Sorry to beat the dead horse but I REALLY don't get this Cena thing. So in London, they have him BEAT Barrett cleanly after taking and kicking out of Barrett's finisher. Kill the crowd early by beating their hometown favorite, but also Barrett is "# 1 contender to the IC Title". So by default Cena already beat D-Bry's top competition, a subtle nod that Cena is above Bryan. What's the end game? Does Rusev win in back? Or does Cena win and keep defeating mid carders until it's time to break Flair's record?
Cena keeps defeating midcarders until the night after Extreme Rules, when Finn Balor answers the challenge and footstomps him to win the title. And Barrett lost 18 times in a row leading up to Wrestlemania, no one cares at this point about his credibility anyway.
How does this guy not get it? It's not that hard to understand.
ReplyDeleteThis seems like bitching just to bitch. Emails like these need to come with names.
ReplyDeleteDoubt anyone in the arena thought Barrett was going to win anyway. He got to have a fun match with Cena, and it got the crowd in it early. I'm a fan of the whole gimmick.
ReplyDeleteBy Finn Balor, Scott obviously means Balor. Finn isn't a man's name, just like Antonio and Adrian.
ReplyDeleteThis whole angle will be judged by how it ends. If it happens how Scott says, then it's a great angle. If it ends with some bullshit non-job by Cena, then it's a shitty angle.
ReplyDeleteWhy not switch Neville and Barrett last night?
ReplyDeleteThe end game of the open challenge is pretty obvious in a good way.
ReplyDeleteNow, if we're wrong and Cena drops the title to Kane... that's the time to bitch
Well, it does look like we're getting that Kane face turn that EVERYONE has been clamoring for!
ReplyDeleteCalling him Neville is an awful wrestling name. That's strike one. Strike two is his mic skills are mediocre at best That's strike 2. And his height isnt up to vinces standards either. That's strike 3. The poor guy was dead out the gate. And he was one of my favorite guys on NXT. Oh and he wears a cape now for some reason.
ReplyDeleteBut that would just elicit hate bobby. We dont want that.
ReplyDeleteCena needs something to do while they keep him out of the world title picture.
ReplyDeleteThis guy must only read the results and not watch the show. They did a perfectly fine job with Barrett last night. He kicked out of an AA!
ReplyDeleteThis guy got tons of hate last time. But to play devil's advocate I do see where he's coming from. Instead of Cenawinslol against the main event card it's Cenawinslol against the midcard. Hopefully they dont transition this to cenawinslol over the NXT card which would be next if they keep this pattern.
ReplyDeleteWho doesn't?
ReplyDeleteOh right, Rusev...
Rusev's also beaten Cena and only lost due to Lana at Mania. /kayfabe
ReplyDeleteCan't be the man gravity forgot without a cape, because capes do not abide by the laws of nature.
ReplyDeleteI think thats the case with a lot of people here. 3 hours is just way too long. Hell, Vince Jordan did the same thing and he loved the product.
ReplyDeleteThe AA is slowly turning into a transition move if it hasnt already. And even then you need 2 or 3 or a "super" one off the top rope. Rusev should have kicked out of it at wm.
ReplyDelete"Cena keeps defeating midcarders until the night after Extreme Rules, when Finn Balor answers the challenge and footstomps him to win the title."
ReplyDeleteThat's...not a bad idea, at all. There's an equal chance that Rusev gets the title back at ER, though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy2YhxXn7NY
ReplyDeleteNo Capes scene from the incredibles
Then people will complain the finishers aren't effective anymore. Either way, people will complain.
ReplyDeleteStrike 4, he has funny ears.
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, I hope the guy finds a niche in Vince's grand scheme because he's super-talented (and English) and I'm a big fan of his.
Forgot about that even though the announcers wont let me. Another foul ball.
ReplyDeleteWhy not just build Neville the old-fashioned way?
ReplyDeleteThe one thing Byron Saxton ever did right on Raw was call Neville's opening match. I'd have him hitting Red Arrows on every low carder in sight right now.
HHH is an awful wrestling name.
ReplyDeleteThe Cena Open Challnge has been one of the highlights of RAW the last three weeks. They're actually giving Cena and his opponent time to work, and (suprise suprise) it has produced some of the best matches on the show.
