"Or how I stopped worrying and learned to love watching them bomb".
The "mixed reactions" John Cena received for all of his time on top of WWE broke down the last key tenet of the top babyface's relationship with the audience long after the anti-hero reframed the narrative during the Attitude Era.
Cena represented a noble attempt by the company to try and bring the old-fashioned hero back, but his very existence pulled back the curtain completely. He was a product rather than a persona, and a sizeable portion of the crowd weren't ever going to get behind that. Roman Reigns suffered the same but worse, whilst Seth Rollins struggled so much with the same treatment that he was turned heel months after being given the heroic WrestleMania babyface win.
It used to be the top job in the entire industry - it's now a plain-sight poisoned chalice.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett
