Poor Cena...

The thing is, he IS a good guy from what I can tell. I met him all the way back at WrestleMania 20 and he was extremely gracious and he stuck around to talk with everyone who wanted to speak with him, and that made me a supporter for many years. But eventually I just got so bored with seeing him on TV while seemingly everybody else was pushed aside. Not really his fault, but he's been booked so predictably that I really couldn't enjoy seeing him until he stepped out of the main event a year or so ago.

To me, the problems with Cena are quite obvious..

1, until recently, he was at best sub-par in the ring. The guy loves taking big bump on his rump rather than his back so very often. I hear this could just be a product of WWE micro management, but the guy didn't improve at all for 10 straight years.
Yes Michael Cole, I do think Cena has the strength to give Big Show an AA.

2, he's painfully stale and has no real stories or development left in him. If the Authority hates Bryan because he's small and weird looking, why do they also hate Cena? Cena's popularity and freshness now depends largely on who his opponent is at the time, hence why guys who are over are fed to him. Even when Big Johnny and Punk's feud was the most entertaining thing on TV, eventually they switched Punk with Cena to get some face reactions out of John.

3, he does whatever hes told and doesn't understand writing, planning, storytelling or the business itself. This is very evident the time he was on Stone Cold's podcast. He said "I don't understand booking" and copped out behind fans only reacting to him for why no one gets moved up. If it's that consistent, you're the problem.
Other guys like Austin, Rock, Punk, Bryan, HBK and Bret were all more engaging and entertaining because they were good at what they did and knew what they did, inside and out. All those guys at one point or another questioned Vince, critically thought and were involved. They put more of themselves into their personas, Cena does too. Hes just boring.

4, he's redundant. Too many of his 15 title Reigns were needless. Dropping the belt to guys only to gain it back a month later, or sometimes less.

5, he constantly wins. How can you get excited about a match when Cena's involved? Either he wins or you're worried about him winning the whole time. There are no stakes when Cena is involved and everything he touches or builds ends up anti-climactic. When he's winning fatal 4 ways, handicap matches, matches vs undefeated guys, or any other special match with the "cards stacked against him" he almost always wins. This point gets increasingly frustrated when you hear Vince through the commentator's mouths yelling how Cena overcame the odds when in fact, the result is actually more in line with the odds.


6, he almost can't be beaten clean and isn't a very good face. CM Punk as leader of The Nexus pointed this out well. Cena's a dick. He doesn't just beat people, he usually destroys them and their credibility. Look at him vs Rollins. He beat Rollins, got his title back. I understand him thwarting Rollins' attempt to flee from Sting, but to give him an AA on the floor? Overkill. When Kevin Owens beat him, he kayfabe took exception to Owens being proud. Went as far as to say that Owen's "wasn't a man". Cena behaved like a sore loser and got his revenge in the form of forever booked to beat Owens from hear on out apparently.

I realize he's been better lately, but to me its 11-12 years too late. He could end up being booked as a heel and I won't care simply because I'm tired of seeing his face.

I thought Cenas best work was as a goofy, mid card heel on SmackDown! I guess you could say my problem could be less about Cena, and more about the WWE's unwavering desire to have the entire company built around one single guy.

EDIT: To clarify, I wouldn't call myself a Cena " hater", he's not useless. I just think he can exist and be in the spotlight (and could have) for a long time without constantly having or challenging for the belt.

There's still a spot on the card for Cena, but it's not in the main event anymore. He's well past his days of spotlight even if he can still physically go. He's not at Kane-level where he should lose all the time, but he has to stop being constantly fed all the important wins and feuds as they seriously devalue the rest of the roster.

Definitely see a spot for him, crazy amount of injuries happening.

I always love IWC complaints of "he can't wrestle" which 7 times out of 10 come from dudes who can barely walk a set of stairs.

I don't HATE John Cena, the person... I occasionally DISLIKE John Cena, the character. Certain things his character does can stand to change; but it's probably not going to, so I'm not going to waste too much energy on it.

I enjoyed him as US Champ a lot more than most of the other stuff he'd done recently, couple that with how amazing and humble and kind the guy seems to be outside of the ring, and I'm a John Cena fan.