ReplyDeleteIs the e-mailer proposing Barrett should have won clean and ended the Cena challenge after three weeks?
ReplyDeleteWade Barrett got to kick out of an AA. The same Barrett who has spent the last three years in a constant string of heatless, credibilityless, 50-50 feuds got to look competitive with the biggest star of the last ten years.
I don't understand what these fucking people want. Sometimes I understand why Vince and HHH seem to hate us.
I agree. However, if he beats Nevillie next week then the whole thing is fucked, for both of them. I'm REALLY afraid he's going to just end up the "plucky underdog who almost wins but falls just short", like every Evan Bourne match ever.
ReplyDelete"A subtle nod that Cena is above Bryan"? Yeah this is just bitching.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, let's do some role reversal. Let's pretend Bryan had challenged Rusev and Cena was in the IC match. I guarantee this person would bitch about Cena going over a bunch of midcarders for the the IC title, and the Bryan open challenge is the greatest thing ever.
Losing to Cena is hardly going to kill any mid card guy's credibility. You wouldn't have Hogan or Austin losing every week. I really like the open challenge thing and I hope they roll with it for a while. When someone eventually wins, it'll be a huge moment.
ReplyDeleteDoes this guy not understand that if Cena has competitive matches with midcarders, it elevates the status of the US title so when someone actually beats him, the title means something?
ReplyDeleteI want to know his identity! I bet it's that Adam Wright guy...
ReplyDeleteHow long have people been bitching that the US Title doesn't mean shit and they're tired of Cena being in the main event?
ReplyDeleteI think Wrights an anti-smark so probably not him.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing it's one of the random live thread guys you never see in other threads.
I think Cena is immortal and was AA'ing the dinosaurs back in the Jurassic era. So since then?
ReplyDeleteGasp! Maybe that's why the dinos are extinct!!!
I started watching again around NYR 07 and even then I went to sites that were tired of him!
ReplyDeleteIf you see an email bitching about Sting, it's definitely Adam Wright.
ReplyDeleteHe won his first world title in 2005 and by the summer, he was being booed against Kurt Angle because they had stripped him of his edgy rapper persona.
ReplyDeleteUnless e-mail is ten paragraphs long. In which case it's Worst.
ReplyDeleteReally? Do some people just want Cena to retire and be done with it? I don't know how someone can possibly find fault with Cena as US champ.
ReplyDeleteWhat's with this Cena guy?
ReplyDeleteWe only have about 15 minutes til the Daily Update is available and the worst madness starts!
ReplyDeleteRoman Reigns sucks
ReplyDeleteHey you're guaranteed a *** Raw match every week. What bullshit!
ReplyDeleteNot for nothing but Vince always like to bury guys in their hometown. Like others have said, people bitch when the US or IC champ loses so they should have no problem with this. I was surprised when cena kicked out of the bull hammer that looked like it legit connected.
ReplyDeleteI feel like he got better the last couple of weeks. Less outright need for decaf.
ReplyDeleteHe has a rare disease that means he acts and dresses like a 12 year old
ReplyDeleteThe booking annoys me. They've got a PPV match set for the title, so it's ridiculously obvious he's not going to lose an 'open challenge' match before then, which renders the entire concept utterly moot.
ReplyDeleteThis.
ReplyDeleteI like Daniel Bryan, just Jesus Fucking Christ, this shit needs to stop. It wasn't a subtle nod that Cena is above Bryan. Conspiracy theory smarks are really souring me on him just because they won't fucking stop crying.
Geez I'm starting to think I'm the only one into this US title deal. Cena against all the midcard guys while Rollins is champ is fine by me.
ReplyDeleteThat's what it seems like. I think some won't be happy unless Cena goes away completely or never wins another match.
ReplyDelete"A subtle nod that Cena is above Bryan"
ReplyDeleteSeriously, dude?
It's like some EWR booking. I mean think about it. Tyler Black as the World Champion. Bryan Danielson as the IC champ. Claudio Castagnoli as one half of the tag champs. John Cena as US champ.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I think people are just sick of guys that should be getting over with cool gimmicks being jobbed (Barrett and Sandow ). They just need to being on some non descript jobbers for guys like Cena to beat on raw.
ReplyDeleteHe's Robin Williams in Jack?
ReplyDeleteI agree, reveal yourself emailer!!
