10 False Wrestling Facts You Probably Believe
6. John Cena Is A Great Promo
John Cena is a fantastic talker.
His delivery is slick and super confident. His rising bellow creates a sense of passion. You believe he cares. He can manipulate fans at his will into a crescendo of excitement and hatred. He can time a gag, even if the gag is lame. He can play it aggressive, smug, whatever. He can cycle through modes and play most of them convincingly. He can bring the noise and create a palpable visceral reaction so few can.
John Cena, however, is an abysmal promo.
The actual meaning behind the word promo appears to have been lost in recent years, as an odd metric for success has crept into the online sphere. Such-and-such owned Buried Prick X in that segment! you might read on Reddit. That's not the point. Promo is short for promotion, and John Cena did not promote his matches very effectively because he ridiculed his opponents more than he built them up. To use just one example, in another year of very gradual business decline, 2011, Cena said of Alberto Del Rio that he was "sick and tired of making average seem awesome", painting Del Rio as a fairly boring act that wasn't worth a damn.
Not enough Cena matches were truly must-see. You must see if this as*hole is as impotent as Cena says he is, this Sunday on pay-per-view!
Much like his "I'm dead for a few minutes" bit, that wasn't a good sell.