No one can deny the popularity this man has, but what is to be disputed is what do we make of him" Some face that came into the business a few years ago, but is the champion over any other wrestler that's been in longer. A loud mouth exaggerating his moves, but has the crowd roaring and asking for more. A rapper claiming to be from the hard knocks, but in each match he fights like a brawler. It's hard to understand John Cena's character without analyzing his development. We must first understand what made the character of John Cena, which almost everyone ties to the Rock. We must all face the fact that the Rock was the money maker with Steve Austin constantly absent and Undertaker having lackluster matches. Once the Rock went Hollywood, the WWE needed to find or create a new hero to regain the fans. Superstars like Booker T couldn't measure up to what the Rock had, so the WWE was forced to create a hero. New Jack was a possibility as being a great hardcore wrestler, but this is a man to fear not to endorse or give him weapons to use in matches. This is where Cena comes into play, a brand new face with talent and support from legends such as the Undertaker. To automatically make him a champ would be a disgrace and have the fans despise him, he needed time to gain fans.

To gain fans he needed a persona that fit just right without being too arrogant, but the problem was there were too many gimmicks being taken. So they borrowed what had already been used, they took bits and parts of popular wrestlers and attach it to Cena. He needed to be able to work the mic, such as cracking jokes and throwing insults at his opponents. He also needed to make his moves look stunningly powerful during matches; they took those two things from the Rock. He also needed to be a badass and it's not enough to have that attitude, but also to show it inside and out of matches. Feuding with Eric Bischoff and defeating every contender thrown at him, that gave me a sourly taste of what Austin was like and had done. Most of all he had to be a face that did everything for the fans and always looked towards them for motivation; this is just a copy of Hulk Hogan, but I will admit many wrestler do this. The similarity of the "Chain Gang" and the Hulkamaniacs are too close to be considered completely different.

Even with the adopted persona he still needed to gain maximum popularity that required some originality. Hip Hop music has gained acceptance in suburban culture, namely teenagers trying to be tough. The WWE saw this and branded Cena with a gangsta rapper gimmick, surprisingly it worked well. The reason for this was because it gave something the young viewers could identify with. The degenerate complex worked for Degeneration-X and it worked for Cena, but it was different for Cena. Having a hip hop gimmick widened his audience and fan base, because hip hop is very diverse fans from across the world got behind Cena.

Even with all those things combined Cena would be a complete failure if his performance inside the ring was total garbage. He had wrestling talent, but nothing that would delight fans or give him reason to move up on titles. They had to give him a tough guy aspect; which meant when went up against great wrestlers at some point he would pull off some show of strength and ability. Such as when gave Brock Lesnar the "F-U", when Lesnar usually performed a similar move. Performing this move on several big name faces gave Cena the cover of a tough guy. To be among the tough guys in the business, Cena had to be in several matches where he caught the victory with his last bit of strength. The Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan did this more often than not and lately Cena has been too. At the start of his career he couldn't beat Kurt Angle; but now he not only can he beat him but also get knocked around 95% of the match and pick up the win at the very end.

In my opinion, John Cena is nothing more than a wrestling version of the pop group O-Town; he is just someone to fill in while the Rock takes a break. Appearing as some gangsta rapper is quite pathetic in my eyes, he should stick to what he is instead of posing as someone he sees on television. Give us something we know is genuine, someone like Bret Hart or Jimmy Snuka. Don't give me a cheap copy and tell me I'm supposed to like it. Perhaps I'm wrong about him, almost every great wrestler has been hated and maybe this is his time.

by Efrem Solomon ..