Judgment Day: John Cena vs JBL

by Jack Windham
May 14, 2008

At Judgment Day, JBL will try to gain a measure of revenge against John Cena for costing him a shot at the WWE Heavyweight Championship at Backlash.

John Cena vs JBL

The storyline between JBL and John Cena was kept pretty simple, which is how this program should be.

At Backlash, during a fatal four way battle for the WWE Heavyweight Championship, John Cena eliminated JBL with an STFU.

Obviously, JBL wouldn't be happy about that. His character shouldn't be.

So, in order to build him back up again, WWE had him plowing through DH Smith and Rory McAllister, both of whom aren't particularly popular with management.

John Cena was kept off of television, both by necessity and by design.

He was off working on his new movie. At the same time, management wanted to reduce some of the heat on him by keeping him away for a bit.

JBL Wins

The best thing for WWE to do at Judgment Day is to give JBL the win.

First of all, his credibility could use the big win. Since he's returned, he hasn't exactly set the wrestling world on fire.

His feud with Chris Jerichow as a flop. He was the first man eliminated at Backlash.

JBL did pick up a win over Finlay at Wrestlemania 24, but that had no long term effects, especially with Finlay becoming completely irrelevant on Smackdown over the last few weeks.

Secondly, giving the win to JBL provides the fans with a big of surprise. Let's face it. Everyone is expecting John Cena to win this thing.

By letting people know that anything is possible, it will increase the overall product.

Plus, it should reduce the complaints about John Cena constantly winning matches.

Giving JBL the victory over John Cena also allows management to bump him up into a title feud with Triple H.

John Cena Wins

If John Cena wins this match, then it'll be because management is doing what they think they should do.

Letting John Cena win this match doesn't necessarily scream out that the writers are thinking outside of the box.

In order to help John Cena in the long term, management needs to avoid having him win too many matches.

Sounds weird, I know, but the situation with John Cena and the fans isn't exactly a typical situation.

Closing Thoughts

We're hoping that JBL gets the surprise win, but we're expecting management to give the predictable win to John Cena.