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John Cena.

     The mere mentioning of his name is going to cause a reaction. And that reaction is always a mixed one.  In arena’s around the World there are almost always as many boo’s as there are cheers.  So why don’t the powers that be, finally let Cena go all the way and turn Heel? 

Cena the good guy. 

Early in his WWE career, Cena used the rapper gimmick.  He was being used as a Heel at the time,  but that quickly faded away, as his freestyle raps to cut up his opponents were a big hit.    This was about the only time I can think of, when John was totally over with the crowd.  Then in 2005 he won his first World Championship from JBL at Wrestlemania 21.  It is about this time that the fans first started to turn on him.  Over time, Cena’s character morphed into a bit of a military style patriot, and eventually to what we see today.  Yet he just can’t shake that mixed crowd reaction.  The announcers say that he is a “controversial” Champion, but clearly there is nothing controversial about him.  Cena has a squeaky clean image, that attracts lots of young viewers, and sells tons of merchandise.  He also does charity work, and is one of, if not THE most requested star for the Make A Wish Foundation.  And it is for these reasons that he has not made the turn that so many people are hoping for.  Why would WWE risk losing all those potential dollars, just to please the half of the fans that don’t seem to like him.  Many have stated that just about every star in the business has done turns as both a Heel and a Face.  But even Hulk Hogan waited until much later in his career, and that was over in WCW. 

Cena the Heel.

     So what exactly would happen if he actually was allowed to become a bad guy?  It would be very easy for Cena to turn on the crowd and get the people that once cheered him, to boo him out of the building.  And with his skills on the Mic, he could quickly become a very charismatic Heel.  But you have to ask yourself this question.  What would be the benefit?  When Hogan did his famous turn, his career as “The Hulkster” was already tired and boring, and it had been for years.  Hulk needed to reinvent himself, thus making himself relevant and marketable again.  I think its safe to say that the NWO led by “Hollywood Hogan” was a huge success.  But what about John Cena?  Should he turn Heel, how would that help him at this stage in his career?  And more importantly, how would it make more money for WWE?  I think the answer to those two questions is,  it won’t! 

Conclusion.

     It is just my opinion, but I really don’t see the point in Cena being anything other than what he is right now.  The main problem that I seem to hear, revolves around booking.  Cena being used again and again as “Super Cena” the hero that defies the odds and wins again and again.  What would be helpful, would be for him to not be Champion for a while, and perhaps have a feud with somebody that can help elevate his status.  Bret Hart did this for Steve Austin, turning an anti hero, into the biggest star in the company (next to The Rock)  It would also be good to see Cena lose a match, cleanly, to a villian.  But again, these are just thoughts and opinions.  But for now, I don’t see anything changing in the way that Cena is being used any time soon, so love him or hate him, he is here for a long time, just the way he is.

By Bruce Shearon

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 This is IonKyle, Slamzilla was kind enough to let me guest post for today.  Hope you enjoy:

With the recent announcement of a 3-disc DVD set for Chris Jericho (and might I add, IT’S ABOUT TIME!), it got me to thinking of some other DVD sets that I feel are also in need of being made.  So here in no particular order are my top 5 wrestling DVDs not yet released:

The Starrcade Anthology

From 1983 until 2000 Starrcade was THE flagship event for the NWA and later WCW.  The Starrcade Anthology would bring us biggest names and some of the greatest matches in one collection, just as was done with the Wrestlemania and Royal Rumble Anthologies.  With the 80′s, we’d see matches with  Ric Flair and the 4 Horsemen, Dusty Rhodes and the Road Warriors to later events in the 90s  with Sting, the nWo, Harlem Heat and the Steiners.  We can watch the evolution of wrestlers such as Sting, Steve Austin, Chris Jericho and Rey Mysterio before they attained their superstar status.  With the release of previous anthologies, The Starrcade Anthology DVD set would be a great choice to join its historic PPV brethren.

The Best of Stampede Wrestling

The previous Hart DVDs have shown bits and pieces of arguably Canada’s greatest wrestling territory, now its time to explore it further. The training grounds for many legendary wrestlers, Stu Hart’s Stampede showcased some of the best young talent that would later become household names in the WWF/E and elsewhere.  Canadian televisions were treated to the unique play-by-play of Ed Whalen and some of the most unique characters in wrestling.  Some notable alumni include Jake Roberts, Brian Pillman, Junkyard Dog and The Dynamite Kid.
Also featured were Hart Family members Bret Hart, Jim Niedhart, Davey Boy Smith and the late great Owen Hart.  Which leads me to my next DVD set:

Owen Hart

In the mid 80s, the WWE (Then WWF) liked to feature large musclemen and giants, but Owen Hart shined bright in spite of his smaller size.  With his hybrid style of technical mat wrestling and high flying maneuvers, Owen was a breathe of fresh air and inspired many of toadys “smaller” wrestlers to pursue a career in pro-wrestling.  Matches from Stampede wrestling, japan and WWE along with a documentary would make an awesome DVD set.  Unfortunately , potential  legal issues between the WWE and Owen’s widow, a DVD set may never see the light of day.
 

