10 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE Raw From 2008
2. John Cena Had A Pretty Duff Year
2008 was a year of extreme highs on PPV and mediocrity on free TV for John Cena.
His Royal Rumble return is legendary, but a lot of John’s work on Raw was either annoyingly childish or easily skippable. He was held up as the poster child of coming PG certification (which was actually a few weeks away; WWE officially went PG on 22 July) by spraying “JBL Is Poopy” on a limo during the 7 July 2008 Raw. Also, his feud with Layfield over the summer felt like a retread overall, and his tag title win with Batista before they worked at SummerSlam was unnecessary.
Then, John suffered a neck injury vs. Batista and had to take some time off. He won the World Title from Chris Jericho at Survivor Series upon his return, and WWE were surely glad to have their meal ticket back, but something wasn't clicking on Mondays.
Arguably the only Raw matches that stood out for Cena all year came against Shawn Michaels on 10 March, vs. Jeff Hardy on 2 June, and maybe a ‘Street Fight’ vs. Umaga on the 16 June episode. That's about it. Everything else was either shockingly short and inconsequential or completely forgettable.
Cena's alliance with Cryme Tyme had promise, but it ultimately went nowhere. JTG and Shad Gaspard had to praying that they could ride JC's coat tails for a little while longer. It wasn't to be. All in all, binging '08 makes it clear that this was a mediocre year for the poster boy generally.