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Post by ChitownKnight on Jun 27, 2019 14:58:08 GMT -5
Didn’t start watching until 2 years later, but damn it makes me feel old that Cena debuted that long ago. He’s not around much anymore and He was not that well liked during a lot of his years on top, but rapper Cena always has a place in my heart and he is def a better top guy than the people we have around today
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Post by GuyOfOwnage on Jun 27, 2019 15:01:00 GMT -5
People make such a big deal out of this debut, obviously, because of who he became, but man, people forget how close bland, vanilla, tights-wearing Cena got to getting the boot in the ensuing months. I kid you not, I went to an SD house show about 2 weeks before the career-altering Vanilla Ice segment, and he was in a nothing tag match with Shannon Moore in maybe the second match of the night. That guy was so close to getting canned, it's not even funny.
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Post by Hit Girl on Jun 27, 2019 15:05:38 GMT -5
Never had a problem with Cena, only the way he's been booked.
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Post by ChitownKnight on Jun 27, 2019 15:11:00 GMT -5
People make such a big deal out of this debut, obviously, because of who he became, but man, people forget how close bland, vanilla, tights-wearing Cena got to getting the boot in the ensuing months. I kid you not, I went to an SD house show about 2 weeks before the career-altering Vanilla Ice segment, and he was in a nothing tag match with Shannon Moore in maybe the second match of the night. That guy was so close to getting canned, it's not even funny. He had a pretty big initial push, then he cooled off for a bit jobbing to guys like Reverend Devon cleanly. I don’t think he was about to get canned at that specific moment though. I’m sure if the vanilla ice thing never happened he would of been another Luther Reigns/Orlando Jordan and lasted atleast another year |
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Dub H
Crow T. Robot
Captain Pixel: the Game Master
I ❤ Aniki
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Member is Online
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Post by Dub H on Jun 27, 2019 15:37:42 GMT -5
Was it the debut against Angle or his re-debut?
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Post by Muskrat on Jun 27, 2019 16:07:10 GMT -5
F***ing Cena. I lost a bet because I said Randy Orton was gonna be a huge star, and generic shorts Cena was destined for the midcard. Thanks for f***ing that one up for me John
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Post by Instant Classic on Jun 27, 2019 16:12:33 GMT -5
My favorite superstar of all time. I idolized him growing up. I was even Cena for Halloween in 2004. Keep in mind I’m only 24 lol.
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Pushed to the Moon
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Tony Schiavone in Disguise
Working myself into a shoot
Posts: 15,819 
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Post by Pushed to the Moon on Jun 27, 2019 16:16:01 GMT -5
Liked his rapper schtick. DESPISED him after for the most part besides some of those US open challenges. Glad he's gone.
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Timeless Hayterade
Dennis Stamp
Rhea's the Tribal Chief now. ACKNOWLEDGE MAMI!
Posts: 4,667
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Post by Timeless Hayterade on Jun 27, 2019 16:25:25 GMT -5
My favorite superstar of all time. I idolized him growing up. I was even Cena for Halloween in 2004. Keep in mind I’m only 24 lol. Nothing wrong with that. I dressed up as my all-time favorite twice. 1998 as Lord of Darkness Undertaker. 2002 as Big Evil Undertaker. Anyway, it's been a roller coaster. I went from being meh toward him upon debut to enjoying his rapping character to becoming annoyed and downright hated that he was super Cena to just being indifferent to him as super Cena. I will say that every time he showed up as the Doctor of Thuganomics, I marked the f*** out. |
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Post by chronocross on Jun 27, 2019 16:28:13 GMT -5
I remember he had a decent showing in the beginning, he got some cred taking Angle to the limit, earning the respect of Taker who was a heel at time, feuding and beating Jericho at Vengeance a month later.
He was in limbo for a while after Jericho went to Raw in the summer of 2002, he was in tags mostly and losing singles matches to guys like Reverend D-Von before getting the rapper gimmick after the Halloween edition of Smackdown which gave birth to the Basic Thuganomics gimmick which he ran with for a while and got over big time.
I just hated when he went to Raw in 05 and it felt like he was being pushed down our throats every week, thought he should've lost a bit more here and there but thought he did well for himself and I think will be a Hall of Famer someday.
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Eunös ✈
Dalek
Duck Feet Expert
Tolerated, just not practically liked.
Posts: 59,181
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Post by Eunös ✈ on Jun 27, 2019 16:29:29 GMT -5
Always hear about how close Cena was to being released around this time.
Makes you wonder how different things would be now had he been so.
