How would you fix the Cena problem?

[Crayo]

Cena is easily the most controversial character in WWE. You have most of the marks who absolutely adore him, and the "smarks" (or most males in general) who absolutely despise him. The haters seem to be growing and the fans seem to be shrinking, so what do you do? The common IWC response to this tends to be "let's turn him heel", but that creates other problems:

• If everyone starts to enjoy Cena as a heel (which I think we would), he will probably get cheered. A heel who gets cheered constantly inevitably turns to a face, and then we are back to square one.
• One of the biggest problems now is super booking, but as a heel this wouldn't change. If he were to change to a heel, he would still be dominant, or wouldn't lose clean anyway.
• Cena does an awful lot of work away from WWE (be a star, anti-bullying campaign, top wish granter at make a wish), and for him to do that, he needs to be a likeable character. You can not have some badass heel granting wishes to a young child with a terminal disease.

Okay, no heel turn. A character change maybe? That is the option I would go down, as he is genuinely a very talented talker and a very talented wrestler. He doesn't NEED to have the superman approach. When you answer this, be detailed. Would you keep him at the top of the card for every PPV (or most)? Would he still get the big storylines?
Discuss.

 

[Snowman1]

It's not a quick fix, and MUCH easier to do on paper than if you're actually booking it.
The thing they can do is listen to the fans, and take the rational Cena haters' comments and work them around his character.

-Legitimately test his morals and put him in new situations. None of this 2012 crap. Seriously write a good redemption storyline or good storyline about him being "impure"
-Don't completely do away with SuperCena, but use it sparingly. We've become so accustomed to seeing Cena get beat to all hell or deal with 3-on-1 situations that we expect that Cena'll fight his way out of it (although it did make the Shield look awesome when they actually pulled it off)
-Learn from Koskey in 2011 in general, when Cena doesn't have the belt, there's no reason he can't feud with someone in the mid-card and use him in the mid-card.
-Don't have the rest of the roster treat him like the only guy who exists. Like Ryback screaming "YOU WEREN'T THERE FOR ME CENA!" or everyone running to Cena to save them from the Nexus.
-Actually give him good jokes/promo material. You don't HAVE to pander to the children, they'll like you anyway. Actually take guys like Ryback seriously.

There's a bunch of other ones but that's a start

 

[Farooq]

For me it's simple, just have him put over people. Not everybody, but maybe just one heel will do, or the Shield. Have one heel member of the shield break from the other two, and the other two members feud while one does with Cena. I say Ambrose, because right now Shield is the top heel team, anybody from there gets put over Cena, they will be the top heel then since they just went over Superman.

 

[seabs]

Is it wrong I don't see anything that needs fixing?

From a business standpoint he's going strong for some unknown reason (the haters fund that by paying to see him get beat / buying another guys merch because he's not Cena so many Punk fans love him for that reason) and from a storyline perspective he's the ultimate tool in establishing a top babyface due to his mixed reactions. Now from an entertainment standpoint I tend to find Troll Cena hilarious although I am bored of the superhero routine he's still delivering better matches than most of the roster and his segments are fun if nothing else for the mixed reaction. You can change that and try to get him to fit the mould but the haters will stay hate him and he loses his most interesting dynamic, who else splits opinion like he does?

 

[Swift]

I don't have a problem with Cena at all.
Cena sells, simple as that. If it's not broken, why fix it.

 

[Lockard 23]

I agree with Seabs somewhat. The "superface" thing I've talked about before, it's something that can't be helped much with top baby faces who remain at the top for a long period of time. When there's a handful of Raw episodes leading to a PPV EVERY month and you're the top star of the company who's gonna be winning the grand majority of their matches anyway, it's gonna feel like he's being shoved down people's throats but it's inevitable. If you look back through his eight year main event career, he's actually had his fair share of high profile losses.

I also said in a thread recently (that Brit made) that I don't care if he ever turns heel. I think he will one day, but because of his split reaction and the fact that one of the reasons fans resent him is because of his vanilla white meat baby face personality, turning him bad likely won't do anything since these same people who boo him now will just cheer him then. Turning him 'heel' would probably actually turn him into the ultimate baby face that WWE has always wanted him to be.

I think if anything, he could stop pondering to children and cut out the corny and childish insults (telling Vince he has dragon breath, etc.) and actually act like a grown up. He can still cut opponents down with some pretty brutal words or damn good promos when he wants to. While I don't agree completely, many thought he got the better of Rock in mic work a few times during their verbal battles.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

I don't mind him.

 

[Aids Johnson]

Easy. Cena, show, and all those douchers go to the midcard and never touch gold, which should be saved for better, younger talent.
Shift Ziggler to the WWE title, keep adr and swag around there for now until more young talent is built/give Bryan his run...and (ready for hate) give Ryder the job as face who puts big names over. Big E, TItus, and other monsters give reason to have world title, and keep people like CM punk in the IC scene. Drop the US title.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

lol I'm glad you don't run WWE

 

[Aids Johnson]

Because you're such a huge fan of the product in general.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

I watch every week don't I

 

[Crayo]

Not sure why people are talking about a business stand point. I understand Cena is good for business, but from an entertainment standpoint all I read weekly is everyone complaining about him. Even those who are suddenly seemingly okay with him.

Cena trolling the smarks is hilarious, but how often does that happen? 99% of the promos are ridiculously childish to the point of children not even laughing. That is one side that can definitely improve. The booking of super-men isn't wrong or what most people complain over, but his is vastly different. He tends to do it against hot heels who are doing wonders (Nexus, Shield) and on his own when teams have failed. Even just two weeks ago he was injured, on his own, and managed to get a DQ win over Shield. That is poor booking in my opinion. Even if this has to remain to portray him as the top guy, why not at least put them over in a promo a week later or something? He seems to do very little of that.

 

[Aids Johnson]

Not sure why people are talking about a business stand point. I understand Cena is good for business, but from an entertainment standpoint all I read weekly is everyone complaining about him. Even those who are suddenly seemingly okay with him.

Cena trolling the smarks is hilarious, but how often does that happen? 99% of the promos are ridiculously childish to the point of children not even laughing. That is one side that can definitely improve. The booking of super-men isn't wrong or what most people complain over, but his is vastly different. He tends to do it against hot heels who are doing wonders (Nexus, Shield) and on his own when teams have failed. Even just two weeks ago he was injured, on his own, and managed to get a DQ win over Shield. That is poor booking in my opinion. Even if this has to remain to portray him as the top guy, why not at least put them over in a promo a week later or something? He seems to do very little of that.

Said the forum's biggest sheamus mark.