Dammit, Cena, You Haven't Lost a Damn Thing

Rock giving Cena the what for... a what-for he deserved Photo Credit: WWE.com

John Cena and The Rock decided that at least for one night, dick jokes, gay-baiting, and sing-song delivery wasn't going to be in the cards for their WrestleMania main event. They actually were going to go at it like actual, serious wrestlers who wanted to be good at their jobs rather than dudes who would rather have seen how loud a pop they could have gotten by saying the most creative euphemism for their genitals. The back and forth was great, and in theory, the content was on point too. Rock's final zinger, quoting Lance Armstrong only to burn Cena was the kind of evolution I personally wanted to see from the man since he came back to WWE in 2011. But there was one problem, a rather huge problem at that.

John Cena's motivation is bullshit. Absolute, high-test, Grade A, grass-fed bullshit.

To rewind, Cena claimed that because he failed to beat Rock at Mania last year, he felt nagging guilt over letting the WWE Universe down. Because of that, he claimed that he "lost everything." Everything. He was down in the dumps. He acted as if he was lapped by the field, reduced to opening match fodder with Zack Ryder and pre-Fandango Johnny Curtis. His year only turned around when he courageously won the Royal Rumble against ALL ODDS. Now, he's got a chance to get his career back.

For those who were in comas for a long amount of time and just woke up before RAW last night, that is an entire crock of shit. About the only thing that was different in Cena's career was that he never held the WWE Championship. That was about it. He still main evented every pay-per-view in which he was involved from Extreme Rules through TLC. He rid WWE of John Laurinaitis, clowned the Big Show, was able to trump CM Punk at every turn by reminding him that he'd never "had a moment yet," won the Slammy for Wrestler of the Year, and in the grand trump card, defeated Brock Lesnar in a match three weeks after his "devastating" setback to Rocky.

So basically, 2012 was just another year in the life of John Cena except for the fact that he didn't hold the title at all during that calendar year. I'd say it was even more of a banner year for the man. He couldn't have the WWE Championship, so the company created a new title for him, one that could only be attained by him, barring a Skrull invasion or an unfortunate case of identity theft - being John Cena. This has been covered ad infinitium throughout the entire year. It's been the theme of critical commentary about WWE. Hell, it's been part of the goddamn storytelling.

It's almost like the disconnect between "John Cena needs to overcome the odds!" and the actual reality of Cena being in control, only mutated and inflated. Either WWE wants so hard to believe that he's the underdog, or that Cena's delusional enough to call these audibles in promos, either to coalesce a crowd reaction or engender a louder response to the "Cena sucks!" crowd. If it's the latter, then it's brilliant, but I doubt that's the entirety of the situation.

Since I'm convinced that part of this motivation is earnest, then I don't know if other people buy this load of bullshit. I know that I don't, and it's taking away, for me at least, part of the quality of last night's point/counterpoint. If the goal was to rally more support around The Rock and make Cena's eventual and assumed moment in the sun all the more anticlimactic, then bravo, well done, for once, I feel like I'm in Rocky's camp. But since I doubt that's the case, I question why WWE, John Cena, or both decided to move into that direction of character motive.