John Cena 2006-2007

[corpen11]

I've seen his entrance at WM 22.
It had the feeling of Cena trying way to hard to be cool and tough and he looked like an uteer fool.

I didn't watch Raw during this time, why did everyone hate Cena during this time?

[CMWaters]

Feb 27, 2011 13:00:04 GMT -5 corpen11 said:

I've seen his entrance at WM 22.
It had the feeling of Cena trying way to hard to be cool and tough and he looked like an uteer fool.

I didn't watch Raw during this time, why did everyone hate Cena during this time?

My theory is it was residual of his first two feuds for the WWE Championship after being drafted to Raw.

First was Chris Jericho, who was a face at the time then had to turn heel to feud with Cena (sorta like Flair when Hogan came to WCW).

Then there was Kurt Angle, who despite being a heel was a respected wrestler with more years under the belt than Cena and, though I don't think Cena is completely horrible in the ring, Angle tended to have better matches.

From there, it just somehow turned into booing Cena more than cheering him.

[Cronant]

People didn't like him going over Jericho and Angle, even though it made complete sense, because they didn't think he could 'wrestle'.

Of course, HHH did the 'cool heel' thing and flat out said he couldn't wrestle. Cena made him tap, and then proceeded to have an awesome match just about every single PPV for the majority of his career but people still bought in to that 'he can't wrestle' crap.

[Fade]

It happened the night he debuted on RAW.

Even at WrestleMania 21, he got some boo's and this was at the peak of his "Thug Rapper" gimmick. The crowd just turned against him. And aligned with Jericho, or Christian, Or Angle, or whoever they tried pitting against Cena.

I think it's cause Cena was now in a position of being the top dog, and the "rebellious" attitude didn't work. Which is kind of the story of his career up from then. He's at his best when he's chasing, not at the top. And people let it be heard how much they hated it. At that time anyway.

[CMWaters]

Also, the only time that it made SENSE for Cena to be booed during that time, in my eyes was at One Night Stand 06.

And that night he played his part to perfection.

[cool guy]

Feb 27, 2011 13:03:37 GMT -5 Cronant said:

Cena made him tap, and then proceeded to have an awesome match just about every single PPV for the majority of his career but people still bought in to that 'he can't wrestle' crap.

Gotta back this up, Cena has good matches with just about anyone, and great matches with anyone talented.

However, he was fairly boring after he first dropped the Thuganomics gimmick, I have to say. Though that was when I first started watching wrestling, so maybe my memory of it isn't what it should be.

[crimsonwolf]

There was several factors that caused people to start turning against Cena during that time period. For starters, he transitioned from "Dr. Thuganomics" to The Marine. Essentially he became a John Cena who no longer rapped but at the same time wasn't at the "Poopy jokes" phase. Add that to the fact that he was feuding with people like Jericho and Angle, he just came off as uninteresting. To make matters worst, they kept hammering in the whole "OMG, CENA DEFIED THE ODDS!" People got sick of seeing Cena win all of the time.

[Cronant]

Not to mention that the Jericho feud was Jericho's first singles World title feud in 3 years, since he lost the undisputed belt. Other the multi-man Elimination Chamber matches, Jericho hadn't had that title feud in years.

So people were kinda getting behind him.

[Can you afford to pay me, Gah]

Wasn't it also that Cena title run was going on forever and fans where just sick of him as champion.

[Dr. Bolty, Disaster Enby]

Feb 27, 2011 13:21:58 GMT -5 Can you afford to pay me, Gah said:

Wasn't it also that Cena title run was going on forever and fans where just sick of him as champion.

The backlash started way before the title reign got long. It was the Angle feud that really pushed Cena's popularity and solidified his mixed reactions, and that was only his third title feud.

[Shameful_Lobsterhead]

All the wins, win after win after win. That's why I was a Cena "Hater" at that time

[Deleted]

Feb 27, 2011 13:07:50 GMT -5 cool guy said:

Feb 27, 2011 13:03:37 GMT -5 Cronant said:

Cena made him tap, and then proceeded to have an awesome match just about every single PPV for the majority of his career but people still bought in to that 'he can't wrestle' crap.

Gotta back this up, Cena has good matches with just about anyone, and great matches with anyone talented.