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Post by Clash, Never a Meter Maid on Jun 27, 2019 18:05:20 GMT -5
One of my ten favorite wrestlers ever. I’ve seen only a handful of wrestlers who could have entertaining and often epic matches with such a wide variety of styles in their opponents, and he eventually became one of them.
People like Flair, Randy Savage, Manami Toyota, Misawa, Bryan, Styles, Austin, Mutoh, HBK, Tanahashi, Okada and yes, Cena are IMO all in that elite tier of in-ring storytellers. He uses a very “big cartoon superhero” style of match, but he’s versatile enough to make it work so often.
The Make-A-Wish stuff and him being naturally charismatic doesn’t hurt either.
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Post by Confused Mark Wahlberg on Jun 27, 2019 18:07:55 GMT -5
After seeing Seth put his foot in his mouth, I have a new appreciation for 'ol Cener.
I didn't like Cena the character, but Cena the company man knew exactly what to say and when to say it, not to mention what he did for the Make-A-Wish kids.
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Post by GuyOfOwnage on Jun 27, 2019 20:53:20 GMT -5
People make such a big deal out of this debut, obviously, because of who he became, but man, people forget how close bland, vanilla, tights-wearing Cena got to getting the boot in the ensuing months. I kid you not, I went to an SD house show about 2 weeks before the career-altering Vanilla Ice segment, and he was in a nothing tag match with Shannon Moore in maybe the second match of the night. That guy was so close to getting canned, it's not even funny. He had a pretty big initial push, then he cooled off for a bit jobbing to guys like Reverend Devon cleanly. I don’t think he was about to get canned at that specific moment though. I’m sure if the vanilla ice thing never happened he would of been another Luther Reigns/Orlando Jordan and lasted atleast another year Cena himself actually said he was close to getting released before the Vanilla Ice segment. |
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Post by A Platypus Rave on Jun 27, 2019 22:54:07 GMT -5
He had a pretty big initial push, then he cooled off for a bit jobbing to guys like Reverend Devon cleanly. I don’t think he was about to get canned at that specific moment though. I’m sure if the vanilla ice thing never happened he would of been another Luther Reigns/Orlando Jordan and lasted atleast another year Cena himself actually said he was close to getting released before the Vanilla Ice segment. It was reported that Vince apparently hated him. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 27, 2019 23:48:50 GMT -5
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Post by OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 on Jun 28, 2019 0:24:58 GMT -5
Nexus should’ve gone over, other than that I have no problems with the guy.
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Post by Casey Jones (AKA MrThrowback) on Jun 28, 2019 0:40:51 GMT -5
One of my ten favorite wrestlers ever. I’ve seen only a handful of wrestlers who could have entertaining and often epic matches with such a wide variety of styles in their opponents, and he eventually became one of them. People like Flair, Randy Savage, Manami Toyota, Misawa, Bryan, Styles, Austin, Mutoh, HBK, Tanahashi, Okada and yes, Cena are IMO all in that elite tier of in-ring storytellers. He uses a very “big cartoon superhero” style of match, but he’s versatile enough to make it work so often. The Make-A-Wish stuff and him being naturally charismatic doesn’t hurt either. This post  |
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Nr1Humanoid
Hank Scorpio
Is the #3 humanoid at best.
Posts: 5,471
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Post by Nr1Humanoid on Jun 28, 2019 3:33:32 GMT -5
Yikes. Those pants did Cena no favors. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2019 4:06:50 GMT -5
I didn’t get to start watching Smackdown until 2004 and I was barely able to watch Raw at the time, so my only experiences with early Cena were in the WWE and Apter magazines. I never saw him in action until a friend recorded Judgment Day 2003 and gave it to me to borrow (let’s be honest.... I was 12 at the time.... it was to see the Bikini Contest), but what I saw of him instantly made me a fan. I was big time into rap and hip-hop culture at the time with the throwbacks and chains and whatnot, so he was basically my favorite guy to come around in a long time. Really fell out on him when he started feuding with JBL, and he was my most hated wrestler from 2005 until probably 2008.
I hated that dude. I went through multiple anti-Cena usernames over on the CAWS forums back in the day. But I remember the exact match when I turned around on him again was Cena vs Batista at SummerSlam 08. He did the job for Batista and for whatever reason that made it click for me what a workhorse he was. Now there’s basically nobody in the business that I respect more than Big Match John. I don’t ever really root for him in the ring, but as a human, he’s one of the greats.
03-04 Cena is probably in the top five all-time favorite eras of a single wrestler for me.
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