10 Wrestlers John Cena Would Not Put Over
4. Braun Strowman
On the September 11, 2017 RAW, John Cena faced Braun Strowman in a pay-per-view calibre match carelessly thrown away on television. Careless was the theme - or perhaps carefree.
Roman Reigns, long considered an imitation of John Cena, entered several awesome performances with the Monster Among Men in the months prior. Dynamic, hard-hitting, and fought with a frenzied urgency, those matches raised the profile of both men and evolved the trademark WWE story match. None of the lulls associated with it dragged the match down; faced with a foe as forceful as he was fast, Reigns had to move constantly to avoid a kicking.
Cena, in contrast, did not bother. He was posed with a rote layout, and simply wrestled it to the letter. He sold for Strowman in the early going in the most exaggerated way possible, begging off almost as if a cowardly lower card jobber. This, as it so often did, made a mockery of his subsequent sudden comeback, which Routine Match John fired up out of nowhere after taking an inordinate amount of punishment.
Cena often struggled to reconcile his selling in such a way - and this was an anachronistic performance that did not nothing to flatter such a futuristic talent.