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Chicago, Illinois, April 2nd 2006. More than 17,000 people cram into the Rosemont Allstate arena and at the accumulation of a stacked card they settle down to watch the courageous, fighting champion of the people John Cena take on the villainous HHH for the "most prestigious prize in the game" the WWE title! It is not my place as a writer to tell you all about the situation surrounding the PPV that led to a somewhat bizarre change in allegiance of those 17,000 fans, everyone knows. What I do intend to do is provoke criticism from the endless "too cool to dig Cena" crowd and maybe even rile up some form of mutual opinion from one or two people who have realised that "the champ" ain't so bad after all. The real point of this article though is to prove that for all the booing, all the bashing and all the signs popping up at events that John Cena is going to come out of this stronger than ever!

Ok so I have no intention of creating a completely biased, one-sided article, three paragraphs long that doesn't really accomplish anything. So let's start off by taking a look into the reason why Cena is so disliked. We all know that the move from the pre-recorded, heavily edited SmackDown brand, to more exposing live RAW brand. The cracks started to show, as Cena appeared undeserving over the men he had queue jumped past for the gold he wore around his waist. Weak punches, a limited move set and a stale character meant that fans suddenly began to realise maybe the Doctor of Thuganomics wasn't all he was cracked up to be. Couple that with overlooked opponents with, as it was widely believed, more charisma and/or wrestling ability than our man like Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho and...well if you've read enough OWW articles you know the score, people booed Cena.

What ensued was brutal, Cena bashing grew and grew, the boos which sprang up in late 2005 (I noticed them for the first time at the pre Survivor Series RAW taping I attended in Sheffield, UK) and continued to snowball right up until our aforementioned feud with the newly proclaimed "King of Kings".

So that's the background out of the way, the history has been established, so now my beloved reader, your humble writer is going to shock you by saying that the events of the past 6 months have been the best thing that could ever have happened to John Cena!

Look at it this way, what happened to Cena happened for a reason. I am in no way trying to establish that he was undeserving of the criticism he has undergone nor am I trying to say he has solved all his downfalls. What I am saying is that one thing that was achieved by the fans turning on Cena was in that it gave him one enormous kick up the proverbial arse!

Had the fans continued to obey the classic laws of cheering the face and booing the heel then the chances are that Cena would have continued down the same boring road hitting the same boring moves, cutting the same boring promos. By now he would have forced the writing team to pull him back down into mid card anonymity where at least his shortcomings would not be exposed at the top of every card he wrestled on. Hypothetical weak face Cena would be nowhere near the level of superstardom he is now.

Thing is, whilst your "smart to the world" wrestling fans were booing him out of buildings, women and children were eating up the gimmick, and buying up every bit of merchandise the WWE could pull out of their creative machine. But In my sheltered opinion it is not the weak at the knees affect our stud had on the ladies that kept him at the top of the business, it's the fact that despite his problems, he works so God damn hard.

As little as I'm sure many people want to admit it, John Cena merited the WWE title her wears around his waist. Ok, so there may be more deserving out there, wrestlers with classically accepted better skills in the ring and on the microphone, but I will be damned if anyone can conclusively prove that John Cena has not spent his entire reign as champion working his little Nike socks off to make up for his downfalls. He is an embodiment of the work rate that needs to be put in by the figurehead of a company, which needs to be shown by the champion. How many other champions in recent years have done as much" 5 questions with the champ, the public appearances, the fan club, the CD, all examples of how John Cena lives his character 24 hours a day.

The irony of it all is though, the reason he tries so hard, is to prove wrong the people that try to bury him each and every week. The promos are better, the move list is bigger and coupled with the good fortune of having a lot of support from head office and a very willing and competent long term opponent in HHH and you can see that Cena has become a more rounded, more mature, more accessible character.

It shows as well! He is winning back at least a portion of the fans that booed him so adamantly. By running the southern states recently, WWE has managed to appeal to the less cynical side of the American wrestling fans and all of a sudden there is a future for the John Cena character in the WWE. Previously it seemed as if the only way out of the dilemma would be a heel turn or a removal from the spotlight, but persistence has got Cena through. I'm not saying that we are not due a title change, it is not my place to predict the future of the WWE, but it is this writers dedicated opinion that the WWE still has a place at the top of its card for John Cena, and a place that he deserves at that. In less pessimistic days fans would cheer similarly flawed baby face champions with the greatest dedication or boo the heels with the utmost vigor. Dare I besmirch the name of Hulk Hogan in saying that he had a similarly limited move set" Yet the same fans that find it so "cool" to mark out against John Cena were going wild for Hulkamania but 15 years ago! Now I'm not one to spark controversy...oh wait yes I am that is completely hypocritical!

Despite all this though the fact still remains that John Cena holds the most prestigious belt in the western world of pro wrestling. So why continue with the bitter, almost malicious bashing of a character that the WWE has created for you to cheer. Now don't tell anyone this but...

*Leans over and whispers*

Wrestling is a work. Why not just accept that" Surely that is how you gain maximum enjoyment from the product that seeing as we are on a wrestling website, we all want to enjoy! At the end of the day though, hey if you want to keep booing Cena, go right ahead, John Cena shall rise again...AGAIN

Thoughts, Comments, Criticism, insults" -- Hugs and Kisses -- Rob xxx

by Rob Hitchmough..