The hot topic among professional wrestling fans this week is whether or not John Cena is headed to Smackdown after Bragging Rights.
John Cena to Smackdown
On this week's episode of Raw, the writers, the commentators, and John Cena went above and beyond to send home the point that the former WWE Heavyweight Champion could be on his way out of the brand.
At Bragging Point, John Cena will challenge Randy Orton for the title. If he loses the match, then he will be forced to move over to the Smackdown brand (don't even entertain the idea that he would ever be sent to ECW).
With that big pay per view stipulation and the emphasis on Raw, wrestling fans were left to wonder if John Cena will finally return to Smackdown.
Over the Top
It's easy to understand that WWE needed to sell the storyline pretty heavily on Raw last night, but for long time wrestling fans, it did feel like a bit of an insult to our intelligence.
First of all, WWE did the right thing by having John Cena losing cleanly to Triple H last night. Sure, you want your top challenger to look strong going into the pay per view, but the lost was done to set the tone for his realization that he could have wrestled his last match on Raw.
Everyone tried to make it seem as if a departure from Raw would be the end of the world. It wouldn't. He's still going to be a part of WWE. This isn't like he's leaving WWE to join another company.
It's a marketing strategy that is aimed towards the fans with lesser intelligence. Those that know better are just going to shake their head and then brush it off.
Highly Unlikely
While it's not completely impossible, it's highly unlikely that John Cena would be moved to the Smackdown brand after Bragging Rights.
Regardless of what anyone tries to say, Raw is the main brand in WWE. It will always be the main brand as long as Vince McMahon sees it that way. No amount of talk from the wrestlers, fans, or announcers is ever going to be able to change that.
John Cena is the top star in WWE.
A lot of people are going to want to disagree with that, but the fact is, Vince McMahon believes that. In his world, John Cena is the top star. Since his world controls what happens in WWE, that makes it a fact.
So, the logical thing to do would be for the company to keep their top star on the top brand.
Another thing to factor in is that if you take John Cena away from Raw, you lose out on a top babyface without a replacement in line.
Triple H and Shawn Michaels are more than capable of taking over that role right now, but the company seems to favor them remaining as a duo. Merchandise sales for DX products have been doing well, and the company would love to milk it for as much as they can before it eventually ends.
Guys like Carlito, Evan Bourne, Festus, Primo, Mark Henry, MVP, and Santino Marella are just not quite there at that level. Some of them will never be able to step into the top babyface spot.
Closing Thoughts
I'll be willing to bet big money that we're going to see John Cena on Raw next week. You can bet on that. |
