10 Reasons John Cena Is This Generation's Mitsuharu Misawa

10. He Keeps The Same Entrance Theme For An Extended Period

There are few wrestlers in WWE who keep the same theme for extended periods, but Cena is one of them. Cena has kept the same ‘My Time Is Now’ theme for over a decade. Same opening instrumental, same signature sounds, same lyrics, for ten years.

Of course, ten years is nothing when compared to Misawa’s theme. He has been using the exact same theme, ‘Spartan X’ for nineteen years, from 1990 until his last match on June 13th, 2009. That was a prime case of ‘if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’ mentality. 

Misawa had a catchy, upbeat, energetic theme that told as much of a story without lyrics as Cena’s entrance theme does with them. Furthermore, since AJPW wasn’t as gimmick-heavy as WWE, and therefore didn’t need as many ‘unique and theme-oriented’ entrance songs, they kept it simple with catchy rock tunes. 

Misawa’s theme likewise reflected that mentality, and so in keeping with the simplistic undertones of Japanese wrestling at the time, he stuck with what worked.

Then, of course, is the notion of identifiability. Cena, like Misawa before him, is so easily-associated with his current entrance theme that it would be pointless to change it at this point, especially since his character isn’t going to change at all in the foreseeable future.