10 Architects Behind WWE's Demise
6. John Cena
Just watch this damn promo and defend it. You can't. It's impossible.
It's cringeworthy.
It's almost impressively unfunny.
It's so clearly written, betraying the idea that wrestling is something that happens when the light turns red.
It reduces something theoretically dramatic and scary - even awesome - into the steaming, putrid, hot cement-textured sh*t that it is. It is John Cena reducing the steel cage match, once wrestling's score-settling, blood-soaked pit of danger, into the Death Star from Star Wars. It's John Cena barely bruised from the battle he'd just endured, making a joke of it, letting you all know how meaningless all of this is, how it's all just pretext for the writers to get their horrific craic over.
It is John Cena, distilled.
Cena was the smiling face of PG WWE, a kid-friendly hero who so rarely endured anything sold as a meaningful rivalry with serious repercussions worthy of investment. Everything just reset on RAW the next night, like a live action cartoon. Nothing fazed Cena - the threat, the action, nor the consequence.
His charmless update on the Rock's cut-down promo style made so few of his matches feel big, so few of his opponents worthy.
WWE under his run was meaningless, goofy fluff, but because it was successful, it has formed the blueprint for everything to follow...