ReplyDeleteI don't get the hate for this. Cena is being kept away from the main event, the U.S. title is being elevated by actually being defended in competitive matches that seem important each week, the matches have been good, and talented guys who have been directionless are actually being treated as threats to Cena. The only problem at all that I have is that the Rusev rematch had been announced already, so it makes it hard to believe a title change is possible before the Extreme Rules match. Otherwise, I love what they are doing.
ReplyDeleteNext John Cena is relegated to main event (the show), jobs in 50 seconds to Fandango, and everyone complains because John Cena got a punch in.....seriously mid carders having competitive matches with John Cena does a lot more than the usual 50 50 booking between mid carders, and makes winning the title mean something when it eventually happens
ReplyDeleteBut the title can never come off of him because when those belts are not on Bryan/Cena, they will be booked back to square 1.
ReplyDeleteI think that is where the detractors are going with this
In all fairness, Barrett also kicked out of the AA and it was a highly competitive match that fired up the crowd.
ReplyDeleteAnd the announce team acknowledged this possibility, as did Barrett in his promo that he didn't want to wait for Extreme Rules to win a title. Little things like that are all it takes.
ReplyDeleteIt's like those secret Illuminati handshakes,no?
ReplyDeleteHe has to drop it to an up-and-coming babyface ... right? I don't see how it works with him dropping it to a heel.
ReplyDeleteEvan Bourne had a job and a pretty solid spot for a long time. If he'd stayed healthy and hadn't kept getting busted for weed, he probably would still have one.
ReplyDeleteI agree, but the main issue I had was that Barrett was in a title match he was never going to win when he's already in a feud for a different title. It a conflict of booking, if such a thing exists.
ReplyDeleteMakes you wonder who's booking him right now.I have a feeling it's not the same person booking Reigns vs Show for the 277th time.
ReplyDeleteThis wasn't a burial, though. The crowd was red-hot and Barrett even played to it as a babyface. It was more of a "the better man won" type of match in kayfabe.
ReplyDeleteThat's where most of the hate originally came from - its not that people didn't like Cena, the crowd absolutely liked him, but putting him over Jericho, Angle, AND Shawn in less than a year was definitely a case of too much, too soon.
ReplyDeleteIts kinda like what happened with Roman - the audience liked him and he seemed to have a lot of potential, but winning the Rumble and main-eventing WM so soon into his push soured a lot of fans.
honestly when it comes to Cena to some people he can do no right.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we can call three weeks of highlighted matches "dead out of the gate". Jimmy Wang Yang losing his 're-debut to Sylvain Grenier, or Scott Steiner too gassed to hit a suplex, THOSE are examples of being dead out of the gate. Plus, he has at least one friend/supporter in a VERY high place.
ReplyDeleteAnd what's wrong with the cape? I think his new great is great.
I think some people are concerned that Cena's just holding the U.S. title until the world title scene opens up again, at which point, he drops the U.S. title voluntarily and it gets put up in a battle royal or some shit.
ReplyDeleteWhile I don't see this happening, it is a very fair concern and it's not at all outside the realm of possibility.
Beyond that, like, oh no john cena is beating guys clean what about stardust noooooooo
To date, he's beaten (if my memory serves) Dean Ambrose, the man who jobs to exploding TVs and hologram lanterns, Stardust, a hissing facepainted housecat and Bad News Barrett, a man apparently afflicted with a congenital disability to maintain any sort of momentum for longer than 3 weeks.
It's not like he's taking dudes on the rise and squashing them flat.
jericho demanded cena go over him....
ReplyDeleteYeah, in reality, Cena is doing main event style matches with a bunch of different guys... just in the middle of the card. It would be cool if Balor winning was the endgame.
ReplyDeletePROMOTION WARS FOREVER!
ReplyDeleteIn 2002, when he debuted.
ReplyDeleteWhen Cena beat Cesaro in that awesome RAW match last year, it made Cesaro look like a million bucks. "Creative" are the ones who messed that up when they dropped the ball with Cesaro.
ReplyDeleteLosing to Cena isn't always a burial. It is possible to be elevated just by being able to hang with a main eventer in a quality match.
