Smackdown Discussion Thread

[ColinBollocks]

Heel Cena would be tremendous going into his last few years. For a start, he can troll the fans by saying his mission is to throat fuck Ric Flair's World title record - imagine that type of fan having to deal with that.

Although, given the choice, I'd rather they do a big turn with Reigns. At least Cena is interesting as a babyface.

[tiger_rick]

Fuck sake, I nearly started a thread just yesterday about Cena turning heel but I thought I'd just get a lot of poo-pooing. With his stock being at it's lowest for a decade and a half and a ton of babyfaces to work with, a Hogan in 1996 style turn could be absolutely beautiful. Imagine Cena in black and white after all these years as a fruity pebble. And imagine the stars you could make off it. 2 or 3 guys running roughshed over everything for a few weeks then start claiming they are working for the man who runs WWE. Who turns out to be Cena. He could make them in a night.

[d-d-d-dAz]

I know they’ve wrestled a gang of times but ‘Hollywood’ Cena vs. AJ Styles sounds great. Also a returning Rey (if he does come back) against a fully turned Cena could be money. And Finn.

In fact, there’s probably never been a better set of potential blue-eyed opponents for a Cena heel turn.

Fuck it. I’m in.

I’d get rid of those fruity pebble ‘Hustle, Loyalty, Respect. Earn it.’ shirts and replace them with a little ‘Hustle, Loyalty, Respect. Screw it.’ number.

[Cod Eye]

Cena "heeled" it up brilliantly during his Gauntlet match with Rollins. From the constant trash talking to him doing laps of the ring while Seth was down. If I didn't know WWE better, I'd have sworn he was foreshadowing a big turn in the future.... 

[Guest]

or Just have Hustle and loyalty struck through , then have RESPECT as he thinks everyone takes him for granted after all this time 

[Philjax]

Has Carmella appeared in the last 3 weeks at all? That cash-in must be coming soon....

[UK Kat Von D]

Fuck it, don’t give Cena a match at all. He isn’t going to draw any numbers by wrestling, but if the story is him being pissed off at not making the show we will all know something is going down on the night. The potential of a heel turn will get more eyes than any actual match could anyway. Then on the night have him ruin Styles and Nakamura’s match just before they hit six stars.

Non-finish of a wrestling classic and you have two over faces pissed off at heel Cena 

[PunkStep]

3 hours ago, UK Kat Von D said:

Non-finish of a wrestling classic and you have two over faces pissed off at heel Cena 

I can smell the cry-tweets threatening to cancel their network subscriptions already!

[Sphinx]

Cena could have faced Taker at 30. As shocking a moment Taker vs. Lesnar was, it was pretty deflating in the arena. It took until Steph and Triple H came out during the three-way for the crowd to fully come back to life. Because it's 30 and such a big match, there'd be speculation Cena could win but ultimately it was an opportunity to really put an exclamation mark on turning him heel. If he turns, it has to be a massive scenario.

Kicking Taker in the bollocks and whacking him to fuck with a chair, akin to what air_raid said, to break the streak and to turn him heel would have worked. Maybe introduce his chain somehow too.

I'd be up for it now for sure though. Squeeze the last out of Taker that you can. It's diluted by the Taker and Reigns wins as well as him being fucked but do it whilst you can.

 

[BomberPat]

John Cena's superb at working just a little bit heel when he needs to - against Nakamura in the Rumble, and against Rollins in the gauntlet match, but even further back than that, I remember him against Wade Barrett in the UK, and he'd just work a little subtly different; he'd stall on the "You Can't See Me" taunt, drag it out just a bit longer to get the crowd more agitated. It was masterful. He'd clearly be an absolute master at a proper heel run, and I hope we get one before he's done, a la Hollywood Rock.

Now that he's a part-timer, it's as good a time as any - I've said for years that I was dead against a Cena heel turn because they didn't have the babyfaces at the right level to face him, so it would be like a heel Austin situation again where you turn your biggest babyface only to have him work against 2001 Undertaker and Kane every month because you've no one to step up and take his spot. Now, though, Cena's only there once every few weeks, he's lost to everyone and their dog already, so his "top babyface" stock is as low as it's ever been, it might be worth a punt.

