Cena the humanitarian

Scott,


So now that Cena’s dropped the US title to Del Rio and the Great US Title Experiment is probably over now (unless he pulls a Cena and returns to beat ADR for the title upon his return) can we stop trying to give him credit for the past six months of almost exclusively going over the whole midcard and several future stars in the process? The only difference between what Cena’s done and Hogan going over WCW en masse or HHH squashing everyone in sight during his golden years is that the matches were better.

But can you point to anybody actually being in a better position now than they were before facing Cena in the open challenge? Stardust? Cesaro? Neville? Ziggler? Zayn? (Can’t blame the injury on him but could you really see him in a great role on the main roster by now thanks to the Cena match?) You can arguably say Owens MAYBE, he had huge potential at one point (after *gasp* winning) but thanks to the usual 30:1 ratio of how many wins Cena needed to get back on him for it, KO is safely wedged into the midcard and treated to fueds with Ryback. And considering he was tearing it up as the face of NXT before the benefits from the open challenge still don’t look very good for Kevin (IC title or not).

And one more thought. For all the talk of how great it was for Cena to build up the US title, does anyone buy it still being the most important title now that Alberto Del Rio is holding it?

Thanks,

Mike

​I will say that the problem is not all Cena, it’s mostly the writing team and all the stuff surrounding him. The US Open was a good gimmick for someone you’re phasing into the midcard, but they wanted it both ways with him. They were trying to phase him down but still keep him strong as a top guy, and not to mention that the World title was booked so weakly that the US title became a more meaningful belt in a lot of ways. I find it hard to blame Cena directly for a lot of that. Also, having the initial title reign end on PPV by having him job to the World champion was another boneheaded move, since you’re robbing the TV audience of the payoff and you’re also wasting the big rub on someone who is theoretically already above him. ​

The whole deal was fundamentally messed up, I guess. But as noted, we got a lot of good matches out of it, so there’s that.