In the history of John Cena, the WWE character, hes basically had two big, soul crushing losses. The first was against The Rock at WrestleMania 28. The face of this current era took on one of the top stars of the Attitude Era and came up short. All the trash talk, the pointing out notes on Rocks hands, and the heated confrontations didnt mean anything when Rock won cleanly. Cena sat on the entryway clearly looking dejected. It could have been the start of a new chapter. It should have been a months long, or year long redemption story where Cena proved he still had it. Perhaps wed finally get some more character development out of him, and he could evolve into more of a Batman type character with actual human qualities and less of a Superman who is tougher than every other comic character combined. Instead, Cena defeated Brock Lesnar (essentially Supermans Doomsday) just a few weeks later. Story over. The second big loss went down at SummerSlam this year when WWE had a chance to try the redemption story again. It was Lesnar vs. Cena again, and Cena took the absolute biggest beating of his career. It was perhaps the most lopsided title match in WWE history. By all accounts, he should have been out for weeks selling his injuries. He should have second guessed himself, and whether he still had it in him. It was a fascinating spectacle to watch, and left a myriad of potential storylines. Instead, he showed up two weeks later, was the same old Cena and vowed to beat Lesnars ass. In their next match, Cena not only held his own, he looked well on his way to victory until Seth Rollins interfered. While Cena is undoubtedly the biggest star in the company, longtime fans are largely tired of him. His time on top has greatly exceeded other faces of the company like Hogan and Austin. Fans were deprived of a least seeing a new side of him. WWE couldnt figure out how to book the right angle, or were too afraid of pushing him in any way that made him resemble anything close to human. Now we're stuck with John Cena vs. Randy Orton: Round 7,742.
As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at."
Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week.
Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com
