By Richard Garner, PWTorch Specialist

The year was 2002. The WWF became the WWE, Brock Lesnar was a champion of wrestling instead of UFC, and the WWE promoted two wrestlers from their developmental system in the hope that they would carry the company for years to come. Six years later, John Cena and Randy Orton are amongst the most important wrestlers in the company, and their absence through injury has been felt by a roster that is lacking star power. The month of November has already seen the return of Randy Orton to in-ring competition, and John Cena will be competing for the first time in several months at the Survivor Series; a PPV built around his comeback.

John Cena's return has been supported by weeks of video packages. In the vignettes we have been treated to interviews with his friends, compliments from his fellow wrestlers, backhanded compliments from Triple H and Shawn Michaels, and obligatory shots of him training in the gym. There is little doubt that WWE management see John Cena's return as a key factor in reviving interest in the WWE product, and in a way they are right to come to this conclusion. John Cena will provide a massive boost to a company bereft of star power, and will almost certainly result in increased in merchandise sales. The problem is that, unless the WWE creative team are willing to take any chances with Cena's character, the novelty of his return will wear off fast.

John Cena has being playing largely the same character since he was drafted to Raw over three years ago. Dropping the hugely inventive raps and replacing them with corny one-liners and toilet humour may have served to increase his popularity with children, but Cena's overbearing on-screen persona has alienated the WWE's hardcore fanbase.

Although it must be worrying for the WWE's number one babyface to be greeted with varying levels of negative reaction in arenas across the world, the creative team have done very little to address the deficiencies in Cena's character. Instead, they have persisted in presenting him as a dorky babyface, as if to avoid aggravating the proportion of the fanbase that continues to buy his merchandise. It should be noted that while Raw's ratings have declined into the high twos during Cena's absence, they were already dropping before he left to have his operation.

Despite being out of the ring for a longer period of time, Randy Orton returned without the hype that John Cena has received in the build-up to the Survivor Series. Instead, he has made a habit of interrupting other wrestlers' promos, exuding star power in the process. Unfortunately, the WWE showed an incredible lack of foresight by giving away his return match against CM Punk on free TV.

Orton and Cena have been compared many times before; the difference is that while John Cena has retained the same persona for the past three years, Randy Orton has been slowly developing into the top heel in the company. As Orton's in-ring skills have developed, his character has evolved to the point where he is dangerously close to fulfilling the potential he showed six years ago. He was "The Legend Killer", building an impressive list of victims that lent credibility to his push for a main event spot. Once achieving this goal, he became the archetypal heel champion, kicking his opponents square in the head and referring to his title reign as "The Age of Orton". However, the current incarnation of the Randy Orton character is the best yet.

Since returning to Raw, Randy Orton has followed the trend set by Edge and Chris Jericho of heels exhibiting more character depth than those around them. Orton backs down from opponents, but not in the manner of traditional cowardly heel. He has shown no discrimination by interrupting both heels and faces, and has adopted the role of mentor and enemy for the faction of Ted Dibiase, Cody Rhodes and Manu. The fact that Orton was cheered over Batista by the fans in Manchester on the November 10th edition of Raw goes to show how over the latest variant of his character has become.

In the months leading to Wrestlemania 25, the WWE will be looking to build their product around John Cena. However, if he continues to exhibit the same overbearing, immature characteristics as he did before his injury then there is a risk that any positive effects from Cena's comeback will only be short-term. In contrast, Randy Orton's in-ring return was given away for free on Raw with no build-up, yet his character seems fresh. Give me a cool, charismatic, heelish Randy Orton over a dorky, immature John Cena any day of the week.

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