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Have ratings and buyrates gone backwards because John Cena has never had an equal ??

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dave 1981
I was reading through a column on another wrestling site late last night after watching the Arsenal/Barcelona game at a bar with my brother and some friends and this column made some very interesting points in regards to The Rock returning and the potential match up with John Cena born from the promo that The Rock cut on Raw. What we now have potentially is the most popular wrestler from 2000 through to 2004 against the most popular wrestler from 2005 through to present day which is a HUGE match up and a HUGE draw.

One major thing stood out for me from this column and that was the question asked about whether the fact that John Cena has never really had a true alternative to himself as main man or a true rival and for that reason ratings and PPV buyrates have gone backwards, i always had high hopes of Randy Orton being able to fill that gap but that is now something that will never happen. Back in their era The Rock had Stone Cold Steve Austin and also Triple H and between them they dominated their era and produced HUGE ratings whether it was Austin/Rock, Austin/HHH or Rock/HHH but John Cena has never had anyone like that who can really draw ratings like he could and he has been desperate for someone like that which now may have come along in the shape of The Rock.

Outside of his original feud with Triple H and to an extent his feud with Edge we have never once seen John Cena have someone who was believable in being his equal and the person who would be his long term multi year rival which would boost ratings like The Rock always had in his generation. We have seen so many people come in to a feud with John Cena and as good as some were they were never going to be any more than the latest feud for John Cena rather than someone who would be able to go on and off with John Cena like Triple H and Stone Cold Steve Austin did with The Rock.

Now though The Rock has come in and now we are seeing someone who is not only the equal of John Cena but someone who is actually bigger and now we are seeing potentially the biggest drawing feud and match if it were to happen since Rock/Hogan in 2002 and this isn't just down to the return of The Rock but also because of John Cena as well. John Cena has pretty much carried the company on his own since WrestleMania 22 and has been the go to guy without any equal or alternative, WWE were refunding tickets not so long ago on event's that John Cena wasn't appearing at which just goes to show exactly how big he is and just how important he is to WWE.

If and i say IF we were to see John Cena and The Rock begin a feud at WrestleMania 27 which would then go on to culiminate at WrestleMania 28 a year later it would do without question the best ratings for around a decade and would do the biggest buyrate at whatever PPV they were on for around the same time because both men are major draw's which is something that hasn't happenend since Austin/Rock at WrestleMania 19 or Rock/Hogan a year before. What we usually see is for one major draw and someone who is a great heel with John Cena working with heel's like CM Punk, Wade Barrett, Edge and Chris Jericho to name a few who whilst great heel's are never and have never been major draw's.

All that has to be seen is the buzz around the wrestling world and the internet in WWE potentially producing a feud between John Cena and The Rock to see what can happen when two major draw's get a chance to work with each other, everytime Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock ever worked together the world went crazy as they did when The Rock worked with Hulk Hogan. Now that John Cena has someone around like The Rock everyone's attitude has changed and they are genuinely excited by what may come next, whilst watching John Cena in there with people like CM Punk, Wade Barrett, Chris Jericho and all of the great heel's he has feuded with over the last few years has been great we have never seen John Cena in there with a superstar like The Rock which may be a reason why ratings and buyrates have gone backwards as no one has ever been built up to be John Cena's equal.
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Nexus One

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Re: Have ratings and buyrates gone backwards because John Cena has never had an equal

It's about being predictable. Everyone knows Cena is gonna win in the end. That's all I gotta say on something like this. And threadstarter is off base with the whole "Cena has carried things on his own"..no he hasn't...Jericho was the meat of what's been going on since 2008 in general. Eddie and Rey were definitely getting ratings and carrying Smackdown..that's why Eddie had bigger reactions at Royal Rumble 05 and WM 21 than Cena. Cena doesn't impact buyrates. He doesn't raise people's games. So it's off tangent and wild assertion to claim one who makes things worse actually is making things better. Cena wins alot. He's pushed as the best that they've got and fans have turned away from the product and resented that for over 5 years now.

Of course that is a very good point but then wasn't Hulk Hogan a level above The Rock back in 2002 but they had simply built it up as "wrestling past against wrestling future" and they were seen as being on the same level so it could easily be done. As i said in a previous thread in my opinion i believe that John Cena is more important to his era than The Rock was to his because The Rock's era would still have had Stone Cold Steve Austin as the standout star but also had The Undertaker, Triple H, Mick Foley, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho and Kane around as well whereas this current era would have really struggled without John Cena as the main man and biggest draw.
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Hulk Hogan wasn't above the Rock. The Rock is why fans got behind Hogan like they did...the Rock was the icon and biggest star of the era and JUST because he's who he is, Hogan got a ridiculous amount of affection in heel loving Toronto..they still marked out like little girls when he did the finish of course but that's just another city exposing themselves. That match with the Rock, after Hogan was MIA since the Russo disaster, put him back on the map while the Rock went on to make millions of dollars and dropped #1 movies on a yearly basis at that point.
 
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