I think Cena's ability to build a WWE main event and work the crowd into a frenzy in the ring and on the mic is undeniable, but, much like Hogan before him, I always found his work and style far too clunky and rehearsed. Even on his rope running, it looks like he's counting his steps. The fact they called him The Prototype in OVW was bang on - he was (and still is, IMO) like they built their perfect wrestler in a lab, and just needed to get him through his on-screen nerves to strap a rocket to him. For all the talk they were going to fire him in the early days, I feel sure they'd have found a spot for him to tick over in. Or it might just be revisionism by me, unable to unsee Cena, Batista, Lesnar and Orton as the definitions of that era. It's the notorious incidents of no-selling that really do it for me in terms of being unable to put him on any kind of Mt Rushmore - in recent interviews, I've seen Cena talk about not pitching your own ideas but working to make the writers' ideas work (another example of his droid-like manner), the Nexus multi-man and the post-Lesnar promo both stank of a guy on his own reign of terror, his own Hogan-handing-the-belt-to-Warriors.
@no user name Re: your reference to the Oku match, was he working face? If so, the balance you described sounds about right to me, from a classic match structure viewpoint, i.e. the face takes a beating from the heel, selling more than bumping, getting the crowd on side, building up the heat for bumping the heel later. I've not seen much of Oku - just what's on YT - and I've heard decent things, but bear in mind I don't rate many of today's lot; many tout Oku's psychology as excellent, which from what I've seen boils down to repeatedly going for his finisher, which is a no-brainer, but then again, he'll work the leg for a bit then send the guy off the ropes like a fxxxing idiot. But if he was doing his job, but you were looking mainly at the workrate, I can see why it might look unbalanced.
