Posted in: Doctor's Orders
Doctor's Orders: Villainizing The Champ (Plus, Summerslam Champions League 2nd Fixtures)
By Dr. CMV1
Jun 22, 2011 - 10:24:07 AM

John Cena, the 10-time WWE Champion and leader of this current sports entertainment generation, has been the object of a lot of criticism, he’s been featured in movies, he has given the WWE endorsements that they’ve never had before, he’s main-evented/headlined 7 consecutive Wrestlemanias, he’s been cheered by millions, he’s been booed by millions, and he’s been the featured performer at the top of Wrestlemania cards that have helped make that event a worldwide, economy boosting showcase that is sought out by every city in the U.S. and beyond.

Of all those things that John Cena has been, you notice that the first thing listed amongst that laundry list of accolades was “the object of a lot of criticism.” Never before has a top star in professional wrestling been as loved and hated by about the same number of fans. Everywhere the WWE has traveled these last five years and counting, the WWE audiences have been overwhelmingly split on Cena. Yet, never once has Cena changed his tune; his character has retained the same core values that he embraced when he first became a hero as the Thuganomics master. Sure, his inflection has changed a bit since those days, but the character that preaches Hustle, Loyalty, and Respect has been the same guy for almost eight years now. That’s approaching Hogan-esque levels of the failure to do character development.

So, I ask the following question: do you think that John Cena ever thinks about his legacy in the business?

“Sports Entertainers” are not really that different from the best of the best actors or the players in the top leagues in other professional sports. WWE superstars see themselves as entertainers and athletes and legacies matter to both types of stars. Period. You think Peyton Manning would feel complete without that championship and two Super Bowl appearances? You think Leo DiCaprio is going to be satisfied without that “Best Actor” Oscar? You think Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Reggie Miller, Karl Malone, John Stockton, and others do not think often about how they never won the big one? We live in an era where you can’t be at the top of the best of all-time lists – or even be in the conversation, really – if you haven’t won a championship. Soccer/Football is the same way. Lionel Messi isn’t considered one of the greatest players ever without all the league and UEFA CL trophies and he may never be amongst the greatest of greats without a World Cup. Legacies matter.

I would surmise that wrestlers/Sports Entertainers care just as much about their long-term legacies. John Cena professes often to enjoy the role he plays in the WWE, but I’m sure Hulk Hogan did, too. We’ve got to soon be reaching a point where Cena will tire of doing the same thing over and over again; no different than Matthew McConaughey got tired of making Rom Coms and did Lincoln Lawyer. He’s going to need a new challenge; one that will allow him to effectively cement his legacy as one of the greatest ever. He knows and we know that he can play the hero and draw a ton of money doing it. Can he do the same as the villain? About twenty years ago, exactly, we were starting to see Hulk Hogan, to whom Cena most frequently draws comparisons, become a tired act as the protagonist to the point that the once adoring crowds were turning against him. Hogan lost steam as the Hulkamania bit was just too worn out to stay relevant; or at least as relevant as it was used to being. It took leaving the WWE for film and then WCW, which was no competition whatsoever for years, for Hulk Hogan to change his character. Hogan was reinvented in WCW. Perhaps Hulkster thought little of legacies back then because sports entertainment wasn’t nearly popular enough to warrant such professional athlete-type psychological intricacies. He was, after all, the one that was building a legacy by which all others in the business would attempt to follow. Maybe he did; maybe he didn’t. I’ll bet that he looks back, now, at his heel turn in 1996 and subsequent stint as the leader of the New World Order, which actually made WCW competition to the WWE and nearly put Vince McMahon out of business, and enjoys the creative freedom of being able to do something completely different and have it actually achieve huge success in its own right. If he didn’t think about legacy before that; surely he did afterward.

Will John Cena have to suffer a similar fate for the WWE to give him some new material to work with? I think that, deep down, Cena would relish the opportunity to turn heel and see if he could equal or surpass the success that he’s had as the top face as the top force of the dark side. He can do it on his terms, in a way that coincides with the PG era that he’s helped to build and, in doing so, he can further his legacy as a guy who was able to get it done both ways – good and bad.

