John Cena's rise as a top star in WWE is tied to Brock Lesnar, creating an intriguing feud coming out of WrestleMania 28 that may last a few months, several months, or an entire year building to WrestleMania 29. Interestingly enough, WM29 is in the New York market, where Lesnar wrestled his final WWE match at WrestleMania 20 in 2004.

Following WrestleMania 19 in 2003, the heel rapper Cena started a feud with then-WWE champion Brock Lesnar, including mocking his F5 finisher by debuting his FU finisher, that led to a WWE Title match at the 2003 Backlash PPV. Lesnar won in a somewhat clunky match, but it was clear Cena was a future WWE headliner. The program resumed at the end of 2003 when Cena turned face and was positioned as a future top star along with Lesnar on the Smackdown brand. At the time, it was believed Cena could be A Guy for WWE, but not The Guy.

Cena had his first WrestleMania match at WM20 in New York, the same night Lesnar left the company. Cena then captured his first WWE Title at WM21 in Los Angeles in 2005, setting up Cena for a seven-year run as The Guy in WWE. The following flashback columns in 2003 look at how Cena and Lesnar were linked at the time, setting up an interesting return feud for Lesnar in 2012.

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TOP FIVE STORIES OF THE WEEK
Originally Published: Torch Newsletter #756
Cover-Dated: May 3, 2003

(4) Brock Lesnar pins John Cena clean to retain belt at PPV.

In the WWE Smackdown Title match at Backlash, in the third-to-last match, Lesnar pinned heel Cena clean after an F5. The match showed both the current limitations in the ring and signs of potential of both young WWE stars who, by all expectations, are going to be headliners for the company for years to come.

WWE SMACKDOWN PRE-BACKLASH
April 24, 2003
By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

In the pre-PPV TV main event of Brock Lesnar vs. A-Train (coincidentally, the returning Lord Tensai), when Brock went for his finisher, Cena interfered after being on commentary, prompting the DQ. He stood over Brock and yapped at the audience, then gave Brock his Death Valley Driver. He strutted around the ring, then grabbed Brock's title belt at ringside. Cena bashed Brock in the head with the belt as soon as Brock struggled to his feet. Brock bled from his forehead (although just slightly).

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KELLER'S END NOTES ON CENA TURNING FACE
Originally Published: PWTorch Newsletter #784
Cover-Dated: November 15, 2003
By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

During Sunday's "VIP Audio Roundtable" at the TORCH VIP website with Bruce Mitchell, Pat McNeill, and me, we discussed the turn of John Cena. We all agreed the turn on Smackdown wasn't a "star making" occurrence. It was "just another angle." The question then is, did WWE screw up, did they sabotage his turn on purpose, or did they do exactly what they intended?

I think it's possible they screwed up, they definitely didn't intend to sabotage him, and most likely they handled his turn as they intended.

All indications from sources within WWE are that Vince McMahon likes Cena a lot and sees him as furthest along in the key categories of any of his second-tier players. He has passed up Edge, Christian, Matt Hardy, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, and even Chris Jericho on the totem pole of who's in line for a top tier push. However, what happened on Smackdown last week was not the beginning of that top tier push. It's just another step in that direction. WWE is not ready to go all the way with him.

There's no ambiguity when Vince McMahon gets behind somebody as a top babyface. Look no further than the push of Lex Luger ten years ago. It flopped because Luger couldn't overcome the shadow of the recently departed Hulk Hogan, but it didn't fail because Vince didn't try as hard as he ever has to get someone over. Cena is not getting anything close to a Lex Express push.

Cena isn't even getting Brock "The Next Big Thing" Lesnar treatment. Lesnar received a huge push at a time when many were questioning whether he was ready for a top tier push. Unproven behind the mic, and really not as polished in the ring as you'd like for someone entering the World Title picture, but he came through and surpassed all expectations. Despite some shaky moments early on when his push was arguably handled poorly, Lesnar came through with great matches (and he'd be the first to credit great opponents for helping him progress) and a surprisingly strong surge in mic work to be a legit top star. He's not selling out arenas or popping huge buyrates for his matches, but without him WWE would be worse off.

Cena's babyface turn isn't the start of a Lesnar type of run. If anything, it's going to be the start of a Steve Austin type of run. I don't think Cena's biggest fans would say with any confidence he's about to shatter Austin's box office records, but in terms of how he's being turned, there are parallels. Cena's turn is occurring in part because he's being cheered anyway. Those who are still booing him are playing along for fun and respecting him for his charisma and mic work. Few are booing him because he has legit heel heat. So like with Austin shortly after his WWE arrival, Cena has been turned by the fans. And like Austin, for Cena to be successful as a babyface, he's going to have to change nothing about his character other than the target of his verbal riffs. If Cena softens up and kisses up to the fans, he'll lose the edge he has.

Cena has an edge that Lesnar, as a top babyface, didn't have. Cena is like the brutish fighter on your favorite pro hockey team. He's the guy who you hate if he's on the other team, but love when he's on yours. You want him on your side.

One of the keys for him to take off to the next level is if WWE treats him as a true top tier player now, a level higher than how they've treated Booker T, RVD, and Chris Jericho during their tastes of top tier feuds. Cena has to do his part, too, by having "seventh game playoff overtime" energy in his matches on TV and PPV. He has to set out to have great matches, and the agents and management have to encourage it so he doesn't feel like holding back. He also needs to ask advice from people who have been there before, most notably Steve Austin (via phone since they're on different rosters). Austin is the last babyface with an edge who really took off. Cena has that chance.

But his turn on Smackdown was lost in the shuffle. It wasn't treated as a huge story, just one of several notable stories on the show. He switched sides, but it wasn't treated as the most monumental happening of the month. Cena needs to be treated like a top star. He needs to carry himself like a top star on camera while acting humble behind the scenes. He's got a good rep for asking questions and being a good listener, but he's going to have to elevate his in-ring game to the "main event style" level (that Raven talks about this week in his "Torch Talk") to really get the fans to buy into him.

WWE fans want someone new, young, fresh, and edgy to get behind, someone who can be "their Stone Cold" for the next generation. Cena is one of the best chances for WWE to give fans just that. If WWE doesn't handle the next few months of Cena's push well, it'll be hard to recreate in the future the attitude fans have toward Cena today.

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MCNEILL FACTOR
Smackdown Politics and Cena's Ascension
Originally Published: PWTorch Newsletter #786
Cover-Dated: November 29, 2003
By Pat McNeill, PWTorch columnist

Leo Tolstoy once wrote that every happy family is the same, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own special way. He wasn't talking about pro wrestling locker rooms, but he could have been.

WWE wrestlers used to wish for a transfer from Raw to Smackdown, or maybe even to NWA-TNA. By all accounts, the Smackdown locker room is a different locker room than it was several months ago. At that time, Raw was floundering as Triple H and his friends stole the focus of the program away from everyone else, while Smackdown was built around Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle.

Now, as we rapidly approach the end of the year, the mood has changed in all three locker rooms. WWE Raw, which used to be the play toy of Triple H, is wide open now that Hunter is a part-time movie star. Morale is awful in NWA-TNA. More of the wrestlers have realized that the entire promotion is a vehicle to get Jeff Jarrett over as a major league superstar. But at least Jeff Jarrett is an actual wrestler. Smackdown is its own special case. Two weeks ago at Survivor Series, Vince McMahon made it apparent that Smackdown is WWE's secondary brand. Goldberg's match with Triple H was the main event of Survivor Series, just as the Raw World Title match headlined SummerSlam, which was the previous joint pay-per-view.

There were only three Smackdown matches on the Survivor Series pay-per-view, and the most prominent of those matches saw the 58 year old leader of the company defeat former four-time World Champion The Undertaker. In previous months, we have seen Mr. McMahon award himself pay-per-view victories over non-entities Zach Gowen and Stephanie McMahon, while using lots and lots of television time to build up those matches.

Smackdown has become Vince McMahon's own form of bizarre televised therapy. Before that, it was the vehicle for Stephanie McMahon-Levesque to push herself as a network television star. You would think that the crew of wrestlers would be so disgusted with their crazed superiors that they would form a sort of bond. You definitely wouldn't think they'd turn on each other. And you'd be wrong.

The whispers have already started about how Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle have assumed the leadership role on Smackdown from Undertaker. Taker has had injury problems of his own over the past year or so. It is not surprising that the power has shifted down one level to Lesnar and Angle. The two top amateur wrestlers in World Wrestling Entertainment were on in the final match of Wrestlemania XIX. Both of them obviously have the confidence of the WWE front office. They have had three high-profile matches in 2003, all of which are potential North American Match of the Year candidates. Both of them have worked through serious injuries in the past twelve months. In fact, the WWE champion is reportedly putting off knee surgery in order to keep his schedule. Nobody is questioning the toughness, the talent or the qualifications of Lesnar and Angle.

But, whether it's fair or not, there are WWE performers who blame Angle and Lesnar for holding down wrestlers on Smackdown. Rey Mysterio, Jr. hasn't become a crossover superstar the way many fans thought he was going to when he entered World Wrestling Entertainment. It looked as though Eddie Guerrero might get an opportunity to become a main event babyface for the company, but his turn hasn't worked out the way the creative team had hoped it would. Chris Benoit is renowned for his ability to carry mediocre workers to good workers, and he and Kurt Angle stole the show at the 2003 Royal Rumble. We keep hearing about how Benoit is going to get his main event run down the line, but it hasn't actually happened.

