Superstar

by Matthew Moseley

Created on: November 30, 2008

John Cena is a superstar in every sense of the word. A lot of people make arguments as to why John Cena is a terrible wrestler, and I've heard every single argument known to mankind, ranging from how much his moveset sucks, how bad he is at selling injuries, how his storytelling is average, how he doesn't deserve to be a main-eventer, etc. Before I provide my arguments as to why I personally believe John Cena to be a 'superstar', I undertook a little bit of research which I thought would help me understand a little better just why people thought he was such a bad professional wrestler. Upon recieving the feedback, it dawned upon me that many fans don't actually understand the business of professional wrestling at all.

One thing a lot of fans don't seem to understand is that professional wrestling is a non-competitive sport, but more importantly an entertainment medium. It exists solely on the basis of entertainment value. If it's not entertaining, it's dead. You cannot countinue to stage wrestling shows if you don't have any money, because you can't afford it. The art of professional wrestling is being able to work matches that entertain a large fanbase and create revenue. Everyone who works in professional wrestling works for a promotion. The promotions main goal is making money. That is the chief goal of every wrestling company. Thus, the best wrestlers are the ones who achieve the main objective the best, who is currently John Cena.

John Cena has been the face of WWE for some years now. Cena's passion for the business is matched by very few. While he isn't working or training, he appears on various television and radio shows to promote the WWE and visits young, disabled children who's dream is to meet their idol and spends countless hours signing autographs. Nobody can dispute the fact that the man is a workhorse who dedicates his life to wrestling.

In professional wrestling, the world champion is commonly seen as the person who is the number one draw in the company, the person who can sell the most tickets, the person a large majority of fans pay to see. John Cena has the sixth longest world title reign in WWE history, lasting over one full year in length. This alone proves that the WWE had enough faith in him to carry the company as their top babyface for what seems in modern times an extraordinary long period of time. During this time, TV ratings had started to slowly increase, indicative that John Cena, the companies number one draw was bringing more fans to the product. Also in comparison to the previous year, pay-per-view buys with John Cena as the main attraction were higher than before while he wasn't a part of the RAW brand, obvious that people had more interest in seeing John Cena headline a PPV main-event over the previous year's champion.

John Cena is often criticized for his moveset. The most common complaints seeming to be the 'five moves of doom', that he isn't a technical wrestler and that his routine in the ring is always the same. I tend to think of people who use these weak arguments against John Cena as blind haters, people who can't give logical reasons for their hatred towards the man. Cena is no different to any other previous champion. Wrestlers such as Bret Hart, The Rock and Kurt Angle always used the same routine in his matches, and it was incredibly predictable as to what moves you'd see when he wrestled. The amount of moves used in a match are no valid criteria to judge the quality of a match. Professional wrestling encopasses many styles, not just one. The greatest, most well-known wrestler of all time Hulk Hogan wrestled the style of a brawler, yet it's a rare occasion that he's criticized for his in-ring routine. A very common complaint is the use of his move the 'Five Knuckle Shuffle', nothing more than a fist to the head. It's called psychology. A man the size and strenght of Cena dropping a fist down onto your face is going to hurt. It's believable.

John Cena's matches tell a story in the ring. People find themselves drawn into his matches, and care about how the match ends. Those who like him have an intense desire for him to win and are on the edge of their seat at the end of the match because they really believe this may be the time Cena loses. Those who dislike him have an intense desire for him to lose and are on the edge of their seat because they really believe this time will be when someone else wins. He knows how to make the crowd care about the story of a match, much like Hulk Hogan always used to be able to. He also has great heat throughout his matches. This is generally a sign of great storytelling, especially since John Cena doesn't use big spots to generate cheap pops. If Cena's matches, and Cena himself, really did suck, then interest in the match would die away at some point. But, the ending to the matches are generally hotter than the beginning. Usually, this is an example of Cena's ability to create a story in the ring.

An argument I've heard a lot is that Cena doesn't seem able to evoke a strong babyface reaction from the crowd. While in some instances this is true, I see it as yet another pointless argument, as I never say anybody criticize a face Shawn Michaels back in 1996, a time when his heel opponenets, notably Psycho Sid would outpop him. Yet another example would be future Hall of Famer the Rock. During his run in 2002, he was booed pretty heavily, most notably at both WrestleMania and Summerslam that year. All in all, I see it as yet another poor arguments as Cena currently makes the company more money than other person on the roster.

John Cena also seems to be great at making superstars look better coming out of a feud with him than they did going in it. Edge? He went into the feud as an upper mid-carder, and is now a full-time main-eventer thanks to his feud with Cena. Umaga? His feud and Royal Rumble match with Cena finally got people to appreciate Umaga as a great heel. Shawn Michaels? Shawn had spent the last three years in mediocre matches and feuds, yet put on a match of the year with Cena in 2007. The Great Khali? Cena got the best match of his career out of him at One Night Stand. So, John Cena must be doing something right. Especially when legends such as Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart and Chris Jericho have praised you and agree with your position in the company. Surely their opinion means something, right?

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