John Cena

[Guest The Winter Of My Discontent]

His ability to work a match is awfull. Scrap that, its horrendous. This may seem drastic, but in the end, I'd say the Hulk Hogan was a better worker than him. His kicks look so awkward, his punches look so unnatural, and he simply does not know how to sell. His body stays stiff as a wooden board even when he's on the ground trying to sell a move. I thought he'd EVENTUALLY get better, but he seems more content concentrating on his stagnating character. He's going nowhere fast, and with this whole acting thing, his character will be exposed just like his wrestling. Carlito is making him look good now, and a rookie shouldn't be doing that for a veteran.

[Guest The Winter Of My Discontent]

In fact, he wrestles as though he should be 7 feet tall. I don't understand how odd and unnatural he looks in the ring.

 

PS. this si the first match I've watched of his in a long time, i wanted to see CCC.

[Nevermortal 0]

Carlito Carribbean Cool is god.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Carlito's no great shakes in the ring, either.

[Da Maintenance Man 0]

Cena's not a veteran. He's only been in WWE for 3 years so far. Both Carlito and Cena are relatively youngins, Carlito more so than Cena though.

[algrim 0]

He needs to add fluidity to his matches, along with some new moves. Look how that's helped UT recently.

[Guest Loss]

I would agree that Hogan was a better worker than Cena. His matches are quite bad. That said, he needs to beat JBL for the title at Wrestlemania, if not sooner.

[humongous2002 0]

Cena is almost as bad as the Ultimate Warrior and his promos are getting on my nerves due to the lack of creativity he puts into them.

[Black Lushus 0]

Agreed, last nights opener was horrible, his ramblings were boring, his cracks were old and lame (anyone take note of the eye rolling the people behind Cole were doing to Cena's insults?), his goofy spots that he does (can't see me, stupid shuffle dance punch, shoe pump)...he's starting to become the all-time lamest face since 90s Hogan...thank god Carlito came out, that guy's "that's not cool" is more over with me than anything Cena did...

[Guest combat_rock]

Which means Carlito will get a contrived face turn and become devoid of the things we originally loved about him too...

 

Anyway, Cena has become... predictable. Both in terms of character and ring work.

[Black Lushus 0]

yup, knowing Vince, he'll be a face by the Rumble...

[notJames 0]

Which means Carlito will get a contrived face turn and become devoid of the things we originally loved about him too...

 

Anyway, Cena has become... predictable. Both in terms of character and ring work.

What's to "love" about C3(PO)? I don't recall him doing any actual wrestling moves (apart from the Greco-Roman steel chain to the head). Does he even have a finisher? His promos are serviceable but not distinguishing, and he talks way too slow at times, like he can't think of anything to say other than "...cool". It's an interesting character and the hair helps, but unless his wrestling catches up with the novelty, I sense a faux HTM reign (and a low-midcard career) for Tha New Bad Guy.

 

Ditto on the Cena disappointment. Not that I was too high on him to begin with.

[Black Lushus 0]

"You're not cool Cena" was ten times better than "You were born and the doctor slapped your mamma" is all I'm saying...

[haVoc 0]

Seems to be a mix reaction to Carlito on this board. The people in the Smackdown thread ripped him and a lot of us like him and are willing to give him a chance.

 

I can't stand Cena so I'm happy to see him lose the US strap and maybe take some time off to film his movie. If they're not gonna use Haas or move up a cruiserweight, then I'm happy to see someone new in that spot.

 

I'll take CCC over someone stale like Booker, RVD or one of the random newer hosses.

[Guest The Winter Of My Discontent]

Hogan's trademark "hulking up" and other taunts are also infinitly greater than Cena's little "dirt of your shoulder" and "you can't see me" taunts. Does anyone know how ridiculous he looks? So he is possibly the worst worker on the roster, and his annoying to watch cut interviews and move. I remember when i said he was the heir apparent to the Rock. I apologize. I have no foresight. He's bad. I am I am not talking Michael jackson bad.

[cabbageboy 0]

As I said, CCC needs a finisher called the Carlito's Way. It would further the goofy Razor Ramon similarity. What that move would actually BE I dunno.

[Guest M. Harry Smilac]

Cena's not that bad it's just he focuses more on his character and less on improving in the ring.

 

He had one of the better smackdown matches from this year that I can remember with Taker after Mania.It's just horrible booking which has peaked with having him do a best of 5 with the least motivated man on the WWE roster,Booker T who is just a shell of his former self.

 

He also needs to treat the F-U like the Angle Slam and get a real second finisher that has some believeability along with maybe one or two other genuine moves that aren't gimmicked out like the 5 knuckle shuffle.Also being stuck in a decent meaningful feud with someone who can work better then he does would help.

