I never liked Cena. The first exposure I had of him was at a Vengeance against Jericho, I can't remember what year, '02 or '03.
I remember when he was getting some momentum as the U.S. champ, and it just felt off. That initial spinner belt annoyed me, I thought it really brought the title's credibility down, which was a shame. That belt was really getting a good rep again thanks to guys like Benoit, Eddie and others. It was interesting to watch.
During pretty much the time from Wrestlemania 22 until the last year and a half I was pretty much finished watching the product. Don't get me wrong, I understand that in order to gain new die-hard members, so the last few years of the whole "PG" thing makes sense. If I didn't grow up watching Hogan in the 80's, I wouldn't have been nearly the mark I was when the shit hit the fan in the 90's.
Wrestling has to do it, however, I think Cena was the wrong guy to put on that pedestal and be the face of the company.
It isn't just what "male fans" want, it is what the die-hards want again the business to acknowledge them more often than the kiddos. The time seems right, anyway, a lot of the kids growing up liking Cena will be a completely different demo-graph soon. Punk and Cena feuding is going to hopefully turn out as it should, with a new era beginning, as it seems the company is pushing for.
CM Punk is hot right now, and I think a lot more thought went into this whole situation than anyone knows. Maybe the whole reason he came to RAW was to set him up so well, with the online fans, older fans rant and raving for the good old days, as well as the younger ones that grew up on Cena, but as the wrestling attention span has shown... no gimmick or push can last too long without some drastic changes in the motivations behind the characters. Look at 'Taker as one of the best examples.
The whole "breaking the fourth wall" isn't exactly new, WCW tried to do this in the Russo era, and the delivery was incoherent for the most part. It wasn't really done well.
This was, the time was right, the timing was right... and just about the entire audience.... new, old, jaded, excited.... payed attention. This is a very exciting time because the possibility of the WWE product improving and becoming even more unpredictable on a lot of levels never that are really played with too much.
I love it, it is fun to be an absolute fanboy to see what is going to happen next. I hope it continues.
Holy shit, stop typing, Philbo!
Edit: Grammar. I suck at typing.
