When John Cena turned heel, I believe numerous us were pretty sure he was telling a story about age and mortality — an ex-champion’s desperation to reclaim his former glory one last time despite the undeniable fact that he’s not the youngest or the most effective in the sector, and the lengths such a person might go to in pursuit of that glory. That is the story WWE appeared to be organising on the time.
Then got here the primary Heel Cena promo, which centered the conflict around Cena’s relationship with the fans — an odd selection for the aforementioned “numerous us,” since hating the fans is a rather different motive than the pursuit of former glory. This week, Cena took the subsequent logical step down that path and made it clear his heel character is not doing this because he’s getting old and he’s desperate for one last run. That motive would have itself explained why Cena wants the title; now we all know he wants the title so he can take it away from the WWE fans he hates a lot. And in actual fact, the WWE fans he’s at all times hated — Cena went to date this week as to reframe his entire profession as essentially a social experiment that saw him manipulate the fans a technique after which one other, attempting to work out what they care about most so he could take his revenge on them. Apparently, his introduction of the spinner belt in April 2005, to widespread negativity, was the piece of information that told him WWE fans cared most in regards to the legacy of the world title, which is why he will win it at WrestleMania, retire with it, and take it away.
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I do not know if individuals are properly appreciating how insane that is. WWE is not only saying “John Cena is a heel,” they’re saying “John Cena has at all times been a heel.” Cena got here out and said in his promo that he can explain any moment of his profession through the lens of this heel character, which does not just open the storyline as much as a level of scrutiny it is totally incapable of passing, but additionally confirms that he’s admitting to lying and manipulating the fans for his entire profession. I’m undecided there’s any getting back from that, narratively — you possibly can’t just have Cena turn face again in December and retire forgiven, are you able to? After he’s been manipulating the fans for 20 years?
Beyond the undeniable fact that this just looks like too big of a swing for WWE to land successfully, it is also not one I even have any real interest in seeing them attempt. In the event that they had just continued to color by the numbers, they’d have had an easy, character-driven slam dunk, but that is not enough in “The Paul Levesque Era.” No, now Cena is attempting to RUIN WRESTLING by taking away the WWE Championship (which, we have now one other world title, we could just switch to that one, couldn’t we) and oh, that sentence really cut to the guts of Babyface Hero Of The People Cody Rhodes, who now has to SAVE WRESTLING. It’s all just very cartoony — very much the identical flavor as Rhodes’ title match ultimately yr’s WrestleMania, when Steve Austin wasn’t available so The Undertaker filled in, and no person cared that it didn’t make sense. To this point, this does not strike me as intricate, detail-oriented storytelling, which is what it should probably be when you’re rewriting the whole history one in all your primary characters. It strikes me as big, broad strokes, daring colours, “look one other explosion” storytelling. Which, if that is your thing, wonderful, but you’ll forgive me for officially trying out at this stop on the Heel Cena roller coaster.
Written by Miles Schneiderman
