But look long term. John Cena’s face time has passed. Where is the WWE going to be in five years? You need new stars. What HHH said tonight is correct. There is a glass ceiling. People want to cheer for Ziggler. They want to cheer for Ambrose. Hell, they want to cheer for Ryback. If Cena turns these people can step up. Roman Reigns cannot get where they want him to go with Cena in the way.
I think I am right. We will see.
Let me just say the WWE’s bottom line will stay in trouble without a huge change. Now is the time.
Daniel Bryan got there with Cena “in the way”. There’s no reason that Cena needs to turn heel in order to build new stars, and there’s no reason to sacrifice his merch sales when there’s no one with the power to sell merch at anywhere near the level he does.
Cena sells tickets and network subscriptions because kids will drag their parents with them to see him. When Cena is advertised for a show and doesn’t make it, they end up having to give out refunds (as tonight). He’s their bread and butter and he won’t ever turn heel unless that stops being the case.
Okay. Perhaps you are right. But then who turns at Survivor Series? I don’t think they’ll have the Authority lose. nor will they win cleanly. So someone has to turn from Team Cena.
While we don’t know who is on the team yet, it is possible we could have some of the following:
Dolph Ziggler: A turn would garner some boos and give Cena an opponent for Wrestlemania. But Ziggler isn’t going anywhere as a heel. Been there. Done that.
Big Show: Maybe. He turns more often than a windmill. But we’ve seen Cena/Show before and it ain’t all that exciting to see it again.
Ryback: Not going to happen. They are just recovering (and better than expected) from his terrible heel run.
4.** Randy Orton**: Now maybe this whole Rollins rivalry is a set-up to con Cena. This is probably the most interesting scenario…but I think folks really want to cheer Randy. I hope turning Orton back to heel is not the plan. And I don’t think it is. Tonight’s beat-down pretty much confirms that.
Seamus: He needs to turn at some point… so if Cena doesn’t turn at SS, well I suppose Seamus is the best choice.
But I think Cena’s “meal ticket” status is over-rated. How many refunds did RAW really have to make tonight? I’ll bet not many. If you are going to see RAW, even the kids will still want to see the show regardless of Cena’s absence.
There is the annoying problem of Cena’s match with Brock still to happen at some point. But can we at least agree that Cena’s time as a face Champion is over? So if Cena/Brock has to happen yet again before the heel turn, so be it. But we don’t need to see round three with those two. We really don’t.
If you wait too long to turn Cena, then you lose a lot of the shock. You lose a lot of the anger/interest. Hogan turned. Austin turned. They all eventually turn. As for all the kiddie fans…?
Hogan turned after his merch stopped selling and kids stopped being interested in him. Pre-turn, WCW was giving out Hogan merch for free to the front rows.
Cena’s merchandise also sells more because there is so much more Cena merchandise to buy. Create some good merchandise involving other superstars and maybe, just maybe, there’d be more non-Cena merchandise sales. Didn’t someone on the roster supposedly just get in trouble for making the same suggestion?
/lana: Drazir, drazir. You poor desperate Americans. We have your belt now. Don’t worry, my babushkas. We will put it to good use. VLAD uh meer POO tin will wear it as a jock strap. SHUH TUP!
Good RAW 11/3. All the rasslers seemed to step it up a notch. Was it because there was no Cena around to suck the life out the locker room?
Seth Rollins is now top heel. He has got to be getting major amounts of pussy now.
Wonder if the Orton vines was a factor in him turning face? He got off a couple dozen RKOs tonight. You just knew he was going to faceplant HHH. Their timing was impeccable. The buildup from the past few months finally reached its peak, but teaming him with Cena at Survivor Series would throw major amounts of suck on his heat. Here’s an idea: what if Team Cena kicked John out? Just have Dolph, Orton, Ambrose, Ryback and Reigns (if he’s recovered by then) team up and tell Cena they don’t need him to get over. Go eat your Fruity Pebbles.
I didn’t like the idea of the Wyatts breaking up, but creative has actually been making things interesting. I miss the honks and DEPP interruptions, but the multiple eyes vignettes are something new and out of the ordinary. It looks they’re giving Rowan an identity, like he’s a demented man child slowly finding beauty in the world without Bray’s apocalyptic influence corrupting him. Bray’s not as scary anymore, though. He needs a cult looming in his shadows. He needs certain individuals to… ascend. DEPP!