There’s a huge number of wrestling fans out there that would immediately counter that it is not in the WWE’s best interest to change John Cena because of the success they’ve had with him already, the amount of merchandise he sells be it T-shirts/movies/posters/rap albums/PPV DVDs, or the idea that there isn’t a suitable babyface to supplant him if he were to turn heel. These are all fairly legitimate claims, but the same could be said of Hogan if you turned back the clock and there wasn’t a suitable babyface ready to take over. Macho was too old, Bret was too bland, HBK was too young and dumb, and Austin was still too (in) WCW. Business was faltering, anyway, so why not try to revamp interest through turning the long-time hero of the promotion into a villain? Did what they could potentially lose outweigh the potential gains? It was the one big shot that they had left in their tank and they did not pull the trigger. Someone else did, though, and it turned into the dogfight of Vince McMahon’s competitive life…

The fact is that turning the established hero into the villain CAN work. Borrowing from our parallel to sports, take a look at Lebron James. When he came into the league as the most hyped high school player of all-time and actually made good on his talents when he got to the big time, he was a hero and he was celebrated. People loved the idea that they followed a guy from the time he was just 16 to seeing him win two MVPs, carry a team that had no business in the NBA Finals to the brink of a championship, and become the face of the NBA. He was a well-spoken, well dressed, confident, affable, and engaging young man. Then, they witnessed his heartache as he failed to win a championship or even make it back to the NBA Finals with better teams. We were watching the trials and tribulations of a star like we had with Michael Jordan twenty years earlier.

And then he took his talents to South Beach…

Immediately, the hero became the villain. And what happened? Ratings hit 15 year highs! The media took this guy that we’ve hyped as basketball’s savior for almost a decade and helped turn everyone against him and make him basketball’s demise. As a result, people tuned in for NBA regular season AND Playoff games in numbers that had not been so good since the Jordan days. Outside interest was a huge factor, as Lebron as the bad guy drew people in and gave casual fans a reason to watch again. The Villainization of King James should be a book…and it would sell. Basketball will now enjoy another more popular area. There wasn’t even a suitable hero to take Lebron’s place. A guy like Dirk Nowitski, who had been around for over a decade already, stepped into the idol role and defeated the scoundrel. And people loved it...

The same thing could be done with John Cena. Allow me to paint a picture for you. Cena spends the next year doing the same usual thing, playing the same role and getting ready for the ultimate showdown against the Rock. He tries to stay WWE Champion so that he and Rock can have their epic battle with the title on the line at Wrestlemania. Yet, at the Royal Rumble something strange happens and The Rock costs Cena the championship. “Why,” Cena wonders to his Chain Gang. Why would Rock take something that would have only enhanced his match with Cena and ruin it? To Cena’s increasing surprise, the WWE Universe is fully behind the Rock’s decision, even if it meant giving the title back to the dastardly Miz (or whomever). At every turn, The Rock’s reaction is amazing and the one for Cena just OK. They cheer for Rock’s every move, but with increasing volume, the fans jeer Cena’s every counter. For two months, Cena tries to put on a brave face, but it is starting to eat at him a little bit. Knowing of the scenario from past experience, Rock brings it to the forefront that Cena is getting a little irritated about his decreasing fan support…and that this time it is different than it used to be because now he knows that when the Rock whoops his candy ass in Miami, that Cena’s met his match and that he won’t be able to bounce back like before. Cena’s supreme confidence fades throughout the Mania classic with Rock and it ends with no confidence left at all, as Rock pins his shoulders to the mat for the one, two, three. It is at that moment, when Rocky is celebrating like he just won the championship, that Cena can take it no longer and seven years of frustration gets unleashed. Cena annihilates the Rock and what should’ve been an all-time moment for the Great One is reduced to the memory of Cena brutally castrating the Brauma Bull. On the Grandest Stage of Them All, Cena will become the villain. The WWE will sink or swim by taking a calculated risk.

There’s interest in the hero falling to villain status. James proved that. Darth Vader proved that. Hogan proved that. It’s time to see if Cena can prove it, too. Quite frankly, his legacy is at stake. He can go down in history as the consummate good guy that never backed down despite the combination of decreased ratings, decreased fan interest, droves of haters begging him to change, etc. If he does, then he’ll still be remembered as an all-time great. To think otherwise would be foolish and short-sighted. Yet, imagine if he were to turn and make it successful. Stone Cold Steve Austin was never able to make it work, which like it or not sets guys like Hogan, Rock, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Macho Man Savage, and Ric Flair apart from him. Cena wants to be remembered as one of the greatest of the greats. He’s going to have to play the villain, successfully, before he can get there.

