10 Reasons Why It Took John Cena 16 Years To Get Good At Wrestling

6. He's Honestly Never Really Had A Babyface To Challenge His #1 Spot

It could be argued that CM Punk retired because he knew deep down that Vince McMahon never had any desire to allow CM Punk to eclipse John Cena as the public face of World Wrestling Entertainment. By the time Punk retired, he was selling as much merchandise as Cena, and was doing well to always have a babyface pocket of fans when he was a heel, which is the polar opposite of Cena who as a babyface has 50% of the crowd solidly hating his every move. It's an argument worth having that John Cena never really had to be the in-ring performer that CM Punk was because he was solidly in the good graces of the McMahon family and WWE's stockholders as the top guy. Punk's this tattooed outlier who for as popular as he was with the live crowd, was never going to get a fair shake in the boardroom. In a weird sense of life imitating art, Punk was more the anti-corporate champion than Steve Austin ever was. In 2015, John Cena's looking at an era where he's being pushed by a company now rapidly filling with fresh, hungry and exciting faces to actually be be the Ric Flair of this generation. This is to mean that for as much as he's able to present well as an ideal corporate champion, he's also willing and likely forced to push himself to a level past where he could be and coast as champ and top babyface even just two years prior.