The Reality of Wrestling: Cena, Edge, and That Spinning Belt
By Phil Clark & J.D. Speich
At The Royal Rumble, John Cena regained the WWE Title in a result that many the week prior to the show thought would not happen, but we did. We hate to say we told you so, but Cena did walk out as champ and it seems that the Cena/HHH title match at Mania is going to happen. The match itself was nothing new for a Cena match and nothing really that special either. However, with most WWE booking decisions as of late, anything can happen; we don’t really know what they’re going to do until it’s done. Also, the loss of Edge as champ may open up the possibilities of Edge staying because of the ratings that he produced in his short title reign. Should he be let back despite being a transitional champion (god that quote is going to haunt him for a while) in his first reign? Should Cena be pushed as a face in his second title reign? I guess the real question is, does any of this really matter?
P.C. Says: Edge/Cena/HHH should be RAW’s Wrestlemania Main-Event
With Wrestlemania just over two months away, both brands have to prepare their match selections for the big show. Many, including us, have stated that Cena/HHH will be RAW’s Wrestlemania main-event. This puts Vince in a particularly tough spot because of the fans’ affiliations towards these two and towards Edge.
Since Edge won the belt, RAW’s ratings have gone up and have stayed at a level of consistency that they haven’t seen in a long time. Also, with a fresh face in the main-event scene, fans have a new reason to tune in every Monday night and watch what the “Rated R Superstar” is going to do. And look at what he’s done: a live sex show, a T.V. MOTYC against Flair featuring more than a few dangerous spots for the two of them, and a quick little tag match against Cena to try and sell the pay-per-view. In other words: entertaining television. This also has brought more than a few fans to Edge’s side and regained Cena his face heat with Edge being the obvious heel in the feud.
However, Cena and the belt equal heel heat. It seemed that the end of the JBL feud signaled the end of Cena’s face heat. The switch to RAW, the Jericho match at Summerslam, and the Angle feud further solidified that Cena’s lack of ability and growing stale act made him something that the fans simply don’t want as a champion. However, a challenger: absolutely. Thus, you keep the belt off Cena, and make him chase it (I think I went through this last week).
When HHH came back, he was greeted with face heat largely due to Ric Flair building up his return on RAW weeks prior and the fact that nobody in recent memory has returned from an injury as a heel. It can happen, but it requires some creativity. Even after turning on Flair, HHH still received face cheers that would grow week after week. My theory is that the Flair feud gave HHH the chance to be a total, 100% asskicker reminding the majority of fans why they used to cheer for HHH. The Big Show feud didn’t exactly generate massive waves of face heat for either man, but HHH getting the blowoff win with the sledgehammer in a somewhat dominating fashion created an increase in his face heat; take note: big guys selling helps create heat for people.
Now, combine Cena and HHH and what do you get? HHH as the face and Cena as the heel; at least that’s how the fans will react. One problem Vince has had in recent years is that during the Austin era, he stopped listening to the audience. Granted, he only started to because bankruptcy wasn’t too far away in mid-1996, but that has proven to be the downfall with the Cena title reign. The fans do dictate (for the most part) who becomes a star and what part they play in the wrestling business. Constantly trying to shove Cena down the fans throats as a face isn’t the way to go. In fact, it has backfired so far and against a guy like HHH who has been seen as nothing but an asskicker for the past couple of months, there’s no doubt as to where the crowd’s allegiance will be come April 2.
So where does Edge fit into all of this? Simple, he’s the new kid on the block trying to make his mark in the big spot. HHH is an identified main-eventer. A 9-month title reign solidified Cena’s position, and now Edge has made his mark. So, why not have the new guy try to hang with the big boys? It would definitely make for an interesting month or two of buildup. You would have all three kinds of wrestlers in one ring with Edge (the heel), HHH (the tweener getting face heat), and Cena (the face). And trust me, if Edge had the gold and HHH was chasing for it, there’s no doubt that Vince would get what he wants and Cena would be getting face cheers.
