Did Cena pull a Hogan tonight?

[saintpat]

I read from one of the dirtsheets that WWE was expecting a really low rating tonight due to a strong Monday Night Football matchup (Chicago second-biggest city in the U.S. vs. Dallas Cowboys, who always draw among the largest TV audiences) -- possibly the lowest-rated non-holiday Raw in 15 years.

So Cena, injured, is a no-show.

I remember reading about how Hulk Hogan would manage to get himself off of a lot of TV dates when low ratings were expected, and to take breaks during the periods of lowest ratings during the year -- so that when he returned, shazam, ratings went back up and he got some of the credit for the rise out of the doldroms.

Did Cena do this tonight?

Or did he just read the script and wisely decline?

[Cronant]

He wasn't supposed to be there anyway. Thats why Ryback is going what he's doing.

[Deleted]

Since he's injured, I don't see him being on every show.

[Jeremy]

Recovering from injury and likely getting a MUCH DESERVED day off

But knowing Cena he probably did Make a Wish visits and stuff.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Has there ever been any evidence, at all, that Cena does stuff like this? Because I really doubt he does. Cena is not in charge of his own booking.

[Turd Ferguson]

I doubt it's at this point anymore. They're big on ratings, yes, but haven't put as big an emphasis on it for ten years.

[StuntGranny®]

I can't stand him, but I seriously doubt he did it intentionally. Then again, if he did, I wouldn't be all that surprised.

[Deleted]

No, but people will probably post comments all over the internet when the rating comes in low about how CM Punk/Ziggler/A.J/Kane/Bryan cant draw

[PTBartman]

I wish I cared enough about this thread to go back and quote everytime somebody posted That Cena is working himself to death and needs to take time off. Just sayin'...

[saintpat]

Showing up to do a promo wouldn't exactly work him to death. He did it the week before.

There was that little snafu a couple of weeks ago where WWE put out a release that said he'd be back in 2 weeks (which, I think, would have been this show) and he quickly responded to tell the world he was going to be out for 6 weeks. Maybe he put his foot down.

[Savage Gambino]

Wait, wasn't it announced Cena wouldn't be appearing on RAW before the "low rating RAW" expectations came out?

[corndog]

If Cena did not show up because of poor ratings(which I highly doubt), WWE management would be very ignorant to believe the drop was solely due to him being absent. Also Hogan did this in WCW, where he was allowed to and WCW was dumb enough to believe it was the sole reason for a ratings decline.

[CH Punk]

Oct 2, 2012 12:52:41 GMT -5 corndog said:

If Cena did not show up because of poor ratings(which I highly doubt), WWE management would be very ignorant to believe the drop was solely due to him being absent. Also Hogan did this in WCW, where he was allowed to and WCW was dumb enough to believe it was the sole reason for a ratings decline.

I believe that the lowest rating of 2012 was the week John Cena wasn't on Raw at all (excluding him narrating a tribute to the armed forces).

["Cane Dewey" Johnson]