Why Wrestling Fans Boo John Cena

The question that a lot of wrestling fans ask is why do wrestling fans boo John Cena? In this blog post, I aim to outline exactly why fans dislike, despise, and ultimately boo John Cena.

John Cena is literally the "face" of the WWE. He is the biggest star of the current generation of professional wrestling, and one of the biggest baby faces of all-time. He has a chiseled physique, movie star good looks, loads of charisma, and has beaten the biggest stars in the sport. He is also an 11 time World Champion, 3 time United States Champion, 4 time Tag Team Champion, and the 2008 Royal Rumble Winner. He has made as much or more merchandise sales than Hulk Hogan and Stone Cold Steve Austin. His Rap Album debuted at number 15 on the Billboard 200. He has starred in several feature films including The Marine, 12 Rounds, and Legendary. He is the the current face of the WWE, inheriting that torch from predecessors such as The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, and Hulk Hogan who came before him. So, why does arguably the biggest baby face of all-time walk into any arena in the country and get booed by half the fans? Why did fans boo him during his feud with Triple H and cheer for Triple H who was the villain? Why do fans chant "You Suck", "You Can't Wrestle" to John Cena but no one else. It's a question that WWE Executives have never really understood. This response has NEVER happened to any other "face of the company". So why hate John Cena? Here's a list of 10 reasons why.


1) Lack of Moves - People chant "You Can't Wrestle" to John Cena because he has only a handful of moves. Fishermen's Suplex, Five Knuckle Shuffle, Attitude Adjustment, STF, Top Rope Leg Drop are his only real maneuvers. Unless you count a basic clothesline, running shoulder block, or just punching someone... he really has 2 or 3 moves besides his 3 finishers.

2) Lackluster Finishing Moves - The Attitude Adjustment is nothing more than hoisting a guy on your shoulders and just dumping him off. It's not a believable finishing move in the modern era. The Five Knuckle Shuffle is nothing more than a falling punch with a taunt. Then the STF, Cena's submission move is just a poor man's Crippler Crossface.

3) Inability to Sell - His inability to sell moves and get as far as he has in the business astounds me. He never really even looks like he is in pain, he just squeezes his eyes shut... but looks like he is totally faking it. When you're a wrestler, you are supposed to sell beat downs. Cena shows no emotion when he gets beat down. He looks more like he's just tired and squeezing his eyes shut instead of a guy that is supposed to be writhing in pain from a devastating move he just received. Watch a Rock, Hogan, or Shawn Michaels match... and watch how they writhe in pain and sell injuries and movies. Then watch a John Cena match... and how he just squeezes his eyes shut and just looks sort of tired. It's just horrible acting on his part.

4) Ripped Off Character - What ticks fans off about Cena is that his entire persona is just a rip off/hybrid of two old school wrestlers, The Rock and Hulk Hogan and here's how. His take a beating the whole match, and then "magically come back" with 2-3 moves and win is a copy-and-paste of the old Hulkster Match formula. Hulk Hogan would come out and take a beating most of the match, and then "Hulk Up" (magically come back) and hit 2 or 3 moves and win the match. That worked in the '80s because wrestlers didn't have many moves back then, and matches would go 20-30 minutes so fans enjoyed that because it was different. Also, during the Cold War era it was inspiring to see an American beat down only to persevere and come back. Now, it's played out and predictable. It's stale and boring. Even Chavo Guerrero referred to it as "another BS Lazy Comeback".

Then, John Cena's Five Knuckle Shuffle to Attitude Adjustment sequence is a carbon copy of The Rock's People's Elbow to Rock Bottom sequence. So, it just seems like a cheap rehash.

John Cena's catch phrase "You Want Some, Come Get Some" is ripped off of Rick Steiner's "You Want Some, Come Get Some... You Don't Like Me, Bite Me" catch phrase. Also, "You Want Some, Come Get Some" also is essentially the same as saying The Rock's "Just Bring It" catch phrase. In other words, the running theme is that John Cena's persona from Mid 2005-Present is super lazy... and just feels like the WWE cherry picked a couple of things from the Rock and Hulk Hogan that worked  in the past and copy-and-pasted them onto John Cena. In other words, John Cena's persona was milked right out of the unoriginal "Corporate Machine".

5) WWE Forces Him Down Our Throats- From April 2005 to the present (July 2011), John Cena has headlined a staggering 60 PPV Events! (And you could argue a couple more if you include some of the matches that he didn't fight for a title, but had the most hyped about match). People are tired of seeing him fight for the World Title. It's so over done, stale, boring, repetitive, and frustrating. Who wants to order a WWE PPV when the same guy fights for the belt every month? He actually probably would've headlined more had he not had a couple of injuries over the years. It's like listening to a great song every day for 6 years. You start to hate that song. (PPV Results Information gathered from prowrestling.about.com)

6) Promos Are Mind Numbingly Repetitive - He's reached a point now where all his promos sound the same.  It's usually the same "WWE is my life... I defend this belt night in and night out... and you want some, come get some". It usually doesn't vary much from that.

7) John Cena Has to Make Everything About John Cena - He will come out and get involved in things that don't even concern him. After CM Punk got suspended, John Cena came out the next week to "call out" Vince McMahon. He told Vince "What if I speak my mind are you going to suspend me too?" and told Vince if that's how Vince is doing things he wants no part and tried to walk out. Umm.... first, why do you even care? The situation had NOTHING to do with you. How did CM Punk getting suspended end with John Cena calling out Vince McMahon and nearly walking out? Shouldn't CM Punk have called out Vince and walked out? He's as bad as Hogan about taking the spot light from situations that have nothing to do with him.

8) Why do Women and Children Cheer John Cena? Women cheer for John Cena because he has movie star good looks, and a chiseled physique. They cheer for him because he is "hot". Children cheer for him because he is a cut and dry good guy who fights for what is right, and dresses colorful. Kids respond to that.

9) Why Do Men Hate John Cena? Other than all the reasons I have already given, men hate John Cena because he's the star quarterback from your high school who had everything handed to him. He's that guy from your job or your school that does absolutely nothing and gets all the girls because of his movie star good looks. He's that guy from your job that gets the employee of the month award every single month, even though you're better at your job than he is. He's that lazy jock from your school who never had to try to do his school work because his teachers just gave him an A because he's the star of the football team or everyone lets him copy off their work, while you bust your butt studying and get a C. He's that guy from your job that gets all the promotions and accolades even though his work ethic sucks, while you bust your butt and your boss couldn't give a crap less about you. That's what men see when they look at John Cena.

10) "Super Cena" - The Internet Wrestling Community has a term for John Cena. They call him "SuperCena" because he wins 99.9% of the time, and is rarely ever even challenged. Who wants to watch a guy that gets beat down and just comes back and wins every single flipping match? Hit the snooze and let me know when his matches are over because I already know who will win.

11) John Cena Sold Out - What happened to the take no prisoners, battle rapping John Cena? Everyone loved the Doctor of Thug-a-nomics.... but as soon as he became WWE Champion at Wrestlemania 21... he changed. He became a shell of his former self. He quit wearing his hat backwards, quit wearing jerseys, and became the corporate monkey. He turned his hat forward, ditched the jerseys, stopped rapping, and started giving boring cookie cutter promos, and delivering the same lazy BS comeback match every night. He totally sold out when he became the face of the company. Gone is the edgy, gutsy John Cena... and all we're left with is this boring Rock/Hogan hybrid.