How Good Was John Cena Actually?
In-Ring Ability
John Cena very quickly abandoned a springboard stunner because he lacked the agility, composure, and the ring awareness to get where he needed to be. When Cena applied his STF, it looked like he was holding hands with himself. It was a strange and distracting sight, since he did this in several important main events. His gurning face practically looked disembodied; he couldn’t have been reacting to the pressure applied, since there was none. Cena was ungainly, popping up to hit the five knuckle shuffle with his feet jutted out into the ten-to-two clock position. Cena bumped as if he had no idea what to do with his jazz hands. His body was cosmetically impressive, and it was powered by untold stamina, but it often looked weird and wrong hurled about in that ring. He was also quite bad, comically so, at communicating with it.
Cena’s selling was so odd. At times, he was great. At others, he either sold as if he’d just perished or returned fire like a move had zero effect on him - and not in a defiant, fighting spirit way either. His face often exceeded “expressive” and crossed the line into wacky.
John Cena is in fact so uniquely bad at the actual mechanical execution of moves that he is put forward as a key example of an enduring debate: how much does that stuff matter?
John Cena frequently worked excellent, emotionally-charged, very special feeling matches in spite of his lack of technical ability. In spite of himself, it felt like at times.
He was at his best in 2007. Some of his critics might point out that he was led by Shawn Michaels, which wasn’t untrue at WrestleMania 23, but Cena was with him every step of the way in the hour-long, far superior televised rematch. Cena, obviously, could not have been carried by the Great Khali - and their matches were absurdly awesome. Their Falls Count Anywhere match at One Night Stand 2007 was one of the all-time great overdeliveries; not in the least bit contrived, Cena grabbed any object in sight to repel the monster in an ultra-rare plunder match lacking any obvious assembly. It was the hidden gem counterpart to his famous masterclass opposite Umaga at Royal Rumble 2007. Cena, aided by the bandages wrapped around his abdomen, entered a performance in which he felt like he was clinging on for his life. The roles were reversed at the finish, where Cena choked the monster out, looking just as cool and vengeful as the most revered territory heroes of the 1980s.
His feud with CM Punk was a revelation; Cena, who had alienated the audience with his neverending and dull programmes opposite Triple H and Randy Orton, went hold-for-hold and counter-for-counter with Punk in an electrifying, sophisticated series pitting Cena’s raw strength against Punk’s wit and intelligence. The story was never 1989 tier, but in the ring, it was a better Hogan Vs. Savage dynamic than the men themselves mustered.
Cena’s record is patchy elsewhere. A great series with AJ Styles, what felt like sabotage against the Miz. Infinitely more drab matches against Randy Orton than good ones, an all-hits rivalry against Edge. A very selfless and bold approach to working with Kevin Owens; a litany of hatchet-jobs against Wade Barrett.
Even Cena’s best work - the Umaga match excepted - relies on you to fill in the blanks, to an extent. No other wrestler as famous as John Cena is afforded as much latitude. Is that because he was the main character during the worst long stretch of WWE programming ever, and many of us needed it to be better than it was?
John Cena is a great wrestler. Just don’t pay attention to the STF. The top role leg drop misses by miles a lot of the time, and he looks rigid mid-flight, but he works hard. Yes, he gets up too quickly sometimes, but the fans are going nuts, who cares?
7/10