Cena Turn Discussed

Quote :

-- During a recent WWE creative team meeting, one writer proposed the idea of a John Cena heel turn. Suffice it to say, Vince McMahon became angered and ripped him for how foolishly short-sighted the idea was.

The feeling is that with all of the merchandise revenue Cena garners, turning him heel would be a bad idea, at least until his sales cool off.

Another person close to the situation said McMahon shouldn't have lit him up because they should be open to discussing new ideas, even if they're bad. He feels discussing new ideas should be encouraged and if they're bad, simply discarded at that point.

http://www.rajah.com/base/node/16115

That would atleast make Cena half watchable.

Cena has actually been pretty good as of late IMO, his promos just need to concentrate on one thing though, he tries to be funny, serious and intense all in one promo and it just doesn't work.

Although if he keeps selling merchandise there is no reason for WWE to turn him, he obviously won't bring in as much money as a heel as he does a face. It could be a long time before John Cena is a heel, he would need to get much more unpopular than he is already, because the fact of the matter is no matter how much the IWC hates him it doesn't matter, because the're/we're not the ones going out and buying the merchandise, a lot aren't even paying for WWE, so we're obviously not going to be the target audience.

He's been absolutley horrible to watch, I hate his matches, he alway's does the same old Superman routine, get's fucked like a 2 dollar hooker then does his 2 power moves and win's (*chant's* Same Old Shit!) it's just so fuckin' unbelievable it's insulting to watch that bull shit.

Merch wise it wouldn't be the best decision, but it shouldn't be about how much merch you sell, it should be about the show, who gives a shit if Cena dont sell as many fuckin' t shirt's. Heres a comprimise, dont turn him, just dont make him out to be some unstoppable He-Man, give him a clean loss every now and then and tone down on the kid friendly stuff- it's embarrassing.

And they should be catering to the 'IWC', there ARE still buying the PPVs, the Ticket's to the show's, the DVDs, etc, it's only the minority that dont, a few thousand downloading the PPV is nothing to the million's that do buy it (and if they do put on a show that is WORTH buying then many of those pirater's will buy), were the long term fan's that has been watching year's through thick and thin, when the show's have been piss poor, in the wake of the scandal's and death's, were still watching, and will be when many of these kid's that are cheering Cena have moved on and grown out of wrestling.

But the merchandise is what brings in the money, WWE is a business and it won't just throw away a big money maker. There are obviously a lot of people who still like watching John Cena, otherwise WWE would have changed something.

Obviously merch make's them money, but it cant be near as much as ticket's, DVDs, PPV buy's etc, afterall that is the SHOW, the product, without that there would be no merch.

And again, I restate what I just said, there are people who watch Cena, the kid's, who wont be watching in 5 year time, that was my point, Vince shot the heel turn down for being 'foolishly short sighted' (when I see it as being a freshening of existing produce) but he dont see the long term outcome, what happen's when the kid's start to grow up and tune out, leaving those fan's who he neglected for this kid friendly Superman ideal being the only viewer's? It will ruin Cena as well when the kid's get sick of him (and it will happen, kid's are fickel) and move toward's a new craze, before tuning out all together.

Think of it like this, the 80's was a big time for WWF and their kid friendly approach with Hulkamania etc, when that died out there was the slump in the early to mid 90's, what saved it? The product 'growing up', and what do people think of Hgan these day's, think Cena will be remembered any different.

They should be equally interested in keeping these long term fan's aswell as gaining new one's, but the main part of the product (the main event) is so much orientated toward's kid's it's embarrassing.

I'd like to see Cena FU someone through a table and for him to be banned from using it, it would be a good way to get him a new finisher, I really think he would suit the Jackhammer, its not technically difficult, I think he could pull it off and he is a strong guy, I'd have faith in him getting the big guys up their

The thing is though they might be trying to emulate Hogan's path exactly because it is strangely similar so far.

They made Hogan such a face that eventually people just began to boo him but his heel turn basically added about a decade onto his career. I reckon it would be hard for the likes of Cena (and Hogan proved this) to alternate between heel and face every year or so.

