Craig Wilson
Only those that live under a rock and/or don’t check their Twitter timeline frequently will have missed the weekend’s news that John Cena injured his achiles tendon on the WWE’s European tour.
Of course, it’s far too early to speculate on whether this will rule him out of events and, if so, for how long but it does highlight a large problem for the WWE. Namely, with so much focus having been on the main event picture in recent years – and little attention paid to the second tier – it leaves no obvious choice for who would step up and fill the Cena void.
A look through the WWE’s list of babyfaces won’t make for easy reading for the creative bod that has to work out what face to push in the absence of Cena.
It is fair to state that neither The Undertaker nor Jericho will be able to fill that schedule – either through the tole a full time schedule would have on their body or through other commitments. Shawn Michaels is scheduled to appear at various house shows that Cena was set to miss anyway but we all know he won’t be stepping back into the ring any time soon.
So, who does that leave as the WWE’s top face? It’s one of Alberto Del Rio, Sheamus or Daniel Bryan surely but where to go with any of those in the short term. The obvious solution would be to make one of those the World Heavyweight Champion but with Ziggler being over, his title run is a long term thing.
But if the WWE Champion is out of school for the foreseeable future, how do they fill that void? Shield v Team Hell No and an other is fine for house shows and tv but it doesn’t sell a PPV, does it?
So would it be the rubber match between HHH and Brock that closes Extreme Rules? Based on fact many of us have already seen all we need to see of this feud then that’s unlikely.
Would CM Punk return as a face? Perhaps but even though WWE is often penny smart and dollar foolish, rushing Punk back would benefit no one. He’s needed a break for years and a rejuvenated Punk would offer a lot to the WWE. Guess it all depends on how much of a pickle they feel that they are in if Cena is out for a lengthy period.
Vince McMahon would be reluctant, no matter how over Ziggler is, to have the former WCW title as a main event title so we can rule that out. And with The Rock having maybe wrestled his last match, he can also be scored off the shortlist.
What is for sure, the WWE has been thinking, and booking, short term for far too long and if Cena is to be out for a prolonged period of time, it is yet another pitfall of focusing too much attention on part time performers instead of making today’s mid carders tomorrow’s headliners through character development and giving them television time in order to get over.
Ring the Damn Bell 