Youve all seen it a hundred or more times now. John Cena takes a nasty move full on, shakes it off and springs back like hes made of rubber. John Cenas injured coming into the match, but forgets about it moments after the bell rings. Cena was in a war last night! Yet here he is on RAW, cracking jokes and mugging to camera. Superman wins again. Taking multiple chair shots or a DDT to the concrete floor, being speared through walls, going straight through a table it all washes right over him. Ordinarily, any of these moments would be an excuse for the fan favourite to be pinned without losing face, but Cena will power out of anything: including supposedly protected submission moves. Remember how hard WWE worked to sell us on Del Rios unstoppable cross armbreaker finish? Now remember Cena powering through the hold while it was applied to his (kayfabe) injured arm, to convert it into a powerbomb? And its catching. Sheamus has been The Great White Cena for a while now. Even superworker Daniel Bryan has caught the no-sell bug, being booked to take three tombstone piledrivers in a row onto the floor, the steps and the announce table from Kane in full-on demon mode, making Michael Cole do his quiet, reverent voice, and yet shrugging it off to win a twenty-two minutes Extreme Rules match against the same demon less than two weeks later. Its a writing and booking issue, not necessarily the fault of the individual wrestlers, but its telling. Anyone with an indomitable aspect to their character is now beginning to take on aspects of Cena and no selling big moves and angles. Its as if they dont believe that someone can beat the odds without becoming a super hero. Cena is a cartoon character. We dont expect him to do much thats realistic. But when a brawler like Sheamus can pull an athletic power move like the brogue kick out of nowhere despite being pummeled for ten minutes beforehand and then stand there, strong and tall as ever and celebrate with the crowd, theres something amiss.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