With Kurt Angle out again due to injury, and Undertaker off selling the effects of his Buried Alive loss at Survivor Series, that leaves an opening for someone to wrestle WWE champion Brock Lesnar at the upcoming Royal Rumble. This presents a perfect opportunity for fresh rapper babyface John Cena to step up to the plate. Sure, Cena wrestled Lesnar several months ago at Backlash, but he was a heel then and no one can remember back that far.

Cena's move to the fan favorite side has gone reasonably well. Since Cena was getting a positive reaction from fans as a heel, he shouldn't have to change much in order to keep the fans. Cena's freestyle trash-talking prematch raps are still there. It probably was a mistake to have Cena attack Chris Benoit after their tag team match on Smackdown a couple of weeks ago, but that never made it to air. Yet Michael Hayes had the right instinct; John Cena isn't going to become a major superstar by shaking hands and kissing babies. The fans are enjoying his cocky persona and his dollar store Slim Shady gimmick, so he should keep doing what works.

Cena's got the muscular white bread look that Vince McMahon digs, and it's a look that the boss is going to push as hard as he possibly can. Cena is being programmed against McMahon and Lesnar. If recent history is any indication, a McMahon vs. Cena match could happen as soon as the No Way Out pay-per-view in February. So what's standing in the way of Cena's rise to superstardom? Not Vince McMahon. Probably not Brock Lesnar or Kurt Angle. Heck, if Cena can get over, he's a potential big money opponent for the twin terrors of the amateur circuit.

What's standing in the way of John Cena is the same problem that has plagued World Wrestling Entertainment and the McMahons for years. We'll call it the Law of Unintended Consequences. The truth is, nobody can predict exactly how wrestling fans will react to a given match, angle, or wrestler. In an area where kayfabe lies bleeding in our hands, the tried and true methods of getting a new top superstar over don't cut it any more.

If you doubt this, cast your mind back to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's beginning in the World Wrestling Federation. Austin arrived at the beginning of 1996 and became another cog in Ted DiBiase's Million Dollar Corporation. Stone Cold's victory in the King of the Ring tournament in 1996 was done as a punishment to Triple H for his role in Kevin Nash's impromptu farewell ceremony at the Madison Square Garden house show. Austin's coronation speech wasn't supposed to be a big deal. The previous year, Mabel's crowning as King of the Ring was a goofy non-event. But fans took to the "Austin 3:16" line like Islam in the desert. Go back and look at the tapes of the October 1996 "Buried Alive" show, or the 1997 Royal Rumble. WWF diehards were behind the Rattlesnake for at least six to eight months before Austin officially turned babyface.

The Rock was the son of Rocky Johnson, and was marked for superstardom before he ever wrestled a WWF match. Rocky's glad-handing good guy persona was met with scorn after he debuted in November 1996. When The Rock won the Intercontinental Title in February 1997, the New York fans were so sick of having the newcomer shoved down their throats that they chanted "Die, Rocky, Die." Rock was written out due to injury in the spring of 1997 and returned months later as an evil enforcer for the Nation of Domination. But the People's Champ then had to struggle to keep the fans from turning him into a babyface. Rocky has even faced that problem recently. The fans hated him at WrestleMania 18 and SummerSlam 2002, but cheered him when he was supposed to be drawing heat at the evil foil for Bill "Whisker Biscuits" Goldberg.

What about Triple H? The World Wrestling Federation spent years trying to get Mr. Levesque over as a snooty New England blueblood. Then, as the Attitude era began, The Game got the big promotion. The night after WrestleMania XIV, Hunter went from being Shawn Michaels's sidekick to being the evil usurper who grabbed the Heartbreak Kid's spot as the head of the WWF's top heel faction. Instead of booing Triple H and paving the way for Michaels's eventual glorious return, the fans quickly got behind him and made him into one of the company's strongest babyfaces before he was sidelined with injuries later that year. It wasn't until 1999 that Hunter and Chyna were able to turn bad and gets audiences to boo them.

Don't take any of this as an indictment of John Cena. Cena has a lot of things going for him, including his unique charisma and his outstanding facial expressions. He has plenty to work on, but all of his shortcomings can be fixed. Cena will probably be a major player in the promotion for years to come. But whatever happens to him won't be dictated by the brilliant WWE storylines. In the end, Cena's rise to stardom will depend on his ability to adapt when the fans don't react the way they're supposed to.

[Torch art/photos (c) PWTorch.com]

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