don’t even know how committed he is to making people hate him anymore. The inevitable happened Sunday night – the crowd was clearly on his side. How much will that reverberate as this run unfolds?

All of those things revealed themselves as I found myself watching Sunday’s main event the same way I realized I was watching SummerSlam’s main event last August in Cleveland – and in that case, I even had the luxury of being in the press box, which in theory should have enhanced the experience. But it didn’t. And it didn’t because we all thought we knew what was coming. Solo Sikoa was going to be on the verge of beating Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns would make his triumphant return after taking the summer off. As such, it made the first 50-75 percent of the match feeling meaningless. “OK. We get it. Wrestle for a little bit. Let me know when we can move to the good stuff.”

That same feeling washed over me on Sunday night. Cena and Rhodes had a fine match – the kind of match we probably all thought they’d have. If anything, Cena half-exceeded my expectations because he just doesn’t wrestle that much, even though this is supposed to be his return/farewell tour. And yet, I couldn’t escape what WWE has proved it wants me to expect: A ref bump, some wild developments and the ability for Levesque to smugly say “I told you everything would be great” at that faux post-game presser. The problem this time was that it wasn’t great. It wasn’t even compelling. It didn’t even feel worthy of main-eventing WrestleMania Night Two after we saw what the main event of Night One brought us.

It now makes me wonder: Was it actually the right move to turn John Cena heel? Beyond the shock value of what happened in the moment, how well is this working out? That, of course, leads me and a lot of other people back to The Rock. I haven’t been a huge believer in all the supposed disruption he causes to the machinations of WWE when it comes to storytelling, but after seeing where we are now – his sporadic appearances, the Cena turn that was facilitated by him in storyline yet never followed up on – I concede that I’m willing to buy into the notion that he’s doing more harm than good.

What difference would it have made, truly, if John Cena was a babyface going into this weekend’s festivities? Between SmackDown and WrestleMania, Las Vegas made up its mind a long time ago when it came to the reality that they were going to back Cena and boo Cody. Was WWE afraid that if the Cena/Cody program was a face vs. face story, it would bury Cody because Cena would be the one being cheered? Or did The Rock just make a phone call a few days before the Chamber and say, “I wanna play wrestling for a few minutes again?”

Even if either of those options have no slivers of truth in them, I still can’t understand why, at this point, Cena had to be a bad guy this time around. At this point, it kind of takes the piss out of his farewell as whole – so much so that I’m hoping one of two things happens. One, he turns back sooner than later, or two, the live crowds are so relentless in cheering him that it becomes a weirdly fun dynamic that somehow makes Heel Cena interesting beyond, “I hate all of you and I’m taking this belt home with me.”

Actually, that last bit is at the center of all of this in more ways than one. When Cena turned, we all raised our eyebrows with a certain level of hope. “OK, neat. What’s next?” It wasn’t unlike the beginning of The Death Riders in AEW. “This has potential. Let’s see.” From there, much like the Death Riders, we waited a week. Two weeks. Three weeks. A month. With each passing appearance, it became more and more clear that there really wasn’t much consideration when it came to what was supposed to happen next.

Much like the Death Riders jumped the shark a handful of times by now, Cena’s story took that plunge Sunday night when the hope for a wild storytelling ride faded like the color of Cena’s jorts. Cena presumably goes on to wrestle Randy Orton in Orton’s home town. Cena presumably wins. Cody takes some time off? He probably should, but that’s another discussion. Super babyface CM Punk saves WWE from Evil Cena? Good Guy Cena makes his return to say goodbye at the end of the year? None of this sounds particularly enthralling.

It became clear Sunday night that someone, somewhere wanted to create the first Rock/Hogan Mania match where the crowd hijacked the show and one of the most memorable Mania moments ever was created. The Hogan/Rock thing worked because Hogan was an established heel for a bunch of years before that. Nothing felt rushed and unnecessary. By that point, we all settled into believing in The Hulkster as a bad guy because we had years of experience doing so. John Cena, meanwhile, had been a heel for a total of six weeks before this match. This was a failed attempt at capitalizing on nostalgia that felt more forced than it did organic, more desperate than it did cute.

And you know who the biggest loser in all of it is? The guy who won the match on Sunday night. These are his final months in pro wrestling (or so he says). That was his final WrestleMania moment (or so he says). This was the record-breaking accomplishment that everyone has been teasing for years. And instead of smiling, feeling good and letting real life celebration carry the proceedings, John Cena was forced to put on his fake frown once again in the name of a story that wasn’t or isn’t worth it. I feel for the guy – even if he knew what he was getting into by trusting the vision that was presented to him.

Love it or hate it. That’s the business.