Summerslam Champions League

Group A

HBK vs. Triple H – 3 pts (23-4 differential)
Austin vs. Angle – 3 pts (15-12)
Warrior vs. Macho – 0 pts (12-15)
Nexus vs. WWE – 0 pts (4-23)

Group B

Eddie vs. Mysterio – 3 pts (19-8)
Bret vs. Bulldog – 3 pts (18-9)
Rock-HHH-Angle – 0 pts (9-18)
Cena vs. Jericho – 0 pts (8-19)

Group C

Edge vs. Taker – 3 pts (15-12)
HBK vs. Razor – 3 pts (14-13)
Benoit vs. Orton – 0 pts (13-14)
Eddie vs. Angle – 0 pts (12-15)

(CMV1 note – This was easily the most hotly contested group. I was very surprised at how well Eddie vs. Angle did against Taker vs. Edge. I guess that goes to show how much the IWC loved Guerrero. Taker vs. Edge was easily the more epic match, but Angle and Eddie carry an enormous amount of respect. The match where Orton became the youngest champ nearly knocked off the second WWE PPV ladder match)

Group D

TLC 1 – 3 pts (20-7)
Bret vs. Taker – 3 pts (20-7)
Orton vs. Cena – 0 pts (7-20)
RVD vs. Benoit – 0 pts (7-20)

Group E

Bret vs. Owen – 3 pts (18-8)
HBK vs. Hogan – 3 pts (14-13)
Hardy vs. RVD – 0 pts (13-14)
Taker vs. Orton – 0 pts (8-18)

(CMV1 note – HBK and Hogan get a ton of flack because it was a Hogan match. Overselling aside, that match was about as good as it could have been. Hardy vs. RVD was really good, but I submit that it got so many votes because people hate Hogan. We’ll see how Hardy vs. RVD does against the other two matches)

Group F

The Rock vs. Brock – 3 pts (22-5)
CM Punk vs. Hardy – 3 pts (20-6)
Mankind vs. Trips – 0 pts (6-20)
Edge vs. John Cena – 0 pts (5-22)

Group G

Mr. Perfect vs. Bret – 3 pts (17-10)
Austin vs. Undertaker – 3 pts (16-11)
DX vs. Legacy – 0 pts (11-16)
Mysterio vs. Angle – 0 pts (10-17)

Group H

Brock vs. Angle – 3 pts (23-4)
Rock vs. Triple H – 3 pts (16-11)
Owen vs. Austin – 0 pts (11-16)
Cena vs. Batista – 0 pts (4-23)

Group Stage Game Twos

Shawn Michaels-Triple H in a Non-Sanctioned Street Fight ('02) VS. Ultimate Warrior-Macho Man Randy Savage ('92)

Kurt Angle-Stone Cold Steve Austin (’01) VS. Nexus-Team WWE (’10)

Bret Hart-The British Bulldog ('92) VS. Chris Jericho - John Cena ('05)

Rey Mysterio - Eddie Guerrero in a Ladder Match ('05) VS. Triple H-The Rock-Kurt Angle ('00)

Undertaker - Edge in a Hell in a Cell Match ('08) VS. Shawn Michaels - Razor Ramon in a Ladder Match ('95)

Randy Orton - Chris Benoit ('04) VS. Kurt Angle - Eddie Guerrero ('04)

The Hardy Boyz - The Dudley Boyz - Edge and Christian in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs Match ('00) VS. Randy Orton - John Cena ('07)

Bret Hart - Undertaker ('97) VS. Chris Benoit - Rob Van Dam ('02)

Bret Hart -Owen Hart in a Steel Cage Match ('94) VS. Jeff Hardy - Rob Van Dam in a Ladder Match (’01)

Shawn Michaels - Hulk Hogan ('05) VS. Undertaker - Randy Orton ('05)

Jeff Hardy - CM Punk in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs Match (’09) VS. Edge - John Cena ('06)

The Rock - Brock Lesnar ('02) VS. Hunter Hearst Helmsley - Mankind in a Steel Cage Match ('97)

Bret Hart - Mr. Perfect ('91) VS. Degeneration X - Legacy (’09)

Undertaker - Stone Cold Steve Austin ('98) VS. Kurt Angle - Rey Mysterio ('02)

Triple H - The Rock in a Ladder Match ('98) VS. John Cena - Batista ('08)

Kurt Angle -Brock Lesnar ('03) VS. Stone Cold Steve Austin - Owen Hart ('97)