This past Monday on Raw SuperShow, John Cena finalized my citizenship papers to the CeNation. All I needed was that one last signature, that one last check in the box, and his possibly historic promo loaded my pen with ink. Team Bring It is officially in my rearview mirror until the two sides clash at WrestleMania 28.
It was only about a six minute spiel, but in that time, Cena not only showed an unrivaled passion for this business, but he actually made himself look unstoppable.
He seems unstoppable, you see, because this promo was different. For many of Cena’s previous feuds, he would often say, “I respect my opponent, yada yada yada,” a fact that he actually acknowledged during the speech. This time, though, Cena made it crystal clear that he does not respect his WrestleMania opponent, The Rock. While possibly in character, this made Cena look incredibly convincing, and for a couple of reasons.
One reason that statement resonated with me is because, well, a pissed off John Cena is a force to be reckoned with—we’ve seen that. For months, Cena was an immovable force in his feud with Kane, showing just how powerful and resilient he can be. Now in no way am I implying that Cena will destroy The People’s Champion in two minutes at the Grandest Stage of Them All, in fact it will surely be a back and forth bout. But I will guarantee you that it will be nearly impossible for The Brahma Bull to keep down the face of the WWE.
The second reason is simple: Cena has been putting his all into the WWE (ask his neck and pectoral) for years, nonstop, while The Rock has been “on a movie set, sipping a Mai Tai, laughing at his stunt double.” This business is John Cena’s livelihood, but it might not be that way for The Rock. Do you think John Cena will let someone he doesn’t respect come into his way of life for a month out of the year and embarrass him at the premier event in all of professional wrestling? I don’t think so.
Kane may not have succeeded in forcing John Cena to embrace the hate of the fans, but he may have caused one thing: John Cena has embraced his hate for Dwayne Johnson. Cena hates The Rock because he can see though the catchphrases and the hash tags. He believes that he is spitting in the face of wrestling fans, spitting in the face of the wrestling business, and simply abusing the business that is in his blood.
Cena summed it up perfectly with one phrase: “I’m here, I’ve been here, I’ll always be here. You’re gonna have to kill me to beat me.” That statement won me (along with surely many others) over completely. Come Miami, come April 1st, and come the two superstars’ surely iconic, historic, monumental collision, John Cena will not be stopped.
This coming Monday, The Rock will show up to confront his WrestleMania opponent, and may very well grab some fans back to Team Bring It. The man has undeniable charisma and can use words as possibly his biggest weapon. But as for me and many other fans, our mind has already been made up.
“The headline reads, ‘John Cena defeats The Rock in the Biggest Match in History!’…”
I’m right with ya buddy. And when he cut The Rock’s 20 minute boring promo short to come out and just own him in 30 seconds and then left… man.