10 Things I Hate About John Cena

1. It's Silly To Genuinely Hate John Cena

When you€™re a pro wrestling fan, you invest a huge amount of your time, money and - let€™s face it - emotion into the shows and the characters you get into. We€™re one of the most passionate, pigheaded and unreasonable fandoms in the world: that€™s why we argue like unruly children over the slightest thing that we disagree about. And John Cena is one of the things we argue about the most€ but we don€™t have to. The John Cena conversation doesn€™t have to carry on until the man retires, or dies, or is convicted of a felony or whatever. The fact is, it€™s unreasonable and silly to really hate Cena. Oh, you can get flashes where it makes nothing but sense: when he put the Nexus down, I had a weird irrational moment when I fantasised about throttling him, and when he shouted at Kevin Owens for €˜not being a man€™ last year after he lost to him, I and many others felt compelled to shout back (I didn€™t, though. I€™m not a crazy person, I just play one on TV). Sometimes I really, really want to hate John Cena... but that's ridiculous. I€™m older than Cena, and like many of you I remember what wrestling was like a dozen years or more before he arrived on the scene. He€™s a product of the way Vince McMahon and the WWE do business in the 21st century. He was made in a WWE factory to be the WWE€™s top guy, and he does what he€™s been booked to do, what he was created to do. Hating John Cena because of everything he€™s not is like hating a pop star for not being a singer/songwriter in a band, or hating a Hollywood leading man for not being a chameleonic character actor. It€™s okay to prefer the hard-working, touring band or the acclaimed, award-winning actor, and it's okay to prefer the music or the films that they make: but there€™s still a place for pop stars, movie stars and John Cena in the world.