12 Ups And 15 Downs For WWE In 2016

4. Cena Takes A Backseat

AJ Styles John Cena
WWE.com

During the past couple years, John Cena has transitioned from the centerpiece of WWE to a strong supporting role, and it’s suited him well. He spent much of 2015 as United States Champion, defending the title weekly against all-comers.

But 2016 was a year in which Cena was sidelined with injury, missing WrestleMania XXXII (at least in match form) and then missed large swaths of the year in the ring. Cena spent time co-hosting the Today Show and hosting American Grit and the ESPY Awards. He even took a turn guest hosting Saturday Night Live, garnering more attention outside the ring than inside it.

To be fair, Cena did have a match of the year candidate with AJ Styles at SummerSlam, but consider that he didn’t have matches at the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania or Survivor Series. Consider that Cena only had four PPV matches in 2016 and only eight other televised matches for the year.

Love him or hate him, but John Cena is still WWE’s most recognizable active wrestler and an easily bankable star. Booked properly, he can be a big boost to the company, its product and its ratings. Taking this much of a backseat in 2016 was a pretty big detriment.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.