Hell, even rehash the old Two Man Power Trip angle and stick Cena and Orton together as a super heel tandem, it could be the most interesting Orton's been in years too.

[The King of Old School]

9 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Hell, even rehash the old Two Man Power Trip angle and stick Cena and Orton together as a super heel tandem, it could be the most interesting Orton's been in years too.

Funny, I was only thinking about something like that a few weeks back. I think it would totally work, you could introduce a couple of younger guys with them further down the line aswell.

I still don't think they will ever turn Cena heel properly though.

[d-d-d-dAz]

14 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

John Cena's superb at working just a little bit heel when he needs to - against Nakamura in the Rumble, and against Rollins in the gauntlet match, but even further back than that, I remember him against Wade Barrett in the UK, and he'd just work a little subtly different; he'd stall on the "You Can't See Me" taunt, drag it out just a bit longer to get the crowd more agitated. It was masterful. He'd clearly be an absolute master at a proper heel run, and I hope we get one before he's done, a la Hollywood Rock.

Now that he's a part-timer, it's as good a time as any - I've said for years that I was dead against a Cena heel turn because they didn't have the babyfaces at the right level to face him, so it would be like a heel Austin situation again where you turn your biggest babyface only to have him work against 2001 Undertaker and Kane every month because you've no one to step up and take his spot. Now, though, Cena's only there once every few weeks, he's lost to everyone and their dog already, so his "top babyface" stock is as low as it's ever been, it might be worth a punt.

Hell, even rehash the old Two Man Power Trip angle and stick Cena and Orton together as a super heel tandem, it could be the most interesting Orton's been in years too.

I quite like that idea. It could be predicated on their disillusionment with how the fans never quite took to them the way they intended, or how it’s a last grasp ditch to stay as top dogs in an era of change.

Though this did lead me down a weird path of thinking they should put together a stable of guys who the audience never took to, for one reason or another, or gave a hard time to. So; Cena, Orton, Reigns, Sheamus.

Let’s call it the ‘Didn’t Clique’...

Sorry.

[HarmonicGenerator]

Would Cena 'retiring' Undertaker have much (or any?) impact if they did it this year? For me, Taker did a pretty definitive 'I'm done' ending last year - hell, they ended WrestleMania with an extended farewell to him - which they'll already wreck by bringing him back again this year, so why would anyone believe it if they did it again? If I see another tearful 'goodbye Taker' ending I'm not going to buy it, I'll just expect to see him the following January again. Last year was an ending, an actual proper ending, I really don't want to see them knack it to wheel out a Cena-Taker match years too late.

 

Cena-Orton power trip, however, that I could get on board with. Cena's increasing desperation to get onto Mania leads him to form a team with his greatest rival (who's not Edge, Punk or Rock). Orton's not got anything on the cards that I can see either so this covers both of them in one match. It'd cause a minor brand problem but stick 'em against The Bar, who are also doing nothing (mainly because Cena/Orton would have to win and I don't want to see the Usos go down to them... although it would guarantee the Usos actually get on the show this year). Or put them against New Day. 'New day' vs 'Sunset of their careers'...

[Jazzy G]

It has the potential of cheapening the tag team division if we've got teams like The BAr saying nobody can challenge them when there are teams in NXT that could get called up and instead they get Cena & Orton unless the Bar go over due to Orton & Cena not being the most experienced of tandems. There are a few weeks that could be used to build them up, I guess, but there's always that danger it smells of feeding your tag teams to two singles guys because you're out of ideas. Maybe they should just stick another Cena Vs Orton match on. One last time to properly settle the score. Until next time.

[FourtyTwo]

I still reckon the way forward is to have Cena not get the match this year, interfere in another match on the card and have Taker come out and stop him.  No match, not even any physical interaction, but then take a year-long run at building to it.