If not John Cena, then who?

[Stopspot]

We all know Cena's career. The ten WWE championship reigns and two world title reigns and being the company's face to the outside and the rest. Cena has been Mr. WWE for about 8 years now and done a commendable job carrying the company on his back. Putting asses in seats, selling merch and ppvs and drawing ratings. He does everything the company should want from him and more. Which leads us to the discussion topic of this thread. If not Cena, then who? Who would have stepped up and carried the company for ten years and possibly more?

Cena debuted in 2002. In the same generation as Randy Orton and Batista, both big stars in their own rights but not as big as Mr. Hustle, Loyalty and Respect. Other guys who were active in his early days were Edge, Jeff Hardy, Kurt Angle, Bobby Lashley, Rob Van Dam and more. All talented guys but could they realistically have gotten the same results as John has produced?

Discuss and elaborate on this conundrum. Could anyone else of Cena's generation have generated the results he has?

 

[Farooq]

I think only Kurt Angle, and Edge could have carried the company. Edge because he was a hard worker and was over with the fans as a face, although then again giving the schedule Cena has, if he would have had the same schedule then maybe his neck would have given out quicker. Kurt Angle because the same reason, and he is charismatic, and even now he can still wrestle very good. I don't see anyone else honestly who could have done it this long like Cena.

 

[seabs]

Nope, none of the guys who were over enough were reliable enough either persoanally - Hardy and RVD, injury wise - Edge and Angle, the lighter TNA schedule preserved Kurt but both still missed a lot of time with injuries and general lack of charisma for Lashley.

 

[Lockard 23]

They would just have to push Batista as their #1 star, since he's right behind Cena as the biggest star since the Attitude Era anyway. He was just as popular as Cena when they both rose to prominence in 2005 and many saw him as the #1 star of the company that year even after being moved to Smackdown and Cena being moved to the flagship show, Raw. (The hottest feud of 2005 was Batista/Triple H.) It wasn't until Triple H put over Cena at WM22 that many people officially saw him as the top star of the company. Without Cena, this means trying to convince Batista to stay longer rather than leave in 2010, though.

Otherwise, it would have just been an era similar to the New Generation era where there wasn't one guy on top for any one lengthy period of time, but rather just different guys (Triple H, Edge, Jeff Hardy, Undertaker, Randy Orton, etc.) exchanging the title(s) and the top spot(s) repeatedly. Other than Cena's huge merch sales, I'm not convinced the rest of the product would really be much different. There's plenty of evidence of PPVs and the weekly shows drawing huge even when Cena isn't around.

 

[seabs]

Wasn't Batista around 35 when he got his big push though? I suppose that would have been a factor, probably resulting in further pushing of Orton actually.

 

[Lockard 23]

Yep. But that would only mean he'd be border lining on retirement as we speak. To be fair, Cena has been on top as it is for as long as Hulk Hogan was, only even more exposed because of more exposure on the weekly shows and monthly PPVs. His time on top as #1 face has to be waning as well.

 

[Leo C]

They would just have to push Batista as their #1 star, since he's right behind Cena as the biggest star since the Attitude Era anyway. He was just as popular as Cena when they both rose to prominence in 2005 and many saw him as the #1 star of the company that year even after being moved to Smackdown and Cena being moved to the flagship show, Raw. (The hottest feud of 2005 was Batista/Triple H.) It wasn't until Triple H put over Cena at WM22 that many people officially saw him as the top star of the company. Without Cena, this means trying to convince Batista to stay longer rather than leave in 2010, though.

Otherwise, it would have just been an era similar to the New Generation era where there wasn't one guy on top for any one lengthy period of time, but rather just different guys (Triple H, Edge, Jeff Hardy, Undertaker, Randy Orton, etc.) exchanging the title(s) and the top spot(s) repeatedly. Other than Cena's huge merch sales, I'm not convinced the rest of the product would really be much different. There's plenty of evidence of PPVs and the weekly shows drawing huge even when Cena isn't around.

Nice point, this second part pretty much, I don't think there'd be one top face but various guys up there.

 

[Jose Tortilla]

Bo Dallas

 

[Stopspot]

Bo Dallas

Bo Dallas debuted in 2002? Boy did I miss things.

 

[GeeTeaIye]

John Cena.


Wait...what?

 

[Dat Kid1]

Well in all honesty Cena was put in his position because Brock Lesnar left. Im willing to bet he would not be the face of the company if Brock was going to stay. However if I had to pick someone over Cena from that 2002 generation I would probably go with Booker T or Rob Van Dam. I still say Booker T never winning the WWE title was a big mistake on WWE's part.

 

[Lockard 23]

Cena absolutely would have been the top guy if Brock had stayed. Just as soon as he started getting huge crowd reactions and selling more merch than anyone, WWE would have realized that they had the future of their company on their hands. There were even people who had Cena pegged as a future top guy almost from the moment Cena debuted with the company. Paul Heyman was one of those people. He even wanted to bring Cena up from OVW earlier than he was, but was told by WWE officials that Cena wasn't ready. (This only further proves Heyman's brilliance, in being able to have an eye for talent like that and spot a future star before most others did.)