I have seen this period of John Cena as the 2nd coming of Hulkamania, however the crowd simply haven't put up with it anywhere near as long as they did with Hogan, I doubt big time that if Hogan had still been in the WWF that Vince would have turned him heel, because, as the owner and the boss, he sees $$$$ signs before entertainment value, Bischoff didn't, because he wasn't the one worrying about the merch side of things, he was free to make decisions like Hogan turning heel, it worked a treat, but I doubt it would ever have happened in the World Wrestling Federation

There wouldn't have been any money in him if evryone booed him.

Wrestlings always in a cycle anyway, about a year or two from now they'll have to start making it a bit more blood n guts again and turning your babyface into a cunt is a great way to do it.

Bret Hart started the attitude era doing exactly that.

Yeah I think it would be hard to keep him switching, but he dont need to, there has to be some middle ground, to make him watchable (imo) just make him look realistic...

...take the occasional clean loss...

...have the occaisonal fued that has NOTHING to do with a title (and that dont include a 2 week program with a random guy inhilalating him for the 2 move's he does for the win)...

...cut down on the kid friendly promo's (still promo, just keep it on topic (without using the dreaded P word))...

...he wouldn't even lose much merch sales (Rey sell's probably just as much and he's not been in the main event scene for a while, take's the occaisonal clean loss and look's half beleivable Superman-ing it(because he can actualy pull off some decent offense)), that is the middle ground for me.

But on the Hogan comparison, Hogan was basically doing nothing (interesting) leading up to his turn, and hadn't done for many year's, there was a big slump in his career, he even wanted to quit before going to WCW, even the kid's were losing interest, and that is what I see happening to Cena if they either hold out for a heel turn or dont make him a more beleivable character. And if they do hold on for a Hogan style turn they would have to rely on other's around him (like Hogan did with Hall and Nash) to make it interesting, because Hall and Nash largely made NWO so watchable, a solo Hogan turn wouldn't have worked the same at that time in his career.

Edit: like Disco siad, it's a cycle, and like they did in the early 90's, kid's are going to lose interest and it's going to be on us (the long term fan's) that keep's the show rating's going strong again.

I've always been of the opinion that Austin started the Attitude era in 96 by being a cunt to everyone!

Also, on about Hogan, their would have always been money in him, mainly because he always appealed to kids, he got booed out of the arena at the 92 Rumble yet a year and a bIt later he was still the babyface doing the same old same old routine and winning against the big bad foreigner to keep the title American, Vince would have just kept recycling this until his career died a death, WCW had the forsight to do something about it and embrace the feeling of the crowd, I can see Vince making the same mistakes with Cena, only someone else within will be allowed to call that shot that turns Cena heel (Shane, Steph or HHH)

You cant say that one person made the Attitude Era. There was certainly a main guy leading (Austin, of course), but it was guys like The Hart Foundation, DX (both before and after WrestleMania 14), Rock, Mankind, Undertaker, Kane, Sable, and of course Vince etc that not only helped start it, they helped maintain the levels over the years, with only slight changes to the main event level.

Its only when about 85% of the Attitude Era stars had left, coupled with the deaths of WCW and ECW, that the Attitude Era died.


I dont see Cena turning heel for years yet, he is a money machine for Vince, and it will be when Stephanie takes over, and the older wrestlers have left, that I see Cena making the heel turn. This will be because the main event scene will be much fresher, with more stars able to main event, and I think it will be much easier to change a wrestlers role.

Currently, it will be Triple H or Baptista on the Raw roster that makes a heel turn, if anybody.

Quote :

You cant say that one person made the Attitude Era

I don't think anyone has said that, however in my opinion one man started the attitude era through his unrivaled character, which was none other than Steve Austin, soon to be joined with that same direction, Brian Pillman, then it evolved, with the formation of the Nation of Domination, then the change of character to Bret Hart, along with Shawn Michaels, the promos from Paul Bearer with regards to the in coming Kane to The Undertaker, then the reformation of The Hart Foundation, the formation of De-Generation X, the transformation of Rocky Miavia!

See, no one is suggesting one person made it, simply one character ignited the fire!

Which shouldn't have required me to explain that to you as it was blindingly obvious!

I don't think a cena turn was discussed more so someone suggested it and vince completly dismissed it.