J.D. Says: Cena shouldn’t have gotten the belt back at the Royal Rumble and Edge should still be the champion
In a move that few thought was not going to happen, Cena regained his championship at the Royal Rumble thus making Edge a transitional champion. In, what has to be the worst Royal Rumble pay-per-view ever, WWE made a huge mistake on the top of the numerous ones they made that night. Cena getting back the belt was the wrong move for three reasons.
Number one: Edge does equal ratings. In the three short weeks that Edge was champion he brought to the table a new gimmick, a new champion that no one expected, and he brought with him ratings that Raw was desperate for. I really liked Edge as champion and was glad to see him win it, even if he won it in a cheap way. Edge is a good wrestler who does what is asked of him and at least when he became champion he got a new gimmick, which is probably why people liked it so much because it was so new. Let’s be honest, seeing Cena go through the same routine as champion for almost nine months was getting ridiculous. The Cena/Angle feud was evident of this because in this feud Cena was getting more boos and Angle was getting the face pops, thus leaving Vince no choice but to take the belt off of his poster boy. After Edge won the belt though Cena seemed to get his face pops back miraculously quickly, which leads me to my next point.
Number two: Cena became face again. After Cena lost the belt to a definitive heel he regained his role as a face because he took over the role as championship chaser. Vince should have left the belt on Edge for at least one more month so that Cena could keep his face chants back up to Wrestlemania where he will face HHH. Honestly, did Vince really think that putting the belt right back on Cena would make the fans forget about how much they hate seeing him as champion. As was evident on Raw, Cena getting the belt back so quick brought back his boos thus proving that Vince can’t help but do what he thinks is what the fans want, instead of actually taking out his earplugs so he can hear what the fans want. With the road to Wrestlemania approaching Vince is going to have no choice but to turn Cena heel and put HHH in the face role. This leads to my final point.
Number three: Wrestlemania is going to be screwed up because of this. Cena getting the belt back so soon totally screws up what Vince wanted for mania because, even though we’re still getting Cena vs HHH, we’re not getting the right person as face and the right person as heel. The way Vince should have booked this is that he should have had Edge retain his championship at the rumble in a “what ever it takes” type of finish. Thus leaving Cena feel cheated in his rematch. Edge retaining the championship would guarantee Raw ratings for weeks to come and would let Cena keep his face pops. After the rumble Cena would complain in a face type way and in the weeks leading up to Wrestlemania would get one last shot at Edge in a No Holds Barred match. Cena would come out on top here and since it’s been about two months since he was champion, as oppose to three weeks, he would remain face. The following week on Raw Edge would come out and state that he wants to put his rematch clause into action at Wrestlemania. Then, “TIME TO PLAY THE GAME” hits and HHH comes out saying that he’s been waiting in the back too long to regain what is rightfully his. He then goes on to say that he was the last Raw superstar left to finish in the rumble and should therefore get the title shot at Wrestlemania. From here you get a number one contender ship match between the two with HHH coming out on top using the sledgehammer. This is how we get our Raw Wrestlemania main event and Vince also gets what he wants, Cena as the face and HHH as the heel. There you have it, this is just my opinion, take it as you want it, but come on, you have to agree that this is how things should have went down.
The Reality is…Vince has never been a man to look to other sources for help. Despite having guys with wrestling knowledge on creative for many years, Vince has always had the final call. While that may seem very redundant, it hasn’t always ended up giving us the best choices, especially when it comes to Wrestlemania. In 1990 Hogan/Zeus very nearly main-evented Wrestlemania VI, in 91 Vince had the gaul to try and fill the L.A. Coliseum, in 97 he opted to put Austin/Bret in the mid-card rather than the top slot. And while none of those shows (maybe XIII) lost Vince any money, this year might. As the card stands right now, Mania is going to be very shitty whatever way you look at it. Workrate fans like myself aren’t going to be turned on by whatever Hogan match there’s going to be or Taker/Henry, and fans period likely won’t be buying unless they are given more of a reason to. In other words, Vince may have to do something drastic and that means that people more in tune with the current-day product may be needed to give Vince a much, much bigger hand with the biggest show of the year. Heed this message Vinnie Mac, and run with it.