I like the “Authority needs to win or go bye-bye” angle. It brings a sense of urgency and (gasp) purpose to the PPV and it’s kind of a fun thing to think about.
My 100% always wrong prediction: Randall goes to team Cena, turns on Cena (thus an Authority win) then RKOs Rollins so that the rivalry can continue to at least TLC.
How 'bout that Ryback huh?? Love The Big Guy and love the pops he’s getting. Anyone know why he was gone or was it just a break? I love the idea of Ryback ending Rusev’s streak. Everyone says Cena is going to, but I think he’s too big for it.
Ok rant time:
You know what I realized yesterday? WWE doesn’t market. Ever. At all.
I got to this point because I always say to my girlfriend "why do I need the wwe app? If anything happens over a commercial they always show it. Sheamus losing last night only on the network? They’re gonna show it. It’s so stupid. They kill their subscribers because of horrible marketing. Then I thought “well they never market the damn network anyway”, then I realized “holy shit I never see marketing for it ever. No commercials, mag ads, banner ads, nothin!” It’s amazing that this company is THIS big when it’s literally all history and word of mouth. I mean, even the NFL markets and they’re the biggest thing ever right now.
T-Cups: I think Vince has the announcers do all the plugging for the apps and whatnot because he thinks viewers ignore/fast-forward through the commercials. There’s at least a captive audience with the announcers.
Just because ads could be plastered everywhere doesn’t mean people like to *see *them. Viewers can change the channel to Monday Night Football too easily. Today, I intend to vote against the candidates who pissed me off the most with their constant splurging of ads. I’m sure I’m not alone. DEPP!
Where does that leave team Authority? Rollins, Korporate Kane…um…Bray? Maybe? Mark Henry? Do we think Trips is gonna go the “if you want something done right you gotta do it yourself” and join?
They could always bring Noble and Mercury out of retirement for one night. If they were in good enough shape to climb the Hell in a Cell and take bumps from Ambrose, they’re probably fit to work a couple minutes each and get eliminated early.
So my girlfriend was just reading an article to me (which means I don’t have a link for ya’ll) which is saying the latest rumor mill seed is Steph and HHH are preggers, and that’s the reason for this authority might go away storyline
Lucha Underground continues to impress. Instead of focusing on the stars in their intro, they focus on the environment. They show scenes of LA at night, with the busy traffic and streams of headlights, getting closer to the location of the LU warehouse, amidst the graffiti and urban blight. Makes the viewer feel like they’re about to witness something illegal.
The opening match ended with Mundo and Puma doing a beautiful double 450 splash on B-Boy and Castro. Interestingly enough, Big Ryck (formerly Ezekiel Jackson of WWE) didn’t interfere. He sat on the arena steps, lit a cigar, and simply watched, like the underground boss who expects his goons to fight their own battles. Of course, Matt Striker, ever the goody-two-shoes, advised younger viewers not to take up cigar smoking.
LU seems to know how to book women vs men. The women wear thick boots so it looks like their kicks really can do damage, and the men aren’t that much bigger anyway.
All the sudden, Chavo becomes top heel when he turns on everybody, even his tag partner Sexy Star. That was cold, the way he blew her a kiss after bashing her head in with the chair, holmes. After slogging through as comic relief in WCW and WWE, he’s found his home in Lucha Underground. Odalay!
8 PM Eastern/5 PM Pacific Wednesdays on the El Rey Network. (If you have Comcast or DirecTV, you have El Rey - I’m not sure about other providers, but their website has a full listing.)
Hey, apparently Sami Zayn sorta made his main roster debut on Main Event last night! Apparently had a decent match with Tyson Kidd, because of course he’d have a decent match w/ Tyson Kidd. On the other hand, as Nathan Birch pointed out over at Uproxx, this is the face of a man who has realized that the thing he’s been busting his ass for for years maybe isn’t such a great thing after all.
Also, nice to see that they’ve been listening to good ol’ JR and have a solid six-month plan booked for how to introduce him and make him look strong on the main roster… oh, wait, what’s that? Oh. Yeah, never mind. Sorry, Sami; look forward to your new career jobbing on Superstars. (Yes, this is why I’m currently taking a main roster break.)
Anyway, I hope it doesn’t mess up his NXT storyline; that’s been a long, long, long slow burn and I really wanted to see him finally get the title and have a nice little run with it before he got demoted to the main roster. It’d be a shame not to have a happy ending to that story.