[Open the Muggy Gate 0]

Hogan's trademark "hulking up" and other taunts are also infinitly greater than Cena's little "dirt of your shoulder" and "you can't see me" taunts. Does anyone know how ridiculous he looks? So he is possibly the worst worker on the roster, and his annoying to watch cut interviews and move. I remember when i said he was the heir apparent to the Rock. I apologize. I have no foresight. He's bad. I am I am not talking Michael jackson bad.

You can find much worse than Cena in the WWE.

 

Tomko, Kenzo, Heidenrape are much worse than Cena. Cena actually got to show off some other offense than his usual FIVE MOVES OF DOOM shit. Cena is OK as a worker. Not great, but ok.

[Dangerous A 0]

Agreed with the original post. Cena's work (both in and out of the ring) is more pandering to the crowd than making anything believible. He needs to get the memo that he is over already, now start working on your in ring game. His offense stalls too much because everything he does is like the people's elbow. It's just for show. If Cena had only one or two moves like that to get the big reaction, it'd be ok, but it seems every other move has some stalling in it and it kills believability and the opponent has to sit there selling forever while Cena plays stroke my cock with the crowd. Until he improves in ring, I don't believe he deserves the WWE title. Then again, JBL has the title and he sucks too.

 

As for CCC, I like his character. For me, it's too early to decide if he is Cena-like in the ring yet since Cena gave him zero to work with last night. I will say that CCC's selling as a heel is pretty good for a rook. However I need to see more before I proclaim him to be the real deal.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Cena has been slacking, and I think that's more of the WWE fault than his. He showed above-par selling in his match against Benoit last year, and he was constantly evolving his character in his early days using textbook ways of getting over with the crowd. However, the WWE didn't really reward it and shot him up to Brock too early and after he lost that feud he lost to Taker as well. They could have done a lot better with him and instead he was fed to their top faces. So now he's in Jericho territory, AKA limbo. He sees other options availble (music, movies) and he knows he won't be moving up the card any time soon, so he really isn't interested in improving. To him it's just a numbers game. It is just a matter of time before they go back to him and put him in a main event feud.

 

And CCC sucks. His promos are horrible and his wrestling is bland. And he isn't something new, he is something you'd see in the mid 90's.

[Dangerous A 0]

I'm fine with him in the ME, as long as he can carry his weight. So he sold for Benoit in one match. And? I figured that with all the top guys he's been in the ring with, while he didn't go over them, you'd figure he would get better, but he hasn't. You are right in that WWE should shoulder the blame for feeding him to the top guys while he is one of the more over acts, but his ability to carry a match to watchable is damn near non existent. Now I look at current WWE champ JBL and realize that he doesn't work well in ring either, but that doesn't mean we need another guy near or on top who sucks that bad in the ring. If Cena were on Raw feuding with guys like Benoit, HBK, Jericho, etc, guys who could carry him to something watchable, I'd be ok with him on or near the top. Since that hasn't happened, he should just go make movies and music and pop the crowd once and awhile.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

So he sold for Benoit in one match. And?

 

Do not understate his performance in that match. It was the best selling I've seen in the WWE since... I think I might have to go back to Randy Savage. The match started off with him relying on his left (I believe, but it doesn't mater) arm, he did several moves that required the use of his left arm (clotheslines, punches, shoulderblocks, hiptosses, presses) and when Benoit tripped him up and caused him to land on that arm, when Cena tried those moves again he failed. He tried reaching for the ropes with that arm and couldn't - he had to change it up. In that match he showed that he "got" what selling meant. That he was beyond the WWE style of selling. It was nuanced. It effected his performance both on offense AND defense. He knows how to sell, he just doesn't get the opportunity to go there.

 

And yes, there are definitely some things he needs to spruce up, there is no doubt about that, but the guy is capable of doing some very good things in the ring. It's just the environment of the WWE - the style, his opponents and the attitude toward working - doesn't allow him to continue to develop and show his wrestling skills. Of course, fault has to be put on him for not forcing himself to improve in that environment, but it must be hard to do that when you won't be rewarded for it by anyone other than... well... us. So instead he puts the effort in pandering to the fans and keeping his pops up in hopes that the guys on top will either get injured or require a new opponent and management will turn to him for that job.

[AndrewTS 0]

I'm fine with him in the ME, as long as he can carry his weight. So he sold for Benoit in one match. And? I figured that with all the top guys he's been in the ring with,

Like those master sellers Angle and Undertaker?

 

I think Rudo has it nailed. WWE doesn't care about his performance and they're barely using Cena at all other than filler, so he doesn't seem to care about the quality of his performance. There's no good excuse for some one to slack off like that, but Cena gets more pops for his spots than he would for solid wrestling, so he figures he'd best do what the staff probably wants, and keep on doing that (perhaps they even told him so).