I don't see what the problem is. It makes sense kayfabe wise for the most dominant guy in the company for the last ten years to be able to beat a guy that's had maybe 2 wins all year. A loser like that beating Cena doesn't elevate Barrett it just devalues Cena and now we still have a crappy US title and Cena looks like a jackass on top of it.
ReplyDeleteAnd on top of that, they made those wins look like flukes, so not only was he being rocketed up, but it was in nowhere close to convincing fashion, so he just looked like some lucky guy who wasn't anywhere actually close to HBK, Angle, etc.
ReplyDeleteI thought I was okay with Cena defending the US title. But I wasn't.
ReplyDeleteI just can't stand Cena at all and don't want to see him ever. So I basically have to quit Raw, which is probably fine since Raw is back to normal levels post-WM.
Please dont take what I say completely literally. You're much too smart for that. You knew what I meant. He already had obstacles against him. As for the cape? Some like it others dont. Rock, austin, hogan, flair never wore one. The hurricane and the Blue Blazer did. But regardless I hope it gets over.
ReplyDeleteJorge is good strong name.
ReplyDeleteExactly. Every match he's had with the belt has been very good and he's wrestling guys he's never wrestled before instead of the Ortons, Kanes and Big Shows of the world that he's wrestled 100 times already.
ReplyDeleteAssuming that was the case, it was still a big, controversial decision to put him over the others as well.
ReplyDeleteOnly because Cena has the US title doesn't mean he is under Bryan or even Rollins. Cena is still the top guy over everyone else and it would be great if someone like Brock Lesnar or Triple H challenges him for the US title.
ReplyDeleteAnd good. I dont want the BOD to be all bubble gum and lollypops. That would be boring as hell.
ReplyDeleteTouche', fair enough.
ReplyDeleteI would argue, though, that a good Ric Flair-esque robe should look like a cape. Adds a certain something special, ya know?
Like with barrett? Yes I agree completely.
ReplyDeletePretty much how I feel but meh, I'll take what I can get and WWE does jack shit with their midcarders anyway.
ReplyDeleteWhere's my morning update, dammit???? DON'T MESS WITH MY MORNING ROUTINE!!!!
ReplyDeletesorry.
Well...there was no New Day on Raw. So there's that.
ReplyDeleteI just had my morning post-coffee poop and no daily news to read! My day's all thrown off now.
ReplyDeleteIf this email was trolling, it was masterful.
ReplyDeleteLet's wait until they get tired with this main eventers holding the midcard belts experiment, and likely return to status quo with their next champ before bitching. Or just say you're really tired of Cena, which is completely acceptable.
ReplyDeleteIt took me a long time to realize this myself, but wrestling's a lot more fun once you decide to enjoy or not enjoy a segment/match/show on its own merits rather than throwing a fit about "WELL WHAT NEXT?!!?11" every 10 minutes. No matter how well an angle or match is done, or how over a character is getting, we know it's statistically more likely that the creative team will screw it up somehow in the long-term than get it right.
ReplyDeleteCena beating midcarders probably isn't going to pull them up alongside him to his level, but they aren't being "buried" either by losing good, competitive matches to the biggest star of the last decade. And suspending disbelief that he'll actually lose the title- until someone like Finn steps up, and I agree, he really should be the guy to end it- is hard.
But unless you just don't want John Cena on your TV at all, I don't see how it's not enjoyable for what it is. It's something entirely different for Cena, he's having good matches in fresh matchups and he's freeing up the main event picture for at least the time being. Maybe Ambrose, Cody, Barrett, whoever else won't get a huge boost from it, maybe it'll end up being someone lame he drops it to, maybe the entire thing ends up doing nothing for anyone. Who cares? The entirety of wrestling history- much less the mediocrity of the modern-day creative staff- suggests that most long-term angles won't quite deliver on whatever initial promise we think they have. It's enjoyable now. I'll take it.
Maybe the problem is less Cena vs the midcard and more we get the same formula in every match? Kicking out of finishers, for example, should be reserved for special occasions; not the everyday Raw match. They should be able to build drama without relying on that device.
ReplyDeleteOk, I read your thoughts. Now what?
ReplyDeleteThe only thing is If you do that then you're invetibly going to get big show and Kane A bunch of other matches cena has had already.
ReplyDeleteJeez he did? I mustve missed reading that. I thought that move was about as protected as it gets.
ReplyDelete