Wargames

A DVD set I(and many others I imagine) have been waiting for ever since WWE acquired the WCW library.
For those who are not familiar, Wargames was a match used in the NWA and WCW which consisted of two wrestling rings side by side with a steel cage surrounding them.  Two teams consisting of 4 or 5 men on each side.   The match would start with a member of each team inside the cage for 5 minutes.  Then team members would enter the cage alternating every 2 minutes with one team (decided by a coin toss) getting a man advantage for that 2 minute time period.  The match could NOT end until all team members were inside the cage, after which it was “Surrender or Submit”. No pinfalls…no DQ, the match ended only when a team member gave up.
These matches had some of the biggest names in wrestling such as the 4 Horsemen, The Road warriors, Sting and Dusty Rhodes all fighting some of the most intense matches of their time.  Wargames inspired the current Elimination chamber match, and with WWE continuing to bring their “themed” Pay Per Views, don’t be too surprised if the Wargames match makes its WWE debut sometime in the future.
 

Sting

One of the biggest stars to never (yet) step foot in a WWE ring,  a DVD set may be a while off as Sting is still active with TNA, but one day hopefully, The Icon and the WWE can sit down a create a proper set to showcase Sting’s career.  With his amazing athleticism, freaky strength and undeniable charisma, Sting became the foundation and face of WCW for over a decade.  With Ric Flair as the hated villain, Sting became the main hero with his legions of “little Stingers”.  Sting then evolved to the more recent Crow like incarnation. Even though he traded his flashy face paint and blonde flat top haircut for long dark hair and a trench-coat, Sting never lost his popularity with the fans. Which is even more amazing considering he was hanging around the  rafters of arenas and not speaking for nearly a year.  Sting would then lead the charge of against the invading nWo.  Sting had incredible matches with many of wrestling’s best including  Ric Flair, the Horsemen, Lex Luger, The Great Muta, the Road Warriors and the Steiners to name a few.  If and when this set comes out, it will definitely be worth the wait.

There’s my list, some are more likely to be released than others but I hope they’re all eventually made.  Any you’d like to be made?  Make your suggestion in the comments section.

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So, the word going around right now is that starting March 1st, Impact will start airing on Monday Nights again.  One will be live, then the next night they will tape an episode for the next week.  Meaning that every other week will be live.  Either way, the move to Mondays looks to be a permanent one, thus starting an all new Monday Night War.  As exciting as this sounds, and as much as I loved the original battle between WWE and WCW, I don’t think this is a good idea.  At least not yet anyway.  As we have seen in just a few short weeks with Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff running the show, things can get mighty strange.  TNA right now is in a transition phase.  They are adding new talent, and trying to streamline their product.  I really think that this is way too soon to be going head to head with the WWE.  Looking back on the original Monday Night War, you have to remember that WCW was in a much different position.   They had been around for quite some time, had many established stars who were big names, and were selling out arena’s.  Of course It wasn’t until the whole NWO thing, that the company really starting taking it to WWE.  But the point is, they were in the right position to do it.   I do remember a time when WCW also used to tape out of Universal Studio’s in Orlando.  They wouldn’t have tried competing with the WWE head to head back then.  And this is very close to where I think TNA is at right now.  They are close to breaking out, and perhaps in time they would be ready for this battle, but not right now.  Now I know that the three hour special did great ratings, but is that the kind of thing they can keep up week after week?  The other part of this, and It’s something that bothered me about the first Monday Night battles too, is why compete at all?  Yes It was exciting, but at the same time It hurt both companies.  WWE by their own admission, almost went under, and eventually WCW did !  So really, I would be perfectly happy to see TNA keep getting better, and growing, and staying on Thursday nights un-opposed.  But for now, Its a matter of playing wait and see.  Hogan and Bischoff have until March to fine tune their strategy, and then we will all get to see the new Wars begin.  Should be interesting.

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Last night I got a chance to watch The Rise And Fall Of WCW, and I would have to say for the most part I enjoyed it.I had heard some discouraging reviews, so I was somewhat prepared for a rather dry and uninteresting story.  Granted, if you weren’t around for the Jim Crockett Promotions days when Wrestling still consisted of minor territories, then I can see how the early part of this story would be boring.  I grew up watching Wrestlers come and go from different areas, and learned about many of the names that would become big stars later through magazines.  So to me, this part of the story was actually more interesting on a personal level.  Of course the second half of the story we know all too well.  Once the NWA became WCW and started to grow, and rival the WWE.  Pretty much the rest of THAT story was covered on the “Monday Night Wars” DVD.  This did add a few new insights and interviews, but there were others that were recycled directly from the MNW’s DVD.  As such, this is a good companion piece to go along with it.  But the real reason for owning this disc is for the matches.  It states that these are 20 of the greatest matches, and that itself is debateable.  But there are some very good ones that are worth seeing, and keeping.  In all I would recomend this DVD to anyone who as a fan of the old WCW and even the NWA.  It wouldn’t be for everybody, but it brought back a lot of good memories for me.

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