John Cena, Hulk Hogan, and the Descent from the WWE Main Event

The parallels between John Cena’s 2010’s and Hulk Hogan’s 1990’s.

At the turn of the 1990s, Hulk Hogan slowly became more and more mortal, a far cry from the unstoppable force known as Hulkamania that ran wild through everybody beginning in 1983. He ran through the likes of Piper, Bundy, Andre, DiBiase, and Savage, having one of the most dominant runs, at that time, in the history of the WWE, as well as several lengthy title reigns.

However, by 1990, Hulkamania downgraded from running wild to running mild. He began the new decade by losing the WWE Championship clean to the Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania VI. Despite coming out on top at Wrestlemania VII against Sgt. Slaughter, Hogan was dominated for a majority of the feud, punctuated by a post-match fireball to the face from the nefarious turncoat, followed by a title loss to The Undertaker.

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A year later, at Wrestlemania VIII, Hogan participated in a sham of a main event with Sid Justice that ended in a double DQ and required rescuing from the returning Ultimate Warrior. And a year after that, Hogan wasn’t even on the Wrestlemania IX card until the final minutes, when he somehow managed to cash in a seemingly phantom Money in the Bank briefcase that nobody knew he had and defeat Yokozuna for the WWE Championship moments after Yokozuna had beaten then-champion Bret Hart for the title. Hogan would eventually drop the title to Yokozuna before departing.

Hogan in the 90s was a shell of his former self from the 1980s

By the mid-90s, with the New Generation in full swing, Hogan was out of WWE, having been signed to a lucrative contract with WCW. There, he would lose the WCW World Heavyweight Title to The Giant in The Giant’s very first match. After turning heel and joining the nWo, Hogan would again lose the title to the new and improved Sting in 1997 and Goldberg in 1998. To say the least, Hogan in the 90s was a shell of his former self from the 1980s. He was no longer unstoppable or superhuman, rather, a very beatable top guy. His time in the main event spotlight was slowly waning and had it not been a smart career-extending decision to turn heel and trade in the red and yellow and American flag for black and white and join Scott Hall and Kevin Nash which added years to his shelf life, Hogan would have most likely fizzled out and rode off into the sunset.

Fast forward twenty years later, John Cena finds himself in a similar position to the one Hogan was in the early 90s WWE. The 2010s have not been nearly as kind to John Cena as was his rise to superstardom and eventual face of the WWE from 2004-2010, where he headlined consecutive Wrestlemanias, defending and retaining the WWE Championship against Triple H (WM22) and Shawn Michaels (WM23). Cena had lengthy title reigns during this period of time, and saw him defeat the likes of future hall of famers JBL, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam; eventual hall of famers Eddie Guerrero and Edge; and his fellow OVW classmen in Randy Orton and Batista.

However, towards the end of the 2000s and the turn of the 2010s, Cena began his slow descent from the main event. Over the course of the last six years, he would lose either titles or big matches, cleanly or otherwise, to the likes of Sheamus, The Miz, CM Punk, The Rock, Daniel Bryan, and Brock Lesnar, the latter of whom effectively caused Cena to transition out of the main event to the mid-card. In the mid-card, Cena lost to Dean Ambrose, lost clean to Del Rio in Del Rio’s return match, lost to Rusev, lost clean to Kevin Owens in Owens’ WWE debut match, lost to Seth Rollins, and upon his return from injury, Cena lost to AJ Styles at Money in the Bank.

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Cena’s career path is eerily following Hogan’s; a rising upstart, to an unstoppable babyface who wins time and time again, to the face of the company, to a slow descent out of the spotlight and into the mid-card. The only thing that hasn’t happened yet to Cena are fans outright getting tired of seeing him the way audiences grew bored of Hogan during ’92-’93.

Cena still gets the same reaction from the crowd and the crowd remains loud and impassioned every time Cena’s music hits. Cena is also part of a well-oiled machine in the WWE, something that Hogan could not say about his work environment in WCW in between 1999 and 2000. Cena is positioned well in the card and protected in his storylines, as compared to the awful mess it was in WCW post-Fingerpoke of Doom.

All in all, it’s a new role for Cena as he goes from being the real life face of WWE headling PPVs and winning championships, to the storyline “face that runs the place” who puts over the future stars from the this New Era, as he had done throughout 2015.

WWE can use Cena in this new role to effectively endorse the newer, younger guys by having them go over Cena the way they’ve done with Ambrose, Rusev, Owens, Rollins, and Styles

There’s no need for a Hogan-esque heel turn at this point, despite what many would say, as Cena is still able to perform at a high level and remain a huge drawing power for WWE. WWE can use Cena in this new role to effectively endorse the newer, younger guys by having them go over Cena the way they’ve done with Ambrose, Rusev, Owens, Rollins, and Styles. It’s a good place for Cena, who truly does care about the future of the company, to give his stamp of approval in these matches against the current crop of talent. Cena’s managed to accomplish something that not even Hogan was able to do in the early 1990s and that’s run with younger lions, as evidenced by his ability to hang with the newer, faster, stronger talent in big time matches. Hogan at that time simply couldn’t hang with Bret Hart or Shawn Michaels.

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Cena’s probably only got two more big time money making main event feuds in him. There’s still the feud with the Undertaker on the table, and depending on how the Roman Reigns situation sorts out, one with Roman, where he would effectively pass the torch to the self-proclaimed “Guy” and formally end his decade and a half run as WWE’s flagbearer the way Andre passed it to Hogan, who passed it to The Rock, who passed it to Cena. Until then, Cena’s job now is to plant the seeds for the future and the New Era by putting over more and more talent. Look for this trend to continue as Cena is currently booked to face Shinsuke Nakamura when WWE returns to Japan in yet another dream match that nobody thought they would ever see.

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