Remember the brand extension? That was that weird experiment when WWE pretended that Raw and Smackdown were separate products: it was WWE's way of pretending that there was still competition between wrestling promotions, long after its purchase of WCW. The funny thing is, it kind of worked. Just ask John Cena, who had bounced between the two shows for several years, becoming United States Champion and adopting a hip-hop gimmick in the process. When he was drafted back to Raw in 2005, he was brought in to face Attitude Era heels like Kurt Angle and Triple-H, and was booed mercilessly for his efforts. Night after night, a wrestler who had been with the company for three years was treated by fans like he was a lucky jobber. Cena has stayed with WWE for twelve years, most of them as its top star, recently elevating younger talents like CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, and Bray Wyatt into top stars. He's also delivered more Make-A-Wish Foundation requests than any other celebrity (no matter what Justin Bieber says).
Check out "The Champ" by my alter ego, Greg Forrest, in Heater #12, at http://fictionmagazines.com.
I used to do a mean Glenn Danzig impression. Now I just hang around and co-host The Workprint podcast at http://southboundcinema.com/.
