John Cena and his 25 years of hurt – By Wrestle G

Hello NoDQ readers and welcome to my column this week. What a few weeks it’s been in wrestling since I last wrote, and I even managed to get Dave Meltzer in trouble when he quoted my last article, spilled some beans and then got some backlash. Sorry Dave didn’t mean to get you in trouble but thanks for reading.

So, before I get into an analysis of John Cena’s promo yesterday let’s touch on some other topics over the past few weeks with some Wrestling Tapas.

Wrestling Tapas – small plates of wrestling opinions

AEW Revolution was a few weeks ago and boy what a show. In terms of quality of matches I don’t think many PPV’s of the last few years can touch it. There were also good progressions of feuds and a beauty of an ending to one (which we will come onto next) all in all AEW has an archive of PPV’s which is hard to match quality wise for any wrestling company ever. Was well worth all of my money.

One match I’m especially high on is the Toni Storm and Mariah May Hollywood Ending. I feel like this entire story has been great and as a complete feud its one of AEW’s best across any division. I wasn’t super high on the glass fists but everything else I really liked. And that photo of Toni draped across Mariah basked in the dimming lights and ‘The End’ coming up on the titantron just felt so satisfying, and it felt different and innovative. AEW followed this up with a great Toni promo on Dynamite the following Wednesday where she really put a full stop on things and moved on. And her upcoming feud with Megan Bayne has me intrigued. All in all, it was top work from AEW and Toni and Mariah.

Is anyone else just really not feeling Jey Uso at present? I feel sorry for him because he is the victim of one of the biggest gaps between the rumble and Mania, and I think we are suffering from creative fatigue here. I think a little mini feud with someone where he put his title shot on the line might have been the way to go here to keep him chasing. I feel like Jey and Gunther are doing their best, but they are surrounded by huge stories and huge stars, and I fear their story and match is suffocating under the weight of excitement for other programs.

Vignettes for Rey Fenix and presumably Alastair Black aired on Smackdown this past Friday. Surprised to see these pre-Mania and with more bodies being put on the roster I think the annual roster spring cleaning is on its way sadly. But sometimes a bout of releases allows wrestlers to find their true potential outside of the machine. Interesting times ahead for sure.

So, let’s get stuck into the main topic today, shall we?

John Cena and his fans are on a break

The familiar chimes on the opening of John Cena’s music hit Monday Night Raw this week live from Brussels in Belgium. You had to be quick to hear them though because what followed was one of the loudest chorus of boos I’ve ever heard.  This crowd played along perfectly with this angle and if this promo had been in Des Moines or Delaware, it simply wouldn’t have landed as well as it did.

Cena stood in the middle of the ring surrounded by a raucous and hostile crowd. And what I love is that he milked it, he stood and soaked in the type of reaction he had never received to that large a scale.

When Cena finally spoke, it was initially only to reiterate a phrase he had put on X hours earlier. It was at this point that I felt Cena struggled with his persona a little bit. Not much, but you could tell his muscle memory wanted to deliver the promo in a certain tone that he could no longer do. The way he delivered the ‘you people are horrible’ didn’t feel natural. But that is too be expected while we start out this turn.

So how do I feel about the promo now it’s over?

I felt that Cena quickly got into his stride as the promo went on and his line about being in an abusive relationship with the fans, this line hit home hard to me, and it encapsulates perfectly the reason why John Cena would choose now in order to make this change. John Cena the 16-time champion pondering retirement would have been reflective on his career. Taking stock of his journey from plucky upstart with RUTHLESS AGRESSION all the way to having the joint record holder for most world championships of any performer in history.

That reflection also would have included his relationship with the fans. The mixed reactions and duelling chants have been synonymous with Cena’s career. I’ve seen it mentioned that his turn doesn’t make sense because he’s been cheered on his recent part time runs. But to me that completely feeds into the way he’s feeling. You cheer me because I went away, because you didn’t realise what you had while I was here, this is the perfect motivation to not giving these fans what they want during this retirement tour.

What I was a little disappointed in is that they left the Rock out of this segment entirely. No mention of him from either Cena or Rhodes. But that does leave us scope for the next couple of weeks to weave the Rock back into this story. I think it will be simple logic; the Rock paved the way for the life Cena now has and Cena having embrace the part time movie star lifestyle sympathises with the way the Rock was treated by the fans last year. He is angry on behalf of the Rock that the Rock’s return was rejected and his pursuit of Roman was called off, Cena can relate to that rejection. I hope this is the way they go.

Towards the end of the promo Cody Rhodes finally came out to confront the man he will face at Mania and the man who beat him down at Elimination Chamber. The tone of Rhodes is that Cena is now a lesser performer now that he has given into his hate. I like this, I like this because it gives the story the following options. It gives Cena his redemption arc, he can claim that Cody was right and that he was wrong to turn. But it also now gives Cena the chance to double down over the next couple of weeks. He will need to prove Cody wrong over the next few weeks and show him that this version of Cena is the best yet. And I cannot wait to see how this plays out.

My final thought is the amazing character work Cena did with his facial expressions as he left the ring. Some Doubt, some pondering, Some remorse even? But without saying a word he made us all want to know what he’s going to say or do next. A fantastic segment and a great continuation of this turn. I have my tickets for Raw in London in a couple of weeks and its mainly to see what Cena does next.

Thanks for reading once again, as always I would love to hear what you have to say about my analysis of the Cena promo above in the comments below or you can follow me on X via @Wrestle_G I’ve also dipped into TikTok via @wrestleg I have no idea what I’m doing, but then what else is new?

Until Next time,

Cheers,

G