After many years of calling for John Cena to take his wrestling persona to a darker place, most followers had come to phrases with the truth that the legend would by no means flip heel. He was simply too beloved by kids, too tied into the Make A Want basis and an excessive amount of of an organization mascot to even fake to be unhealthy. After staying an excellent man for greater than twenty years, it’s not like he’d all of a sudden develop into a villain throughout his goodwill retirement tour, proper?
Apparently flawed. Final evening, John Cena shocked everybody within the Rogers Centre and hundreds of thousands of individuals watching all over the world when he kicked Cody Rhodes in his American Nightmares, and within the sober actuality of Sunday morning, it’s exhausting to not really feel this complete heel flip is unhealthy information for Cody Rhodes’ longevity as WWE champion.
Earlier than we get into what this implies for Rhodes, nevertheless, let’s brag about Cena for a minute. The Hollywood A-lister and popular culture determine has constructed a popularity over the previous few many years for being an excellent man. As a lot of his friends within the wrestling trade advanced their characters and waffled forwards and backwards between durations as an excellent man and durations as a nasty man, Cena simply stored preaching Hustle, Loyalty and Respect. His relentless enthusiasm and positivity had been at all times an enormous hit with kids and a phase of the bigger WWE fanbase, however that lack of evolution additionally made him a goal for an additional phase of the followers who bought sick of the dearth of character improvement.
Due to that break up, Cena spent many of the prime of his wrestling profession on this odd limbo. Some cheered him like a primary Hulk Hogan and a few booed him like an Perspective Period Vince McMahon. He was the child face’s child face, so relentlessly an excellent man doing the fitting factor in each scenario that it drove some followers loopy. Just a few occasions, he flirted with maybe changing into a nasty man. We now know there have been loads of conversations behind the scenes. Plans had been even put in place for him to entrance a relaunched nWo as a villain, but it surely by no means occurred.
He ultimately went to Hollywood full-time and a humorous factor occurred. Throughout his prolonged absences, even his largest haters began to overlook him to the purpose the place every time he’s come again, the receptions have simply gotten louder and louder. Over the past yr or two, he’s been getting large ovations from nearly everybody, the kind of unrelenting positivity he desperately wished throughout these years the place followers had been extra break up. When he introduced his retirement tour, followers overtly talked about the way it’ll be good to lastly all get on the identical web page and cheer for him as one united group, and but, right here we’re.
You realize how one can inform John Cena loves the wrestling enterprise? As a result of he simply took a large danger. As a substitute of accumulating fats paychecks, promoting tons of t-shirts and going out with a nostalgic spherical of applause, he’s determined to inform a brand new and doubtlessly compelling story by doing one thing he by no means actually did in his profession (at the very least aside from when he was first attempting to make it). It’s actually thrilling, and I can’t wait to see how the remainder of the story performs out.
We all know Cena and Cody Rhodes will probably be going through one another at WrestleMania, however what story beats Triple H and the writers are going to attempt to hit between every now and then is anybody’s guess. Just a few months in the past, I used to be fairly satisfied these two would face one another at ‘Mania however Cody would flip heel forward of the match.
I might think about The Rock goes to play a serious function, as Cena has assumedly develop into his company champion. As a member of TKO’s Board Of Administrators, The Rock has super behind the scenes energy, and WWE performs into that with its onscreen product and can assumedly achieve this once more, with The Closing Boss possible directing Cena to make Cody and everybody else’s life a problem between now and ‘Mania.
Clearly, we don’t know what’s going to occur at WrestleMania, however we have to acknowledge that there’s now a really excessive chance Cody goes to lose his Championship. The wrestling recreation is all about momentum. The objective is to inform sizzling tales, and more often than not with sizzling characters, the easiest way to maintain them sizzling is to have them win.
John Cena simply went heel for the primary time in over twenty years, and your complete wrestling world is on the sting of its seat questioning how that is going to play out. I don’t have the solutions, however I believe no matter story John Cena goes to inform goes to be much more fascinating if he’s the WWE Champion whereas telling it.
So, with all due respect to Cody Rhodes, it is time so that you can lose the WWE Championship. One of many largest stars within the historical past of this enterprise simply took an enormous inventive danger, and he must be rewarded by successful the excessive profile match that comes after it and in doing so, get the possibility to write down one other chapter because the face of WWE.