[Guest Phoenix]

Hogan's trademark "hulking up" and other taunts are also infinitly greater than Cena's little "dirt of your shoulder" and "you can't see me" taunts.  Does anyone know how ridiculous he looks? So he is possibly the worst worker on the roster, and his annoying to watch cut interviews and move.  I remember when i said he was the heir apparent to the Rock.  I apologize.  I have no foresight.  He's bad.  I am I am not talking Michael jackson bad.

You can find much worse than Cena in the WWE.

 

Tomko, Kenzo, Heidenrape are much worse than Cena. Cena actually got to show off some other offense than his usual FIVE MOVES OF DOOM shit. Cena is OK as a worker. Not great, but ok.

Plus he is one of the most over people in the company, and his products sell. So Vince doesn't care. I am am still saying he is going to win the belt at WM.

[Brett Favre 0]

I don't think they missed the boat with Cena, but this break that he is about to get in making the movie should be more than a month or so. Make his comeback big. I'd say turn him heel and have him go over someone like Kurt or Taker at WrestleMania for the World Title. If it's against Kurt, he'd obviously continue being face.

 

They can set it up with Kurt and his gang beating up on Eddie or Show, and have him make the comeback and save. It would be interesting to see someone like CCC in Kurt's stable to make it more logical for Cena to attack them. They'd have to some how set it up in the upcoming weeks or so with maybe Luther or Jindrak and Kurt attacking Cena and taking him out instead.

 

Although him turning heel would be the best thing. He'll be able to sell more, make his opponents look better, and his spots would get a lot more heat. The only person he could turn heel against would be Undertaker, and him ending his streak at Mania for the World Title would establish him perfectly.

 

Cena really has the tools to be a Champ, IMO. He just isn't the same. He really isn't angry at everyone anymore, and doesn't walk around like he's all alone. When playing to the crowd he loses tons of edge, especially since he doesn't need to do that at all. A heel turn would be the best thing to do because then he'd go back to focusing more on his opponent than the crowd. Attacking someone like Michael Cole instead of saying he's gay would also help. Even attacking Tazz before he would fully turn heel.

 

But if he were at RAW, facing people like Benoit, Benjamin, HHH, HBK, and Jericho would only help. Turning heel there and making him the 2nd heel to HHH would also help. Even facing HHH too. He'd obviously have to not be buried for that to be successful though.

[Eclipse 0]

At first, Cena had so much potential, with the funny promos and intense ones during his HEEL run, not face one. Since he turned, Cena has not put ANY effort into promos, he has been a goofy face, not one that means business when it comes to it, and the whole title run against Booker T was BORING. I hated the best of five, and then, to top it all off...

 

Carlito comes in and takes the title, which I LOVED. I am totally loving the CCC character, and hopefully, last night, is the beginning of something......COOL.

[The Amazing Rando 0]

I'm just wondering why John Cena... apparently being the Inventor and Doctor of Thugnamonics...is still on Basic...

 

you'd think he would have moved up to at LEAST Intermediate Thuganomics by now...

[Promoter 0]

Cena was nice up until Royal Rumble this year. Once I saw those brass rings on his fingers I knew he was going to turn goofy. A problem is that he has been watered down because of UPN. Maybe if he was on raw they would allow him to cut some real beef promos instead of the pre-school nonsense he is doing now. I agree the guy's cheap attempts of getting the crowd in his matches is lame. I don't know why people always complain about Hogan's ringwork. A lot of his stuff in his hey day blows away some of the horrible stuff done by some of the youngsters today. I would watch Hogan/Bundy from SNME in 1987 and 1988 over most of the crap guys like Tyson Tomko or Bradshaw is doing today. Cena should turn heel, but they won't do it until everyone stops caring about Cena. Again, as been mentioned before in other posts the wwe rushed Cena and putting him in a movie already? Isn't he suppose to have a CD coming out as well? This guy may very well burn himself out within a year of turning face. For the wwe's sake he better not have that traditional 15 minutes of fame by also ran rappers which is why he should concentrate on his wrestling skills to have back up.

[Guest The Winter Of My Discontent]

Does anyone think his in-ring work is ackward and lacking in fluidity. His punches are the worst ever, he delivers his kicks like a 10 year old girl, and his general body posture is that of a retarded gorrilla. When he does something he lumbers his body over and executes it so slowly that it ruins the flow. His finisher is a prime example. Hogan, in his better days, could at least move and look normal when he executed his moves...same with even the Ultimate warrior. I almost compare Cena's abilities to pull off moves with Giant Gonzalez or Nathan Jones. Yes, he looks that ass backwards,

[Guest Anglesault]

Cena stopped actively trying almost a year ago.