However, he was fairly boring after he first dropped the Thuganomics gimmick, I have to say. Though that was when I first started watching wrestling, so maybe my memory of it isn't what it should be.

Even though in this era, I couldn't really hate him because of the quality of the matches that he was putting on. To get two "decent" matches out of The Great Khali and to get a MOTYC against Umaga at the Royal Rumble was a feat that I thought could never happen. Was I bored of his schitck? Of course, but I couldn't harp on the guy.

Then ONS '06 happened, and made me a fan of him for good. He knew what he was going into, and he played it to a perfect T.

Sure, he does stuff now-a-days that makes me headpalm in disgust. But that's few and far between these days. And every day, there seems to be more and more people who are finally getting off the "We Hate Cena" bandwagon. Sure, you still have your "smarks" and the people who Cena has posed with at Wrestlemania for the past couple years, but whatever...

[kevservo]

Cena's a funny case. He CAN put on awesome matches when he's allowed to go beyond his usual 5 Moves of Doom, but his gimmick and constantly being shoved down our throats and his Whitest Black Preacher in the World act is why I boo him. But how can you genuinely hate the man? I won't say he busts his ass all the time, but he works hard night in and night out, he does lots of charity work, he's a great company man, a class act and as far as role models for your kids go, you can do a lot worse.

And face it, his Gillette commercials are great.

I've always had a love/hate relationship with the guy. He'd put on a great match or do something cool to make me like him and then turn around and do something to make me hate him again. That's why his promo on The Rock this past week was so good. It was a glimpse of the edge that he'd lost and we'd never see again.

And dammit, Friskey! Alison Haislip's magical swirling ass is distracting me!

[crimsonwolf]

Feb 27, 2011 13:25:19 GMT -5 Dr. Bolty, Disaster Enby said:

Feb 27, 2011 13:21:58 GMT -5 Can you afford to pay me, Gah said:

Wasn't it also that Cena title run was going on forever and fans where just sick of him as champion.

The backlash started way before the title reign got long. It was the Angle feud that really pushed Cena's popularity and solidified his mixed reactions, and that was only his third title feud.

I think it was around the time he was put in a submission match against Angle and Chris Masters, and pulled the "STFU" out of no where and won that caused a collective "BULL %#@&!"

To me, there's a right and wrong way to do a "Hero Conquering the odds storyline." I think a really good example was Benoit's feud against Heyman in leading up to Royal Rumble 2004. The Super Cena act eventually got old and the fans response showed it.

Fan response have finally lighten up now, because they've actually shown that people like Triple H, Orton, Batista were at Cena's level and he was no longer "invincible."

[FUNK_US/BRODUS]

Superman booking.

Angle has a match in which Daivari was the ref, and still lost.

[Cronant]

Oh yeah. They absolutely killed the guest ref stipualation during his first run.

Jericho, Carlito, Bischoff, Daivari and Foley all played Guest ref to one of Cena's matches during this time period.

Quite amazed how they kept going to that stipulation.

[strykerdarksilence]

Eh, I loved him then and I love him now.

[Snowman]

I think it is simply that they stripped his character of everything that made people want to cheer him in the first place

[kdawg]

I've always been a Cena fan. If I had to guess as to why many boo him, especially back in '06-'07 was that it was "cool" to boo him as a mark/smark. It was kind of like Hogan. As a kid most everyone loved him, then as you got older, it was "cool" to boo the good guy that all the younger fans love. He was/is the company's top face and his hustle, loyalty, respect and win under all circumstances was much like Hogan's defy the odds, prayers, vitamins act. I can see Cena as a modern day Hogan to the younger fans and the older fans that have already gone through the Hogan days, boo the heavily pushed baby face that is "shoved down their throats". These will also probably be the same fans that cheer for him when he eventually turns heel, as in the NWO were the cool bad guys to cheer.

[Dr. Bolty, Disaster Enby]

Feb 27, 2011 14:26:45 GMT -5 Cronant said:

Oh yeah. They absolutely killed the guest ref stipualation during his first run.

Jericho, Carlito, Bischoff, Daivari and Foley all played Guest ref to one of Cena's matches during this time period.

Quite amazed how they kept going to that stipulation.

The handicap match also started to get overkill during this period. WWE was so utterly obsessed with the idea that Cena was better than everyone else on the roster that they killed practically the whole Raw roster to make it happen.