{"id":39876,"date":"2017-03-12T23:15:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-13T04:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=39876"},"modified":"2017-03-12T23:15:46","modified_gmt":"2017-03-13T04:15:46","slug":"collectibles-column-saw-cena-kept-walking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/03\/12\/collectibles-column-saw-cena-kept-walking\/","title":{"rendered":"COLLECTIBLES COLUMN: They Saw Cena, and they Kept Walking"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-3180454920\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Over the last weekend, my son and I set up a couple of tables at the local biannual flea market to sell sports cards, old toys and other various items. At the front of one table sat a bin of Mattel and Jakks WWE figures of which my kids had duplicates or just no interest in. Included in that bin were about half a dozen John Cena action figures. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">By the end of the weekend, my son and I had chatted with hundreds of different people. I would guess \u2013 without exaggeration \u2013 that 95% of those people picked up a Cena figure and knew exactly who he was. Football fans who were looking for cards and weren\u2019t into wrestling items. Young kids who love wrestling. Older ladies who had no interest in anything we were selling. Teens and twentysomethings who are ardent wrestling fans. Thirtysomethings who haven\u2019t watched wrestling since the Monday Night War. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Several people who recognized Cena didn\u2019t know the Undertaker, Triple H or Roman Reigns. But they all recognized Cena, and they all had something to say about him. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cAre you flipping kidding me?\u201d asked one older gentleman. \u201cHalf the figures in here have to be John Cena.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThat must be John Cena,\u201d said one older lady, who blushed a little as she showed the figure to a friend. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cHere\u2019s that guy who\u2019s always on Nickelodeon,\u201d one man said to his kids. \u201cJohn Cena.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cOh this is that one guy, what\u2019s his name \u2026 John Cena? He\u2019s badass. He used to be a marine,\u201d said one guy in his early 30s. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cAnd his name is John Cena!\u201d shouted two preteen boys in unison. <\/span><\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1805011559\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Everyone recognized John Cena. And by the end of the weekend, my son and I went home with every John Cena item we had brought with us. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">One little boy bought action figures of Mark Henry and Kofi Kingston. Another wanted Johnny Nitro and Joey Mercury. A twentysomething ardent fan purchased figures of Eddie Guerrero and the Undertaker. But we didn\u2019t sell one John Cena figure. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Several people were drawn in by a box of Topps poker-style chips on the corner of our table that featured wrestlers, NFL players, Star Wars characters, baseball players, Walking Dead zombies and more. One little girl jumped up and down excitedly as she found one of the Undertaker, but was dejected that she couldn\u2019t find a Randy Orton. One 12-year-old boy with a dollar to spend immediately grabbed a chip of Doink the Clown. But we didn\u2019t sell one John Cena chip. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Several people \u2013 mostly men in their 20s \u2013 were drawn in by a Ronda Rousey trading card we had displayed in a glass case. Several people stopped to look at cards of Finn Balor, Dean Ambrose and Charlotte. But not one person bought a John Cena card. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I didn\u2019t even realize that we hadn\u2019t sold any Cena items until the final day of the flea market was wrapping up. I texted a friend of mine to tell him about it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cI think you just cut the greatest promo ever on Cena,\u201d he joked. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">That certainly wasn\u2019t my intention. I just found it odd that so many people recognized Cena and took the time to make a comment, but we didn\u2019t sell one item of his. But the more I thought about it, the whole experience was somewhat symbolic of Cena\u2019s tenure as WWE\u2019s top star. Everybody who looked at my table knew Cena. But when it came down to it, the people who cared enough to spend money on a wrestling item that I was selling wanted something else. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Cena has been WWE\u2019s top star since 2005. And ever since then, WWE\u2019s audience has \u2013 judging by TV ratings \u2013 gotten smaller.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><div id=\"pwtor-3008880407\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The prevailing wisdom among some wrestling experts has been that, since becoming that top star, Cena has been the only legitimate draw in pro wrestling. He\u2019s sold more T-shirts than anyone else in the last 10-plus years, and when he worked house shows, attendance was usually higher for the shows on which he appeared. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But other astute wrestling experts, like PWTorch contributor Todd Martin and MLW Radio\u2019s Mister Saint Laurent, have a different take on things: Sure, John Cena sells more merchandise than anyone else, but WWE has lost a significant portion of the audience it had before anointing Cena the top star. When it came to previous top stars like Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin, fans who cared enough to pay for a ticket, merchandise or a pay-per-view event willingly spent their money on the \u201cHulkster\u201d and Stone Cold. But with Cena, a sizeable portion of the WWE audience who cared enough to spend money took their wallets elsewhere. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">There are certainly other measurements than TV ratings, and more reasons for WWE\u2019s decline than just Cena as the top star. He\u2019s been the face of WWE during Vince McMahon\u2019s worst creative efforts, the Benoit family tragedy, the rise of UFC, the expansion of Raw to three hours and the WWE\u2019s war on its own fans, to name a few. But as Martin has pointed out, for more than a decade WWE has shown a complete ineptitude for picking the right top stars \u2013 first Cena, then Reigns. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">John Cena is a star. He looks great. He\u2019s well-spoken. His public image was very carefully crafted and has been very dutifully protected, by Cena and those around him. He\u2019s a great spokesperson for WWE and a great ambassador for the company to roll out to its corporate partners. You see him in commercials. You see him in movies. He\u2019s the hardest working man in show business. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Thanks to WWE, everyone recognizes John Cena. But when it comes right down to it, a lot of people with money to spend have just walked right on by when they\u2019ve seen him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>NOW READ OUR PREVIOUS COLLECTIBLES COLUMN:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/02\/27\/collectibles-column-blackjack-barry-bray-guide-collecting-windham-dynasty\/\">COLLECTIBLES COLUMN: Blackjack, Barry, and Bray: A Guide to Collecting the Windham Dynasty<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>PWTorch Collectibles Specialist Michael Moore can be reached at <\/i><a href=\"mailto:michaelmoorewriter@gmail.com\"><span class=\"s2\"><i>michaelmoorewriter@gmail.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>. Follow him on Twitter @MMooreWriter.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-1439172797\"><div id=\"pwtor-1077333396\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Over the last weekend, my son and I set up a couple of tables at the local biannual flea market to sell sports cards, old toys and other various items. At the front of one <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/03\/12\/collectibles-column-saw-cena-kept-walking\/\" title=\"COLLECTIBLES COLUMN: They Saw Cena, and they Kept Walking\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,52,27],"tags":[4251,116,1454,820],"class_list":["post-39876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-specialists_collectibles","category-opnionandanalysis","category-specialists","tag-jakks","tag-john-cena","tag-mattel","tag-topps"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/CenaJohnWK2_3x2_600.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39876"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39880,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39876\/revisions\/39880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}