Board 8 > Rate the Character Day 9: John Cena (WWE)

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Welcome to the most must-see recurring thread on Board 8. I'm scarletspeed7, and this is Rate the Character. I'll pick a category, you pick a character, and every day we'll rate one character. You are the raters, they are the characters, you rate the characters. Boom.

Yesterday, Phil Dunphy took second-to-last place with a 6.688 average.

All ratings are on scale of 1-10. You may rate any previous characters you have yet to rate at any point; please post them in the thread. View your ratings here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1P47gZ8N7QcS-ShXYjvteOnd_aCJbv3AcJdipiUChhAg/edit?usp=sharing

Today's character is John Cena, a notable face in the WWE.


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10
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Nine
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Phil Dunphy: 6
John Cena: 7

Pretty indifferent to most of the characters so far, that will probably change though.
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I just checked the spreadsheet, and I had given Snape a 4 (double checked on gmun's site) not a 7.

DK: 5
Posideon: 6.5
Phil: 8


Cena: ...let me think.
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Can you link me to GMUN's site? I want to double-check that I didn't just order the charts incorrectly. @FFDragon
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Got it.
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First day I have to abstain =(

Hi scarlet.
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My Immortal posted...

First day I have to abstain =(

Hi scarlet.

:( Hi MI
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I can't see today's nom who is it
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6.5 for me.
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8

I swear I don't intentionally just give 8s
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3/10

His entire thing is so stale. Not a great in-ring performer. Charismatic but doing the same thing week in week out for years has just gotten old to me. Seems like a genuine guy in real life but we are rating character not the person.
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VeryInsane posted...

8

I swear I don't intentionally just give 8s

I hope you vote in the polls for every possible character you could give an 8 to.
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4/10

Great wrestler, but the character can be kind of an asshole a lot of times.
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1/10
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Is it standard to vote for a wrestler based on their actual character or the performer or is it a "do whatever" kind of thing where no one cares?
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I would prefer if you stick to their kayfabe personality and actions, but much like a character portrayed by an actor, I understand how that influences a final vote.
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3
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Let's get some hustle, loyalty and ratings up in here.
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I have to abstain.
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1/10
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Cena's really difficult to rate for purposes of this topic. I've always kinda liked the guy, have thought he was a very underrated performer in the ring for a long time.

Not sure how this plays into his character though. Match quality isn't really a character trait unless you're Dolph Ziggler and you're literally making it your crummy gimmick, unless it's like, the match is better because of Cena's character. Which to be fair, does happen once in a while.

Overall I like him when he's just trying to be a cheesy good guy, but only when that isn't the total focus of the show. This unfortunately has historically been very rare. When he is this standard good guy character, he's the focus of the show, and when he's not, he usually descends into this weird hybrid character that constantly into these crummy "worked shoots" where the other guy gives him some soft serve thing about how he's a sell out, and Cena schools them for it. It's just terrible.

3.5/10. Were this "rate the wrestler" he'd be a lot higher. Like 8 or 9. I think terrible writing has basically limited a lot of Cena's appeal as a character, though.
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Like for the record TEW Lopenbooking Cena would get an 7 or 8 or so too. I do think there's potential for good use there. WWE just isn't the place to realize it. I wish Cena had been a bit more adventurous-- I'd like to see what other feds would do with him. Cena in Lucha, man.

Oh and Phil gets a 3. I appreciate his quirkiness to a point, but he's kinda just boring all things considered.
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Ignoring the obvious bait into an argument I don't really want to have since this topic isn't about wrestling skill, I think Cena is more compelling when he's not a main guy anyway, so I don't see the problem.
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1/10

No amount of quality matches during the US Championship open challenge matches, no amount of quality matches against the likes of CM Punk, AJ Styles and Kevin Owens is gonna erase the fact that he single-handedly killed WWE for me for a long period of time.

2006-Summer of Punk 2011 was basically unwatchable television for me.

He is much easier to stomach now but I'll be happy when he finally hangs up his boots.
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UltimaterializerX posted...

Cena outside the WWE structure wouldn't have a prayer of getting over. In almost every other company you get over on in-ring work, and he's very clumsy in there. He also tries catering to smarks way too much when he should have had a pure power moveset (think Lesnar or Braun, which he's more than strong enough to pull off) for his entire career. In WWE, the actual wrestling doesn't mean anything and never has unless you're completely useless like Giant Gonzalez or Great Khali.

I think this is a little too meta for me in these lists. As a character purely, his moveset doesn't matter to me at all.
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2/10

7/10
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Okay Lopen wraps up my thoughts well. Good person, decent to good wrestler, bad character.

2.5/10
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Good to see a return to more ratings.
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10
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Cena, the character is a 9.

Cena (the character)'s influence on the wrestling world, 2.

But yeah, a 9 for the character.
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scarletspeed7 posted...

I think this is a little too meta for me in these lists. As a character purely, his moveset doesn't matter to me at all.

This seems weird. A wrestler's moveset is a big part of their character. Would you not want people rating Brock Lesnar to take into account his endless suplexes?
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1 but wish I could give 0
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Panthera posted...

scarletspeed7 posted...

I think this is a little too meta for me in these lists. As a character purely, his moveset doesn't matter to me at all.

This seems weird. A wrestler's moveset is a big part of their character. Would you not want people rating Brock Lesnar to take into account his endless suplexes?

Only as it affects the character themselves. Wrestling itself? For most wrestling characters, not that important.
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Apple dough/10
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